D65 Board to Consider Whether to Expand TWI to Middle Schools or Stay with Transitional Bilingual Education Classes

ETHS Teachers Receive Honors

Student Kudos

Chess Champs

All-state Musicians

Student Kudos
Eleven ETHS students have earned between one and three perfect scores on three of the very challenging contests given by the American Scholastic Mathematics Association.

Each contest consists of seven questions, and receiving a perfect score is difficult. Junior Elliot Damashek earned perfect scores on all three contests. Other students with perfect scores include: seniors Julianna Alson (1), Sean Burrill (2), Robert Schick (2); juniors Matthew Byrd (1), Liana Hershey-Nexon (1), Danny Kipp (1), Mariam Marks (1), Jaime Rojas (1), Ben Simon (2); and freshman Megan Cutrofello (1).

Five ETHS juniors were chosen to continue in a writing competition sponsored annually by the National Council on Teachers of English (NCTE). More than  80 ETHS juniors who take 3 English Honors wrote an impromptu essay on cell-phone use, a topic chosen by NCTE.

In the spring, the ETHS winners – Liana Hershey-Nexon, Marie Semla, Anna Waymack, Nick Salter and Tali Cornblath – will again write an impromptu essay on a topic chosen by NCTE. Those papers, as well as a sample of each student's best writing, will be submitted for national judging.

NCTE finalists are announced in the fall and are considered to be among the best high school writers in the nation. Generally, one to three ETHS students are named NCTE finalists each year.

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D65 Board to Consider Whether to Expand TWI to Middle Schools or Stay with Transitional Bilingual Education Classes
By Mary Helt Gavin

School District 65 Board members trying to discuss whether to extend the two-way-immersion (TWI) program into middle schools found themselves hindered at the Dec. 5 Program and Policy Committee meeting by a lack of specific data and other information.

Superintendent Hardy Murphy said that the TWI program "would not be eliminated" at the grade-school level. However he has not yet made a recommendation about language support programs in the middle schools and said he did not know what the middle school program would look like. He also said studies have shown positive results from both TWI and transitional bilingual education (TBE) programs if they are implemented properly.

There have been accusations about the ineffectiveness of the program in meeting the needs of Spanish-dominant students, about its impact on the schools where TWI has been implemented and about the skewing of racial balances in general education (GenEd) classrooms.

Paul Brinson, the District's chief information officer, had promised the Board that in October of this year he would provide data in 24 specific areas. At the Dec. 5 meeting, however, some Board members said that the data provided for that evening's discussion was insufficient and, in some aspects, inaccurate. 

"The data is not sufficient," Board member Sharon Sheehan said. Board member Jonathan Baum said, "There are people out there saying TWI has devastated the schools…. At Oakton and Washington, TWI was like a hurricane that devastated them – that's what they're saying. We need a seasoned professional evaluation from this administration of whether that is true or not."

Yet the meeting continued, and Board members circled the issue, trying to formulate a basis for how they could assess the program.

At the Dec. 19 Board meeting, Mr. Brinson provided some information about academic achievement and racial balance in the classroom.

TWI at D65
In 1999 the District voted to adopt TWI as the main bilingual program to meet the education needs of limited-English proficient (LEP) students in grades K-5 whose primary language is Spanish.

As conceived, TWI classes are composed of equal numbers of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking students. Some subjects are taught in English and some in Spanish.

The TWI program is offered at Dawes, Oakton, Orrington and Washington schools. Students begin the TWI program in kindergarten and can continue through fifth grade. Currently at the middle school level, TBE and other English-as-a-second-language (ESL) programs address the needs of students who need help in mastering English.

TBE students are pulled out of their regular classes to receive additional support in English. Students generally leave the program when their English is deemed sufficient to sustain them in academic subjects taught in English.

However, Susan Schultz, assistant superintendent for curriculum, told the Committee that often LEP students who exit the TBE program after their scores show a certain proficiency in English do not have a sufficient understanding of English to do well in academic subjects that are taught in English. Such students, she said, still need additional classes in Spanish.

Several times during the meeting Dr. Murphy said he thought the TWI program could be expanded to the middle schools, though possibly in a different form.

TWI and its impact on GenEd classrooms
While many TWI parents give the program positive marks, there have been objections and concerns expressed by parents whose children are not in the TWI program but remain in the GenEd classes. As the number of TWI classes increases at a school, the number of general education classes decreases.

Because fewer than expected black students have enrolled in the program, most TWI classes are predominantly composed of Latino and white children. Some have said this leaves a disproportionately large number of black children in the GenEd classes. 

