LARC strives for better multilingual experiences
Sarahi Garcia(12), Juan Diego (9) and Jody (10) in their newcomer english class (Dana Borunda, The Puma Prensa)
By Dana Borunda, staff writer and, Jasmine Arroyo, Business manager
The Maria Carrillo Language Acceleration Review Committee, also known as LARC, was created as an extension of the Multilingual Services department of the Santa Rosa City Schools District. Made up of a coalition of teachers on campus and headed by Vice Principal Amy Wiese, LARC oversees Carrillo’s treatment of English-learning students and develops ways to further help their academics. French and Advanced Language Development teacher Stephanie Contreras explains that the revival of the committee welcomes, “a plan for next year and the future” to help the multilingual community on campus. Proponent of this new plan Christie Rose, a long-time teacher of multilingual students and currently in charge of teaching newcomers to English at Carrillo, says it aims to “more fully integrate multilingual learners into the [everyday] curriculum.”
The approved funding for LARC’s proposal, a total of $7,007.52, sets in motion the adoption of new learning practices for multilingual students. Starting at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, seven MCHS general education teachers will incorporate a minimum of three multilingual students into their classes, including but not limiting to students identified as newcomers (less than two years in the US) and L-TELs (Long Term English Language Learners). Twice per semester, these teachers will report their data regarding the effectiveness of these new learning techniques that have worked well for multilingual students immersed in general classes. A yearly review of students’ scores on the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California, also known as the ELPAC, will take place in August to monitor growth or changes with these students. In addition, anecdotes about student attitudes and engagement will be included in the reports along with grades and attendance in order for the school to get a full understanding of the potential efficacy of this new plan. The funding covers an extended pay rate for these teachers for attending these progress meetings and developing effective strategies outside of the normal work day.
LARC hopes this to be at least a five-year plan. The committee hopes to gain more support from teachers willing to take in multilingual students over time and gradually increase their number. Although this program was initially geared towards multilingual students who lack academic proficiency in English, this funding will also tackle a much larger issue regarding multilingualism on campus.
“There are strategies that teachers who are teaching regular classes can utilize to bring English language learners into the curriculum, while simultaneously these strategies support all students because it’s about language learning,” said Rose.
This plan comes at a time when the notion of “linguistic equity” surges in Sonoma County. Daisy Carreño is the co-coordinator of the Immigrant Defense Task Force with the North Bay Organizing Committee, a group formed to support immigrants in acquiring the resources needed following the 2017 Tubbs fires, especially in their own languages, out of whose efforts the Department of Equity in Sonoma County was born. She is now spearheading a similar campaign to achieve linguistic equity in schools in Sonoma County. Campaña La justicia de lenguaje or the “Linguistic Justice Campaign,” aims to push schools to provide all resources, particularly to non-English-speaking parents in their own language. “One demand is for schools to have predetermined translators now,” said Carreño, in spanish. In part, this is to ensure that parents have “access to all the information provided at parent meetings, school events, etc. Many of us parents may not even know there are events happening because the documentation of it isn’t provided in our language,” she said. Carreño points out also that “even though a child may be bilingual, that doesn’t mean they are sufficiently capable of a formal translation, so the translation could be poor or lacking in interpretation or even information,” a phenomenon she explains puts both students and parents at a disadvantage, impeding the latter from advocating for and acquiring resources for their children.
“If more than 15% of the student population is Hispanic at a school, they are legally required to have a translator,” said Carreño. This is exactly the kind of information that the campaign hopes to get to parents. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education require this and provide documentation in a requested language.
Sarahi Garcia, a senior at Carrillo in the newcomer English program, said in Spanish, “When I moved here, my parents and I filled out a form that said we wanted paperwork and mail to come home in Spanish, but it rarely does.” Additionally, although several students in the newcomer English class attest to its effectiveness, others also say having a bilingual language teacher would be extremely helpful.
Rose brings up the point that not all of the multilanguage learners’ first language is Spanish. “The advantage [of only speaking English] is that I don’t favor any group in the class. This way, we’re all in the same boat.” Rose uses Google Translate to communicate with her students—speaking into the microphone and having the system translate in written form her directions in any of the various languages needed according to her class composition. Students, however, say that the program often lacks accurate interpretation and at times even, doesn’t make sense. Rose responded, “Is the [technology] perfect? No. But I do find it works.”
Additionally, all the students interviewed said having a translator present for their parents for parent-teacher meetings or events would be helpful. Rose supports the idea but adds, “It’s staffing that’s an issue and finding people who can be translators, who can be all those things.” She also added that it is important to “rememb[er] that not everyone [of the multilanguage learners and parents] speak Spanish.“On the other hand,” she added, “the largest number of multilingual learners are Spanish speakers, so that too provides a need that could be serviced very efficiently.” Carreño assents to this conflict but reiterates her wish to help have parents advocate for their students’ needs. “We want to empower [parents] so that it can be them at schools asking for all it is they need.”
Another issue is that students born in or out of the U.S. who may have a different home language than English, without proper academic support from teachers, sometimes lag behind in academic or language standards. Instead of turning to their home language as the foundation for communication, these students lose their proficiency in that language as well. This results in students who “float” between the two languages. This, says Carreño, reinforces the danger of not having translators, as parents without an effective line of communication to the schools have no way of knowing their children are falling behind.
As a Spanish teacher at Carrillo, Maria Harrington has observed this cycle among some of her Hispanic students in her many years of teaching. “I don't worry that our newcomers won't persevere. I am worried for the students that have spent their whole lives here and have yet to master either language,” said Harrington. Multilingual students who face difficulties adopting English as their second language are most likely to float when teachers and the school lack the resources necessary to support multilingual learning. This is one of the key challenges the new LARC program hopes to tackle. “Just the essence of offering something different separates those students,” said Rose, which is why her vision aims to “integrate all students.”
LARC aims to develop strategies that work best for multilingual development. In gathering information about how different students learn best, the LARC plan hopes to embrace a multilingual-positive approach that fosters and embraces a culture of diversity and inclusion on campus.