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New Mexico Schools Aim to Educate All Students, but Language Issues Make Federal Standards Harder to Meet Sixth in a Series

Posted on: Friday, 4 November 2005, 12:00 CST

By Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal BY DEBRA DOMINGUEZ AND RUSSELL CONTRERAS Journal Staff Writers

He knew what opportunities existed in El Norte -- higherpaying jobs, wellconstructed houses and superior schools.

So when Jorge Reyes and his family left Durango, Mexico, for Albuquerque three years ago, he knew he would be getting a better education.

He was right.

Today, Reyes is a sophomore at Albuquerque High School. Unlike schools in Mexico, those in the United States don't close for budget reasons. Reyes always has textbooks in hand and a teacher in the classroom.

"We just have a lot more opportunity here," says Reyes, who is considering college after high school.

For immigrant students, U.S. public schools offer this: If you study and work hard, you can obtain skills that will probably lead to a better job than your parents had. And if you get good grades and land supportive teachers, college may become a realistic option.

Providing these opportunities costs money, of course.

During the 2004-2005 school year, Albuquerque Public Schools spent more than $12 million on bilingual education, according to APS officials.

"It's important to remember, though, that not all bilingual education students are immigrants," said Gladys Herrera-Gurule, the state's director of bilingual and multicultural education. "Some are native-born."

And not all of New Mexico's schools are facing the same impact from immigrant students. Some hardly feel it, while many schools along the border are hit hard, said state Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia.

Overall, she said, immigrant students make up about 2 percent of the state's 350,000 students.

"There were 8,132 selfreported immigrant students in the state during the 2004-2005 school year according to information the state reported under Title 3 funding, which covers limited English proficiency programs," Garcia said. "There may be more or less, but I think that's a pretty accurate estimate."

Those numbers include both legal and illegal immigrants.

At Albuquerque Public Schools, about 15 percent of the estimated 86,500 students are classified as limited English proficient.

Although federal law prohibits schools from asking students and families about their immigration status, APS officials say there were 5,868 "self-reported" immigrants in the district during the 2004-2005 school year.

That's an estimated 7 percent of the district's total student population and an estimated 72 percent of the total number of "self- reported" immigrants in New Mexico.

Garcia, however, isn't surprised.

"You have to remember that APS has one-third of the students in the state," she said. "And the other big districts in New Mexico, aside from Gadsden, may not have large immigrant populations. So, APS' immigrant numbers don't sound too far off to me."

The impact of immigrant students on New Mexico's schools has been intensified by the federal No Child Left Behind act, Garcia said. The act requires educators to help all children become proficient -- regardless of their race, background or immigration status.

"Under the mandate, there are going to be some challenges," Garcia said. "And those include educating children who are highly mobile, impoverished or who speak another language."

Student needs

While most educators appear convinced their mission is to teach all students regardless of legal status, New Mexico voters are little more divided.

Fifty-four percent of New Mexico voters believe illegal immigrants should receive a free public education, while 41 percent are opposed, according to a Journal poll conducted last month. That favorability dropped among senior citizens, wealthier New Mexicans and Republicans. Also, Anglos were less likely to support it (48 percent) than Hispanics (65 percent).

Regardless, New Mexico schools are doing a wide array of things to meet immigrant student needs, Garcia said.

At Albuquerque High, the list is extensive, said Assistant Principal Rubn Prez. He estimates that 15 to 20 percent of the school's 1,800 students are immigrants.

The high school is bilingual in everything from voice mail to campus signs to student progress reports.

It also is the only high school in the area, Prez said, that offers immigrant students two hours of English-as-a-secondlanguage classes instead of the usual one hour.

"We use our own campus budget to fund the second hour," he said. "No, that is not causing strain on our school, because as educators we realize our mission is to educate all students."

While Prez realizes it costs money to educate immigrant students, he said the alternative is worse.