Board member Julie Chernoff added another dimension to the discussion, saying, "What I hear from parents is that in the GenEd classes there are [many] students with IEPs [individual education plans] so the kids in GenEd are in classes where there is a higher concentration of kids with special needs. This makes it much more difficult for teachers to differentiate and address the needs of all these different children in the classroom."
Dr. Murphy said, "That makes sense, because the largest percentage of students with IEPs is African-American students. The lowest proportion of students in TWI is African-American."

Dr. Murphy also said, "Suppose you had a school that had a good balance of Latino, black and white students, and suppose TWI came in and more white students than black students took advantage of TWI – that disrupts the racial balance in the other GenEd classrooms. Those classrooms may need extra support."

Board member Mary Erickson said, "Sometimes it's a tipping point – parents look at the GenEd program and the problems they anticipate there. If you had an analysis that was objective you could tell whether [having] a single-strand (one TWI class per grade level) is better [for school climate] than having two or more" TWI classes per grade level.

Mr. Baum said he wanted information on the "culture and the climate" of the schools – "what is the learning that is going on in the school? We know that the racial imbalance only exists in some of the schools, but not all – so that may tell us what is going on in GenEd as much as what is going on in TWI. I know people who have enrolled their children in TWI not because they are so interested in having their children learn a second language but because they think it's the better alternative to GenEd."

At the Dec. 19 School Board meeting, Mr. Brinson provided information showing that the overall percentage of Spanish-dominant TWI students for all grades across all schools is 59 percent. The data also showed that "at every location and grade level the proportion of white students in the TWI program exceeds the proportion of white students in the [GenEd] population at that school. In many cases the differences are substantial and frequently increase the proportion of black students in the regular education classrooms, in relation to other groups. The fact that so few black students elect to enter the TWI program contributes to this imbalance."

At Dawes School, for example, at the third grade level there are 53 students enrolled in GenEd, including 13 white and 30 black students; at the first grade level there are 44 GenEd students, including 9 white and 29 black students. At Washington School at the fourth grade level, there are 33 GenEd students, including 9 white and 20 black students.

Missing data
Administration officials said at the Dec. 5 meeting that it might not be possible to provide all of the data promised in October. Dr. Murphy said, "Our program has not been in existence long enough to provide data that would be a ‘classic evaluation.' There's much equivocation out there – not just in our data but across the country. We can tell you right now that the achievement of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in middle schools is lacking."

Mr. Baum appeared frustrated about the lack of data. At the Dec. 5 meeting he said the data was necessary for "decision-making and for demystifying what's going on with TWI. There's a lot of mythology about TWI out there, and I don't know the cost – is TWI more expensive? And [I don't know] how the success of TWI students compares with that of TBE. The absolute question is not the issue; it's the relative question: How does TWI compare to what we were doing before, and what we might do instead?"

Ms. Sheehan added, "We need an evaluation of the TWI model, giving the Board the data that is necessary to make a decision on expanding the TWI program to middle schools."

Data provided at the Dec. 19 Board meeting show divergent results for both TWI and TBE students from year to year, in part because of the low numbers of students taking the tests.

In the TBE program, the percentages of Spanish-dominant third graders who met or exceeded State standards on the  IMAGE (Spanish-dominant) reading test in 2002, 2003 and 2004, were, respectively 21 percent, 19 percent and 8 percent. In math, the percentages for  2002, 2003 and 2004, were, respectively 22 percent, 24 percent and 23 percent.

In the TWI program, the percentages of Spanish-dominant third graders who met or exceeded State standards on the IMAGE reading test in 2004 and 2005 were 30 percent and 6 percent respectively. On the IMAGE math test 57 percent of the Spanish-dominant TWI third grade students met or exceeded standards in 2004, but only 10 percent met or exceeded standards in math in 2005.

Mr. Brinson said "testing irregularities" may have skewed the 2005 IMAGE scores so as to make them invalid or non-comparable.

Board President Mary Rita Luecke asked, "Can you tell us that the TWI program has had greater success in the elementary school than the TBE program?"

Dr. Murphy replied, "We can't tell you that." He said that it was possible to show when the "identified achievement objective with language development…has the highest correlation in meeting or exceeding State standards" – in other words, in what areas Spanish-dominant students do best.

Ms. Erickson said, "We know that our TBE was poorly implemented. I think we're saying, ‘How can we fit TWI into middle schools?'"
Mr. Baum agreed, saying, "TBE was implemented terribly – that's why we've ended up here….I don't think anyone is trying to defend this District's implementation of TBE."

