Clovis Unified takes different paths to educate English learners

English learners often are isolated from fellow classmates not just because of differences in culture and language, but also because they are funneled into separate classes.

Clovis Unified School District is moving to decrease that isolation by changing its high school English learner programs. One model places English learners in larger classes with English-speaking classmates while offering them a second class where they can get more individualized attention. The other model, called “push-in,” adds a teacher in mainstream classrooms who gives individualized assistance to students but also offers a second, smaller class.

The district will spend more than $2.4 million on intervention for struggling students through one-on-one and small group instruction, according to its Local Control Accountability Plan.

Clovis Unified has about 10 percent English learners, and improving their fluency in English is not taken lightly, said Jennifer Bump, Buchanan High’s learning director. She said small classes for English-challenged students are a priority at Buchanan.

Meanwhile, a Clovis East program that started in August takes a slightly different approach. English learners are getting a second “push-in” teacher in mainstream classes to aid them.

Buchanan doesn’t use the push-in teacher program. The school has the second-fewest English learners among Clovis Unified’s five high schools, about 6 percent. Clovis East has the most, about 16 percent.

Now, in its fourth year, the small-class model has become important for Buchanan and its English-challenged students, Bump said.

“We have classes with 39 kids in them,” Bump said. “This class has seven. This is a financial decision we make (at Buchanan) because they are worth the investment; we are proud of that decision, these kids deserve that.”

The goal, she said, isn’t just to make English learners proficient in English but also to prepare them for college.

Meanwhile, the Clovis East “push-in” program emulates one developed by San Diego State University education professor Doug Fisher, who employs the method at a charter school where he consults, said Rosalie Baker, assistant superintendent for Clovis East area schools. Clovis East-area schools separate English learner students in three areas – emerging, expanding and bridging, said Baker.

The model chosen for Clovis East also is designed to offer smaller class instruction but places a second teacher in the mainstream English class setting.

Under the method, two teachers help students enhance their reading levels, said Heidi Rochin, a former Clovis Unified consultant now teaching English learners at Clovis East and Reyburn Intermediate School. The push-in program is being used in the Clovis East area because of the larger number of English learners who are less fluent in English.

“One of the teachers travels with them into their regular English class and can then work with them in the English tasks and serve as that bridge,” she said.

Using a “push-in teacher” at Clovis East will offer English learners opportunities for regular one-on-one and small-group instruction from teachers, she said.

Specifically, the district’s accountability plan says students struggling with English language skills require “additional intervention and specialized strategies to be successful.” How they get intervention depends on the school site.

“We are all kind of doing a little different thing,” Baker said.

She said she thinks the San Diego charter school model will provide the greatest benefit to Clovis East’s English learner population.

Rochin said the mainstream English classes include students of all levels, which exposes the English learners to a variety of speaking and writing abilities.

Having a second teacher in the room benefits the English learners as well as the other students, she said. “We will provide services necessary for the English learners in the room while teaching the other students in the room at their level,” she said.

The goals of the program are to personalize education for each student and to move them out of English learner programs as soon as possible.

The accountability plan specifically suggests “shadow” classes similar to Buchanan’s and “push-in” programs such as the one Rochin is participating in. The district also intends to use after-school programs for high-risk students.

One issue for English learner classes is getting buy-in from parents so they know what their children are learning, she said.

At Buchanan, Dulce Giannoni’s seven students were assigned projects to ask their parents about their upbringing in the country of their birth – her students last year were from Mexico, China and Thailand. They wrote a report about themselves and their homeland.

“The parents were asked specific questions about their struggles and their experiences upon coming to the United States,” she said. Among the things they learned: “Some of the students never knew there wasn’t an instant translator on their phone.”

One of the parents had college classes, recorded them and then translated everything by using a dictionary, Giannoni said.

“The kids are learning why their parents value education so much,” she said. “A lot of kids in our program really want to go to college; they want to be the first in their families to go to college.”

Learning English

Giannoni’s students are encouraged to speak English in her class, and it’s rare to hear a word uttered in a different language. But the students also are shy about using their English.

Three students remain in her class this year from last year, two were promoted to the next English language development level and three are joining the class as freshmen. Two returned home to Thailand and Mexico, she said.

When questioned, the students speak softly, choosing words carefully.

Since many were finishing their first or second year of speaking English, they worry about their syntax and use of expressions when discussing their improvements, Giannoni said.

Jianfeng “Kenny” Liang points out that the class has helped him “know more words; I know how to say it.”

He credits his presentations with helping him learn.

His classmates say a computer program called Read 180 has played a pivotal role in improving their speaking skills. The program allows students to hear words and phrases the way they are spoken in English, and it informs students when they use or say a phrase incorrectly.

“It helped me to improve my speaking by practicing my words,” said Claudia Magaña, who is from Mexico and was the one of two students promoted into the higher-level class.

Bump, the learning director, said advancing students to those higher levels is the main focus of the program.

“Our new standards are not just about reading and writing, it’s about being college- and career-ready, and we have really taken it to heart at Buchanan,” Bump said.

The students also get encouragement through field trips and guest speakers. English learners were taken to the Center for Advanced Research and Technology, where they could meet other students taking classes in CART’s cutting-edge curriculum. They met students who were once English learners and experienced the school’s offerings.

“At CART, they met many of their older peers,” Giannoni said. “It showed them that they have more options and what they can do as students who know another language.”

Buchanan High also brought Fresno State President Joseph Castro, who was a first-generation English speaker growing up in Hanford, to address English learners from Buchanan and Alta Sierra Intermediate.

Giannoni said school officials want students learning from people who came from similar backgrounds and became successful community leaders.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Clovis Unified takes different paths to educate English learners."