Evanston elementary school officials have approved a plan to expand a bilingual program in which pupils who speak Spanish sit alongside English-speaking children in classrooms where teachers use both languages.
Starting next fall, the two-way immersion program will expand to 20 classrooms in four Evanston schools. The program has been using 11 classrooms in two schools.
The Evanston/Skokie Elementary School District 65 board approved the plan Monday night despite the concerns of some parents who said that spreading the program among four schools could force some pupils to move.
“Learning requires stability,” said David Hessert, who has a kindergartner and a 1st grader in the program in Washington School. “Give us four or five years without moving anything else.”
But school officials said that because of growing enrollment, no two schools would have enough classroom space to handle the entire program. In addition, spreading the program among several schools would soften the impact on other programs, they said.
Teachers and parents generally agree that the program has been an effective method of helping children learn both languages.
“Two-way immersion is a really great program,” said board President Mary Rita Luecke. “I really hope you in the schools who are receiving this program will embrace it.”
The board’s 5-2 vote to expand the program caps weeks of discussion. Last month, Supt. Hardy Murphy recommended offering the program at four schools, prompting teachers in the program to oppose it.
By spreading the program among four schools, the teachers said, there would be less opportunity for collaboration, the district would have to spend more on instruction materials, and Spanish-speaking pupils could be isolated from peers.
“Sometimes kids need to be around other kids,” said Bob Carroll, president of the District 65 Educators Council, the union representing teachers. “That doesn’t happen if they’re always with the same kids each year.”
District officials had considered other options, including expanding the program to three schools by adding classes at Oakton School. But Oakton parents opposed that plan, saying it would lead to overcrowding and use up classrooms used for special education, music and art.
Board member Marianne Kountoures, who voted against the expansion, said she would prefer to see Latino children move more quickly into general-education classrooms after coming out of an alternative bilingual program. The two-way immersion program takes too much classroom space away from other pupils, she said.
The two-way immersion program started four years ago and now has 145 Spanish-speaking pupils and 127 English-speaking pupils, officials said. It serves pupils in kindergarten through 3rd grade in Washington and Dawes Schools.
The program–intended to slowly replace the district’s traditional bilingual classes–will increase to 30 classrooms in four schools within the next five years, said Jan Roy, district spokeswoman. The other two schools will be Oakton and Dewey Schools, officials said.
Enrollment of Spanish-speaking students grew 14 percent this year, school administrators said. The district has 13 schools and 6,600 pupils.
Evanston educators said the two-way immersion program is more effective at improving the academic performance of Latino pupils than the district’s older bilingual program, which does not include English-speaking pupils in classrooms.
“This is the best possible scenario that makes the most people happy,” Roy said.
