-SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER-(San Francisco, Calif.)-May 14, 1997, pp. A1+
Reprinted with permission from the San Francisco Examiner.
(c) 1997 San Francisco Examiner.

LANGUAGE BARRIERS: SCHOOLS STRUGGLE WITH SHIFTING ETHNIC BALANCE
by Julian Guthrie
of the Examiner staff

Competing Needs of Latino, Black Students Put Pressure on Scarce Funds

     As schools across California respond to a surging Spanish-speaking enrollment, educators worry that African American students who lack standard English skills are once again being overlooked.

     The tension is evident at Ravenswood City Elementary School District in East Palo Alto, where the enrollment has shifted from an African American majority to a Latino majority in little more than a decade.

     In many ways, Ravenswood is a window on the future. The state projects that 50 percent of California's kindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment will be Latino within eight years.

     Dr. Charlie Mae Knight, Ravenswood's impassioned and sometimes beleaguered superintendent, says she is trying to meet the needs of African American and Latino students with limited funds.

     "When I came to this district 11 years ago, it was 85 percent black. Now it's 68 percent Hispanic and 29 percent black," Knight said.

     "I rushed out and hired all these native-born Spanish speakers because parents came to me and said they wanted teachers who reflect their community. Now, I have black folks coming to me saying, 'Our children aren't fluent in English either.'"

     Jim Lyons, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education in Washington, D.C., says, "African American parents are right to say, 'Hey, what about my kid?'"

     "Spanish kids are beginning to be recognized and valued," Lyons said. "But the low test scores of blacks are such that we can't write off their failure as acceptable."

     About 1.3 million students in California public schools speak a foreign language and have limited English skills. There are 87 primary foreign languages, but Spanish is dominant, spoken by more than 1 million children in the state, an Examiner study shows.

     Kenji Hakuta, a professor of education at Stanford University, said he hoped the competition for support wouldn't turn into a "black vs. brown fight."

     FIGHTING FOR SCARCE RESOURCES

     "It's a sad situation for schools right now," Hakuta said. "We've got extremely scarce resources. We have people fighting over bread crumbs. And we have groups with equally strong and important needs for which society isn't willing to provide. When the stakes are like this, the fight only gets more and more vicious."

     As much as $6,000 per pupil is spent on "limited English proficient" students in the Ravenswood district, compared with $3,900 on students who speak English as their first language, Knight said.

     "Limited-English-proficient kids are getting far more than black kids or any other kid who is English-dominant," she said. "More money is spent per student on language-minority youngsters than other youngsters because it's prescribed and protected by law."

     Knight said that "with black youngsters, if they have language problems, they just have language problems. We try to take money from the low-income fund or from the general fund to help them. Limited-English students can draw from low-income, general, bilingual AND special education funding."

     Norm Gold, bilingual compliance manager with the California Department of Education, acknowledged a growing tension over bilingual funding.

     However, he said, "Dr. Knight has a lot more flexibility in how to distribute dollars than she thinks."

     Gold said the Ravenswood district had about $2 million in state and federal funding that could be split between low-income and limited-English students.

     "It's simply not true that her district doesn't have the money to spend on African Americans," Gold said, bristling. "The $1.4 million in federal funds for economically disadvantaged youth (at Ravenswood) can be spent on any child. It's not targeted by language or ethnicity.

     "I understand the controversy and tension that surrounds black English, or ebonics," Gold continued. "But African Americans come to school speaking English, just not standard English. Limited-English-proficient kids need to be taught English from day one. The point is, to say there isn't as much money to help black kids is a misperception."

     State funding for limited-English students has steadily increased to $319 million today from $108 million in 1986. Funding for low-income students decreased to $64 million from $93 million.

     During the same period, the number of low-income students grew to 1.9 million from 1 million. The number of students who primarily speak a language other than English went to 1.3 million from 514,000.

     The federal picture is less clear. An estimated $823 million in federal funds went to California's low-income and migrant students in 1995-96, but it isn't clear how much of that was used for limited-English children. Another $50 million in federal funding went directly to California bilingual education programs.

     The issue of whether to use federal bilingual money for African American students turned explosive in December when the Oakland Unified School District passed a resolution to recognize ebonics--or black English--as a primary language. The attempt, which some interpreted as a quest for bilingual funding, was rebuffed by the U.S. Department of Education.

     To help African American students who speak black English, Knight said, teachers must spend extra time in the transition to standard English. Wary of controversy, she quickly added: "We do not teach ebonics. We teach students standard English."

     Donna Tribby, a second-grade teacher at Costana Elementary in the Ravenswood district, uses some of the same techniques with Spanish-speaking and African American children.

     If an African American student says, "I ain't got," she'll answer: "Oh, you don't have an eraser?"

     "The strategies that I've learned to teach work for my Spanish-speaking kids and my black kids," she said, standing in her colorful classroom in front of a poster reading, "We all smile in the same language."

     In her class of 20 students, 14 are Latino, two are African American, three are Tongan, and one is white.

