But there's enough information out there to fuel a rigorous debate.
As Hogan explains, students in the four-hour, English-only program receive only two hours of instruction in topics such as math, and they often skip science and social studies entirely. When this happens in the high school years, kids can wind up missing credits they need to graduate. At any grade level, Hogan observes, the missing curriculum never is given — the kids simply miss it.
Jamie Peachey
Cara Bennett (left) and Ana Contreras
Jamie Peachey
Ana Contreras in her classroom at Squaw Peak.
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He cites a study showing that in Tucson Unified School District, there was almost no difference between the success rate of ELL kids who took part in the English-only training and those whose parents chose to keep them out of the program entirely and put them in mainstream classrooms.
And researchers at UCLA's Civil Rights Project concluded last year that they had enough data to conclude that Arizona's ELL programs are failing. The "Arizona Educational Equity Project" released a series of nine reports questioning everything from assessment tools to how the programs are affecting the way students feel about themselves. From a spring 2010 survey of 880 participating teachers:
"Overall findings show that most of these Arizona teachers have a great deal of faith in their ELL students' ability to achieve at a grade level, but . . . there is deep and overwhelming concern about the segregation they are experiencing as a result of this instructional model; 85 percent believe this separation from English-speaking peers is harmful to their learning. Most also believe that the majority of their ELL students are not meeting grade-level standards and more than half of teachers also note that their ELL students are stereotyped as slow learners by other students and that the four-hour block program is harmful to their self-esteem."
Here at home, an academic researcher is horrified by the state's methods for teaching ELL.
"Arizona has the worst idea about how to address the needs of English language learners," says Kellie Rolstad, an associate professor of applied linguistics in Arizona State University's English department.
She says of the "English Only" law, "203 was bad. But when the four-hour block was introduced, that was the worst . . . You don't learn a language by being forced to learn grammar four hours a day. It goes against everything we've ever learned by studying real language acquisition."
Rolstad wrote the entry titled "English Immersion" in a 2008 text, Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education.In it, she compares efforts to teach English speakers foreign languages with the challenges of instruction for English language learners — in essence, comparing Spanish immersion with English immersion.
In a program like Squaw Peak's, it would take a student at least six years to become close to fluent in Spanish, Rolstad says.
Such programs are highly successful in both teaching a foreign language and increasing academic test scores across the board, the professor adds — and they should under no circumstances be compared to efforts like Arizona's ELL program.
"Ironically, when pressed for evidence to support the use of this one-year, monolingual program model, English-immersion advocates typically cite the success of the six-year, bilingual-immersion programs," Rolstad writes.
This is about much more than academic models and statistical studies, Rolstad says, adding that Arizona is not the only place where she sees bigotry. Not long ago, Rolstad observed a school program in Culver City, California. Not only did kids learn one another's languages, they were encouraged to learn about their culture. Well, some of them were.
As part of a Japanese-immersion program, the English-speaking kids visited the Japanese-speaking kids' homes, and the Japanese speakers visited the English speakers' homes. But a similar Spanish program didn't place the Mexican kids in the white kids' homes — or vice versa. She was horrified. Language instruction is not only about academic prowess, Rolstad says.
"We're trying to teach something much bigger. Respect."
Squaw Peak's Spanish-immersion program hasn't simply sold itself. Renee Shamblin and Amy McSheffrey have done that — with videos, brochures, and a website, www.squawpeakimmersion.com. You can also friend the program on Facebook, and PTA members frequently lead tours of the school.
There is no entrance exam at Squaw Peak or extra costs, though donations are, of course, appreciated (and solicited). The only requirement for entrance is that a child be able to pass an English-proficiency test, if that comes into question. (Hence, the lack of brown faces in Contreras/Bennett's classrooms.)
This is certainly not the first such program to market itself — the Osborn schools have an impressive page on the district's website (www.osbornnet.org/programs/DualLangWelcome.htm), and Cave Creek school officials do a nice job of promoting their efforts, as well. But Shamblin and McSheffrey have a school to save. They mean business.
And business is good. The final item to go in the marketing toolbox: test scores. Squaw Peak Principal Faith Burtamekh says some are out but says the district has not yet made them public.
Of course, success is difficult to measure much after just one year. And yet the year was a significant one in the history of a school so close to complete failure. Two years ago, kindergarten graduation was a small affair, with just one class taking the stage for a traditional celebration. This year, it was standing room only. At dusk one evening in late May, parents headed to the streamer- and balloon-filled cafeteria, while Bennett and Contreras' students gathered in Bennett's room to get ready.