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  • Glendale: Rate of English learning doubles

    Glendale News Press
    July 3 2004

    Rate of English learning doubles

    Number of English- language learning students moving into higher
    classes jumps from 15% to 30%.

    By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press


    NORTHEAST GLENDALE - When Garnik Sarkissian arrived in the United
    States in 1995 and began attending John Muir Elementary School, he
    did not know any English.

    Garnik, now 17, graduated as valedictorian of Glendale High School
    last month and is on his way to the University of Pennsylvania, where
    he plans to triple major in biochemistry, math and business. Garnik
    was also accepted into a program in which he will receive yearly
    grants and be paid to conduct research projects.

    Garnik was reclassified from an English-language learner to a
    fluent-English proficient student just three months after arriving at
    his elementary school and was taking advanced classes seven months
    later, he said.

    "Back in Armenia, kids were placed at the same level and you couldn't
    advance," he said. "In America, you can go as high as you want to go.
    That's what I like about this place."

    Garnik might be an extreme example, but Glendale Unified School
    District officials were proud to hear that students learning English
    are being reclassified as being proficient in the language at a
    faster rate than the rest of the state. The district's language
    census report was presented this week during the school board
    meeting.

    The rate of reclassified students has doubled since last year,
    jumping from 15% to 30%. The state's rate in 2002-03 was 7%. The most
    recent numbers for the state were not available Friday.

    The high rate of reclassification is contrary to the belief of some
    local parents who believe the district keeps their children in the
    program too long. Last summer, members of an Armenian parent group
    criticized the district's program at several school board meetings
    and on local Armenian talk shows.

    The district reclassified 2,700 students from English-language
    learners to fluent-English proficient since the last report. Of those
    students, 1,657 were from the elementary schools and 1,043 were at
    the middle and high schools.

    The district's enrollment was 29,294 students during the 2003-04
    year.

    "It means that we're doing good work. We're getting kids into
    mainstream classes [faster]," Supt. Michael Escalante said. "We want
    kids to have the skills to move forward."

    The high numbers this year were possible because of the district's
    English-language learner programs' extra efforts, coordinator Joanna
    Junge said. Junge said her staff concentrated its efforts on some
    children who had not been reclassified after five years.

    "There were a number of students who we discovered were still having
    problems and not able to reclassify. It wasn't that they were
    [English-language learners], it was some other kind of learning
    problem," Junge said. "We've always done that, but we really
    mobilized our efforts and gave the kids more intensive testing."

    For some of the children, having trouble with math was keeping them
    from being moved up, Junge said. In a case like that, district
    workers reclassified those students under an option that allows
    students who have been in a Glendale school for more than five years
    to move on to a mainstream class if the student's deficiencies are
    determined to be unrelated to learning English.

    "If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a school district
    to reclassify," board member Pam Ellis said.
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