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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey . April 14, 2016:
Centro Hispano in cooperation with the White Plains City School District held a supper and information session for the Latino community last night at Centro Hispano in support of Dual Language instruction beginning in autumn, 2017 in the White Plains kindergarten class through 8th grade and possibly beyond.
An observer at the meeting said over 100 persons, majority Latinos, attended the sessions. Elementary School parents were advised of this by a flyer that went home with children across the elementary schools. There was no notice of this advance meeting with Centro Hispano on the White Plains Board of Education website
Another session or Town Meeting is scheduled to be held again at Centro Hispano in Spanish April 28.
Meanwhile this evening the first of two Town Meetings on Dual or Bilingual Instruction will be held at the high school, Room B-1 at 7 PM and again Monday, the 19th at 7 PM, and the second Centro Hispano session April 28
The event was described by person who attended as a “rally” for Dual Language for the Latino community.
It featured the White Plains Superintendent of Schools Paul Fried and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Jessica O’Donovan, who welcomed the parents.
The meeting was taken up by what was described by the WPCNR observer as “a few of the Spanish teachers from the White Plains Middle School” who addressed the predominantly Spanish-speaking crowd in Spanish extolling the values of the Dual Language program that has been in place at Post Road School and George Washington School for 9 years.
The teachers’ remarks were not translated into English. The Principal of Post Road School, Jesimae Ossorio addressed the audience talking about the success of the dual language program at Post Road School. At one point one of the speakers expressed the exhortation, “Dual Language…Si!”
The dual language consideration is part of the efforto the district to comply with new State regulation 154 requiring New York special instruction courses in grades where more than 20% of students speaking the same foreign language receive instructions in English based on their foreign language. The compliance can be the school district choice. The White Plains School District feels Dual Language is the best solution at this time.
A skeptical parent speaking on condition of anonymity observed that, despite being asked by parents a number of times, “the school district has offered no comparison, of the performances of dual language students with students who are English Language learners in bilingual instruction courses in the three elementary schools where dual language is not offered (Mamaroneck Avenue School, Ridgeway School, and Church Street School).”
The source troubled said “Spanish speaking parents have chosen to go to those three non dual language schools because the parents did not want dual language instruction. Those Spanish parents say, ‘we can teach our children Spanish at home. We want them to learn English.’ ”
Dr. Fried, the School Superintendent, gave an overview of where adopting Dual Language stands as an answer to the District responsibilities under Section 154 responsibilities in his presentation on Dual Language which can be seen at Dual Language Program Presentation to the BOE on 4/4/16
In that presentation Dr. Fried ,made it clear Dual Language appeared to be teaching English Language Learners with the same success rate as non-English Language learners, based on passing rates on ELA assessments (32%) being essentially the same as those not in Dual Language classes. However it did not break out bilingual learner performance.
The source also revealed told me that Dual Language courses do not necessarily have an equal number of English speaking students and an equal number of English Language learners. One dual language class only had 3 English speaking students, they said. If what the source says is correct then Dual Language is not exactly following the model as originally described.
It is unclear whether parents remove English speaking students from dual language after being in it for several years and if so, why. The district has not provided previously the dropout rate for dual language classes as they progressed through the grades, and whether there even is a dropout rate.
The source also told WPCNR parents are attempting to get clarification from the State Education Department as to exactly what school districts have to provide and when they have to have it in place.
