Bilingual classes try to push Latinos toward college
Four high schools in Southern California are offering math and science courses using online curriculum from Mexico to get more Latino students to meet requirements to go to college.
On the first day of the semester, Sylmar High math teacher Cesar Fuentes wasted no time: "Ven, tomen una computadora," he said. "Go grab a laptop."
In minutes, the students flipped open the Apple computers, the lights went down and, like a digital textbook, the geometry curriculum popped onto the white board — every word written in Spanish.
At Sylmar and three other high schools in Southern California, instructors are running some of the state's only rigorous bilingual math and science classes using online curriculum from Mexico. The idea: to get more Latino students to take and pass the courses they need to go to college.
"These are the kids that can do it if we just offer them something," said Patricia Gandara, a professor of education at UCLA.
Bilingual classrooms are rare in California. A voter-approved measure on bilingual education, Proposition 227, requires classes to be taught exclusively in English. But several provisions within the law, including one for older children, allow instruction in a student's primary language.
Still, only about 1% of high school students received primary-language instruction last school year, according to the state Department of Education.
Project SOL (Secondary Online Learning) is a collaborative effort between Gandara, the University of California system and the Mexican Colegio de Bachilleres, which developed the digital math and science curriculum.
The program began at four high schools in 2008 with $1.2 million in grants. Besides Sylmar, the other schools involved are Franklin in East Los Angeles, Brawley Union in Imperial County and Chula Vista in San Diego County. So far, nearly 500 students have enrolled in at least one of seven bilingual courses. The program accounts for about 18% of all high school students in the state learning in a primary language.
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