     "All of my students--black, Tongan or Hispanic--have linguistic needs," Tribby said. "I make an effort to give equal attention to everyone."

     AS RAVENSWOOD GOES, SO GOES THE STATE

     The dramatic demographic changes and competitive pressures in the Ravenswood district will occur in much of the state.

     California's Latino student population is expected to reach 50 percent of total student enrollment by 2005, compared with 39 percent today, according to the state Department of Education.

     The proportion of African American students will decrease to 7.6 percent from 8.6 percent in the same period, the department estimates.

     "Our district is a microcosm of what is going to happen statewide," Knight said. "What we are experiencing now with our Hispanic limited-English-proficient kids will be felt very shortly by other schools, and most immediately in other schools in San Mateo County."

     Ravenswood has San Mateo County's highest proportion of limited-English students--about 68 percent of its 4,693 students--according to the Examiner study.

     "This is a tough situation for me, for teachers, students and the state of California," Knight said. "There's no way of looking at it without being highly emotional."

     In addition to juggling finances, Knight must cajole and plead with some veteran teachers to retrain.

     "When you're talking to English-only teachers, they often dig in their heels and say, 'When I was hired, I was hired to teach English-only kids,'" Knight said. "Then you say, 'Well, the state has new credentials...and you need to get one of them.' Many teachers don't understand the pressure we're under with the influx of language-minority youngsters."

     HIGH STANDARDS FOR ALL

     For her students who speak black English, Knight said simply, "standards must be raised."

     "I don't want to hear any excuses: 'Oh, that kid is poor,' or 'Oh, that kid was born drug-infected,' or 'Oh, that kid doesn't speak standard English,'" she said. "I want to know what is going to make that child succeed at UC-Berkeley or an Ivy League school. For that, we need to establish much higher standards."

     Knight said she is optimistic about the district's future.

     "We are determined that over the next few years, every child who enters our district in kindergarten and remains here--whether the child is white, black, Hispanic, Samoan, whatever--will become proficient in standard English, and become proficient in a second language," she said. "Especially in this age of anti-affirmative action, there are no excuses, and there are no handouts."

     * * *

     SPEAKING OUT

     "We need more training of bilingual teachers, continued training of teachers who don't speak another language but are prepared to teach students in other ways and a better understanding of the linguistic needs of students. Teacher training institutions need to look at teacher training in a different way. And, at a federal and state level, we need to establish high standards and provide necessary resources."--Delia Pompa, director of bilingual education and minority languages affairs, U.S. Department of Education

     "Are kids who speak English fluently being dragged down by the kids who don't speak English? I don't think so. My own two kids attended public school and they're doing great. It's a great advantage for all kids to be able to do academic work in two languages. The mere fact that we have limited-English proficient kids, in my point of view, is a great advantage to us as a state. It means we'll have a diversity of cultures and languages."--Norm Gold, bilingual compliance manager, California Department of Education

     "With our Latino population, we're dealing with kids who don't hear English at home or in their communities. In parts of East Palo Alto, you could conduct most of your business without having to speak English at all."--Carol Piraino, project coordinator, Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto

     "I believe that the sooner my students are proficient in English, the better off they'll be. We are doing new immigrants a disservice if we don't quickly move them through the process so they can become English proficient. If it takes kids 12 years to learn English, something is seriously wrong."--Charlie Mae Knight, superintendent, Ravenswood City Elementary School District in East Palo Alto

     "I've had students learn English in one year. Others take three to five years. It's generally much more difficult for older kids who have just immigrated here to assimilate and learn English. My language-minority students who have been here since kindergarten generally have no problem learning English."--Mina Teper, first-grade teacher, Alamo Elementary School in San Francisco

     "Bilingual education has to do with people's attitudes about how immigrants should fit in and give up their first language and speak only English. There are people who are skeptical about bilingual education because they think you only learn a language when you are forced to do it. The people who say this are usually the ones who've never learned another language themselves."--James Crawford, author of "Bilingual Education: History, Politics, Theory and Practice."

     "Across the nation, we hear there's a terrible shortage of teachers qualified to teach limited-English proficient students. California is unique because of the large number of children enrolled in public schools and the large number of (limited-English) kids. When education is the driving force in our economy, kids have to succeed if they are ever going to achieve their dreams."--Richard Riley, U.S. Education Secretary

     "Schools have always faced incredible challenges. In 1905, between 60,000 and 70,000 immigrants arrived by steamer in New York. The situation we face today is different in that kids just can't get a few years of education and then go out and work in a factory they way they did before."--David Tyack, Stanford education professor

     "If you want to know what language group will come to the United States next, find out where our government is providing peace-keeping or aid, and you'll soon feel that country's presence in California's classrooms."--Anthony Salamnca, bilingual consultant, California Department of Education

     "Our basic philosophy at the California Department of Education is to transition kids to English using the mother tongue as the conduit to doing that."--Richard Diaz, demographer, California Department of Education