"These kids are probably going to stay in the United States," he said. "So if it doesn't cost us now, it's going to cost us later if these kids aren't educated."

Challenges, concerns

One of the more notable challenges in serving immigrant students, educators say, is trying to meet academic achievement guidelines under No Child Left Behind, which requires that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

"Some schools with high immigrant student populations may have students with disrupted learning because they go back and forth to Mexico, which may affect high-stake testing," Garcia said.

Limited English proficient students can be given standardized tests in their home language for only three years -- four under special conditions -- before they must test in English. Research, however, shows that it takes up to seven years before a language learner can test well academically in their new language, she said. That leaves schools scrambling for resources to get immigrant students up to speed in English.

It's also a challenge to find certified bilingual teachers, said Prez. "That's not just here -- they're hard to find throughout the state and nationally," he said. Albuquerque High has about 15 certified teachers and 10 bilingual teachers who are not certified.

Parent perspectives

For parents like Amanda Gonzalez, a "Hispanic and Anglo" who has a preschooler at Valle Vista Elementary, there is the concern that attention given to immigrant populations takes away from the education of Englishspeaking students.

"This country has let so many immigrants into the United States that it's affecting our kids' education," said Gonzalez, who pointed to her 4-year-old daughter singing a song in Spanish in the background.

"See, this is what she learns at school -- she does this all the time," she said. "I don't speak Spanish, so she's not getting this from me. And the school's teaching her ABCs and numbers in Spanish before English. She's really not learning anything critical to her education in English at this school."

Gonzalez's daughter goes to one of the more than 20 APS schools that have dual language programs, which aim to teach students to become bilingual in English and a second language.

And 62 of the district's 127 schools have some sort of bilingual program.

Many elementary schools with dual language programs teach students predominantly in Spanish at first, and then increasingly in English. Other schools teach students half in English and half in Spanish immediately.

Either way, the goal is that over several years, students become proficient in both languages.

Despite her dislike of the dual language program, Gonzalez said she isn't willing to send her daughter to another school.

"Why should I have to move my daughter from my community?" she asked. "The South Valley is her community. And the school needs to accommodate students in both languages, not just Spanish."

It isn't just the Spanish that bothers Gonzalez. She's also concerned that her daughter's school is teaching Mexican history and culture.

"On Sept. 16, my daughter made a Mexican flag to celebrate another country's independence day," she said. "I'm saying, make a U.S. flag, that's fine. But we're not in Mexico."

But for APS parents like Mary Turpin and her husband, Craig Turpin, diversity and bilingualism in the schools is a plus.

They say their child, a thirdgrader in the dual language program at Dolores Gonzales Elementary, is getting exactly what they want for her: bilingualism.

"We wanted our child's education to give her something we couldn't give her, and that's an economic and social skill," Mary Turpin said.

Immigrants to blame?

Educational leaders like Secretary Garcia and Albuquerque Teacher's Federation President Ellen Bernstein say it isn't fair to blame school overcrowding on immigration, or to say that schools lower their achievement bar because of immigrants.

"We should care about what happens to these immigrant students because they are human beings. They have the right to be educated and treated well just like everyone else," said Bernstein.

"And what a horrible, racial setup that is to blame new people coming to our schools for overcrowding," she said. "Schools overcrowd for a number of reasons."

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt agrees.

"I don't think there's a direct correlation between overcrowding and immigration," she said.

Everitt emphasized that most of the district's overcrowded schools are on the West Side, where there's been a lot of growth.

But some say immigration does contribute to overcrowding in the southwest quadrant of the district.

Last school year, the new Edward Gonzales Elementary on 98th SW opened with about 1,100 students. It was designed for 900.

APS board member Miguel Acosta said district planners miscalculated the enrollment because some of the homes in the highly immigrantpopulated area have more than one family living in them. "The formula we used in the past to predict enrollment didn't work," he said.

The Southwest Mesa has become attractive to immigrants, Acosta said, because housing is cheap.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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