Ms. Luecke said, "If there are two programs that work, all the research you give us is not going to make a difference….The question is what do we as a District want?"

Whither TWI and TBE
"Let's be clear," Dr. Murphy said, "I won't be hamstrung. There's no intention to eliminate TWI at the elementary schools. The real question is whether we're going to have a pure dual-language immersion [at the middle schools] or something that looks like it."

Ms. Schultz said she did not believe there was a "critical mass" of LEP students who would benefit from TWI at the middle schools.

Mr. Baum said, "If the administration is going to recommend not to extend TWI into the middle schools, it's got to be for one of two reasons, or both: It's not the preferred method of educating LEP students or because it has too much detrimental impact on the schools. But if we do that, we need the data."

"How can you extend a program that cannot be evaluated?" Dorrie Mendoza, parent of a TWI student at Dawes School asked the Committee members and administrators near the end of the Dec. 5 meeting. "LEP students are hurting," she said. "We need to produce Latinos, African-Americans – no matter what race – who come out of the school system prepared. The school system is a sheltered system, and when [students] come out, they aren't prepared and don't know how to act. Help them to be proficient in English, because that's the only way they can compete in this world. The number-one value of employers in this world is communication.

"I understand it's important to maintain your culture, but that's up to families. We are an education system. We are here to educate. And for those kids to compete, they need to read, write and speak in English," Ms. Mendoza added.

Nancy Alexander, the bilingual/ESL team leader at Nichols Middle School, spoke at the Dec. 19 Board meeting, urging the Board to expand the TWI program to the middle schools but said, "Please do it right. That means a minimum of four periods of Spanish instruction. Don't water down the program and the District's resources by providing half a program."

She added she was concerned about the impact TWI would have "on the rest of our building, in terms of staffing and classrooms" and said the TBE program works well. She said,"It is essential that the TBE program continue untouched," she said, adding that some administrators had visited Nichols for up to a half-hour at a time, but "they don't observe long enough or ask the right questions. I am grieved to think decisions about what's best for students are being made by people who spend only 10-30 minutes in my class." She invited the Board and administrators to spend at least half a day in her classes.

Marcelo Ferrer, a District 65 parent and member of the Bilingual Parents Advisory Committee (BPAC), presented a petition signed by 440 parents to the Board at the Dec. 9 meeting, requesting that TWI be expanded to the middle schools. Other requests included reducing the size of TWI classes by adding additional classrooms, evening the ratio of Spanish-dominant to English-dominant students and more aggressively recruiting African-American students to participate in TWI.

Few if any of the parents at Dewey School signed that petition, Bob Heuer, a Dewey parent, told the RoundTable. "This push to get TWI into the middle schools is indefensible," said Mr. Heuer; "I'm opposed to their expanding this program when it hasn't even been thought through."

He said the Dewey PTA has invited members of the BPAC and the administration to its Jan. 10 meeting. In addition, he said PTA Council is planning a meeting for Jan. 19 at the Hill Education Center for "all four strands of academic interest at District 65: special education, bilingual education, general education and the Afro-centric curriculum."

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ETHS Teachers Receive Honors

ETHS math teacher Aurelia Milam won the Agile Teacher (TM) Award from AgileMind, Inc. and the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Milam is honored for her exemplary use of the AgileMind computer-based program to enhance learning for her Algebra 1 students.

ETHS history teacher Aaron Becker recently returned from a two-week seminar in Saudi Arabia hosted by Saudi Aramco, the nation's oil company. The trip is part of an effort to strengthen U.S-Saudi relations, dispel stereotypes and foster better understanding post-9-11. The educators visited schools, oil facilities, industrial complexes, women's organizations, museums and historical sights throughout the country.

Ann Stevens, retired physical/health education teacher and chair, was recently honored with the highest award given by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. Ms. Stevens worked at ETHS for 38 years.

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Chess Champs
The ETHS junior (grade 11) chess team earned the fourth place National Trophy in the U.S. Chess Federation's  K-12 National Chess Tournament.

Individual honors went to Elliot Damashek, who placed second, and Todd Summers, who placed 13th. Ken Lewandowski, ETHS science teacher, coaches the team.

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All-state Musicians
Eight ETHS students were selected for the Illinois Music Educators Conference All-State groups. Hillary Rowley-Weiss will perform in the All-State Band. Selected to play in the All-State Orchestra are Elizabeth Peters, David Cohen, Ken Fuller, Nick Hersh, Kate Hutchison, Martin Nocedal and Devan Soule.

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