With Gestures, but Not Chaos, Prop. 227 Begins

The post-bilingual age began in Los Angeles schools Monday with uncertainty, improvisation and a good many hand gestures--but seemingly none of the chaos predicted by apprehensive educators.

And in Orange County, two of the school systems with the largest enrollments of immigrant children continued to offer primary-language instruction. Officials of the Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City school districts said they will continue to do so until administrators craft solid plans for English-immersion programs.

That allowed Santa Ana first-grade teacher Victoria Boyd to read aloud a Spanish translation of the popular children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to her pupils at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School.

Throughout the story, the youngsters sat perfectly still, lis

tening intently and answering questions eagerly. But when Boyd moved to another story, this one in English, eyelids drooped, little bodies fidgeted and attention faded.

Switching to an “overwhelmingly” English program will be tough, said Boyd, who has taught bilingual classes for 14 years.

“I don’t want the students to feel like their primary language is being shoved out of the door,” she said. “At the same time, I think we can abide by the law and meet the needs of the children.”

Many students in Los Angeles, however, seemed to be struggling Monday.

There were glazed looks of incomprehension and worry in some classrooms as teachers and students at 47 year-round elementary schools started a new semester, making them among the first in the state to return to class under Proposition 227, the June initiative that essentially eliminated bilingual education in California’s public schools.

But the morning went surprisingly smoothly at eight schools visited by Times reporters. There was no flood of requests for waivers to dodge the English-immersion instruction that is now the state mandate. There was no defiant flouting of the initiative.

Instead, teachers, parents and students all seemed in a mood to try to do what they were now expected to do, however difficult--or even distasteful--it might be for them. And many of the youngsters had little difficulty following their teachers’ English.

At Van Nuys Elementary, one could hear only a sprinkling of Spanish among the students who returned Monday, as the language all but disappeared from many classrooms. Youngsters who once spent their days reading and writing Spanish were instead reciting the alphabet and greeting one another in English.

Instructors who had spent years teaching in Spanish reminded themselves to speak English, even as some said they preferred the bilingual approach.

The majority of Van Nuys classes offered virtually no help in Spanish except for bilingual aides who gave occasional tips to students. Teachers tried hard to make their lessons clear by using gestures--one pointed to the floor when she asked the class to sit down. The teachers spoke slowly and clearly and frequently repeated words for the benefit of their students.

When second-grade teacher Beth Shwarz told her pupils to write their names at the bottom of their personal journals, she repeated the last two words of her instructions in slow motion: “T-H-E B-O-T-T-O-M.”

At one point, she emphasized, “Please, if you have questions, ask me,” adding in Spanish, “Por favor, si tienen preguntas, preguntenme.”

No Textbooks or Lesson Plans

While they improvised their way through the first morning, many teachers wondered how they would fare in the coming days without a formal lesson plan for teaching English--it won’t be ready for three more weeks--or the necessary English-language textbooks, which won’t even be ordered for another month.

“I said to my family that I can get through the first day and probably the next few days,” said first-grade teacher Rosario Martin at Christopher Dena Elementary in East Los Angeles. “My greatest concern is the curriculum. As we see it right now there’s no real curriculum.”

That is exactly why officials at Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City have used a technicality to delay implementation of English-only programs. To do so, they changed the date when their official school year starts.

Proposition 227 was to take effect for all schools that begin after Aug. 2. But in those two districts, last Friday’s teacher training day was used to mark the start of the school calendar.

The two districts, both on year-round schedules, thus are exempt from implementing English-immersion programs until their next batch of students starts classes. For Santa Ana Unified, that will be Sept. 10; and for Anaheim City, November.

Critics called the move an attempt to skirt the new law.

“If a district as large as Los Angeles Unified can make an attempt to implement 227, then it is inexcusable that Santa Ana is lagging,” said Sheri Annis, spokeswoman for the Prop. 227 initiative.

But teachers say their students’ needs have to be a primary concern.

With more than 312,000 students classified as having limited English skills--nearly a quarter of the 1.4 million such students statewide--the Los Angeles Unified School District will play a pivotal rule in determining whether Proposition 227’s mandate for English instruction succeeds or fails.

The district has developed four instruction options that parents of limited-English students can chose from: Immerse the pupils in English; instruct them almost entirely in English with classroom aides and fellow students offering native-language help (known as Model A); teach them almost entirely in English with a certified bilingual education teacher in class to help (known as Model B); apply for a waiver to place the child in a traditional bilingual program.

Parents will not have to pick a method for another month.

Santa Ana Unified officials said they plan to offer similar options. Their intensive English-immersion program will allow teachers to spend 80% of the time teaching in English and the rest of the class in the students’ primary language. Also available will be a dual-immersion program that teaches students of various language backgrounds both Spanish and English.

Administrators from both Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City said they intend to comply fully with the new law by their respective deadlines. However, the extra time they created by changing their official start day will help them develop a well-planned program, they said.

“Rather than spend our time lamenting that [Prop. 227] is here, we need to make good plans to make the program successful,” Franklin Elementary Principal Robert McDonald said.

Backers of Proposition 227 let its first day of enforcement pass with little fanfare, though businessman Ron K. Unz, the oft-quoted sponsor of the initiative, announced a program to help monitor its implementation. The “English for the Children Project,” will take calls from whistle-blowers on a toll-free number.

Unz said the calls would be logged to help determine which schools or districts should be targeted with lawsuits for noncompliance.

Few Requests for Waivers

The post-bilingual era began in Los Angeles and a few other districts scattered around the state despite the best efforts of opponents, who went to court to block implementation of the initiative and in some cases have vowed to defy it. As late as Friday, two federal courts ruling in separate lawsuits filed by civil rights groups gave the initiative a green light.

Officials of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which vehemently fought Proposition 227, said last month that they would urge as many parents as possible to apply for waivers to thwart the initiative.

It is too soon to tell if such waiver requests will come pouring in, but there was no great demand Monday. Only a handful of parents asked about them at back-to-school meetings with administrators at San Pedro Street Elementary. Some parents at the sessions did express fear, though, that their children would somehow forget how to speak Spanish. A few wanted assurances that some Spanish would be used in the classroom.

At Monte Vista Elementary in Highland Park, Sabina Cortez was concerned that she would not be able to help her child on homework that was only in English. Like several other parents, she was leaning toward putting her child in the Model B program, with limited Spanish support.

But Veronica Estrada, who said she speaks Spanish perfectly, was firm about choosing the all-English model. “I don’t speak Spanish at home,” she stressed.

Her older daughters are now in high school and are taking Spanish as a second language. That suits her, she said.

Predictions of upheaval in classrooms failed to materialize on Monday precisely because of the role that English played under the school district’s old bilingual programs, teachers said.

“I think the public’s perception was that no English was being taught in bilingual programs but that’s not so,” said Heather Hagen-Smith, as her first-graders at Canoga Park Elementary School sang songs about shoes and buses in English to build their vocabulary.

Still, other teachers expressed concerns about whether students with limited English abilities will be able to adequately develop learning skills in English--and whether they will get the help they need at home.

“It’s a big concern. I can’t tell how it’s going to go,” said Canoga Park kindergarten teacher Christina Cuevas. “The kids have to be taught in English, regardless of what I think.”

Times community news reporter Jason Takenouchi also contributed to this story.