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For many Pleasanton students, school can already be a lot of work with having to cover subjects like math, science and history. But imagine a student having to learn all of those subjects, in both Spanish and English.
Well, for some 350 Valley View Elementary School students, that is in fact their reality thanks to the school’s dual language immersion (DLI) program.
The alternative program is designed for both Spanish-speaking students who are learning English as a second language and for English-speaking students who want to learn Spanish. The overall goal of the program is to teach students all of the other school subjects in both English and Spanish so they master both languages while getting their regular education.
“We really try to immerse the students in both of the languages,” Christie Carnahan, a kindergarten DLI teacher, said during the program’s parent informational night on Feb. 5.
But for the students, teachers and families involved in the program, it’s much more than kids being proficient in two languages — it’s about the community the school has created and about making connections with different demographics.
“In some of my classes, there are kids who came here to America from Spanish-speaking countries and now I can talk to them,” Kaya Madani, a sixth grade student who graduated from Valley View’s DLI program last year, said during the information session. “We have conversations and I can get to know more about them.”
Valley View’s immersion program first launched in 1998 with a single class of 18 first graders who wanted to learn two languages. Since then, the program has grown to where now there are 15 DLI classes — typically two to three per grade level — with over 350 students involved.
“The Valley View Spanish Dual Language Immersion program has graduated over one thousand students since it began in 1998,” Pleasanton Unified School District director of communications Patrick Gannon told the Weekly.
He said much like any other program, funding for the school’s DLI program is based on enrollment and attendance and that the district is “currently working to market this amazing program to our broader community”.
The program follows what it calls the three pillars of bilingual education: bilingualism and biliteracy; academic achievement in all subjects; and sociocultural competence, which staff said helps students connect with each other on a deeper level.
To get into the program, parents register their soon-to-be kindergarteners during the enrollment process and notify the school of their interest in the program. The program follows a first-come, first-served basis that prioritizes accepting students who only speak Spanish first. Students with siblings at the school are prioritized next before those who are in the school’s attendance area or outside of it.
This year, parents who are registering their kindergarteners for the first time will find out if they got into the DLI program after March.
Once in, students spend 90% of their class time being taught in Spanish while 10% is taught in English. Throughout their five years in Valley View’s DLI program — which is a commitment required by the school — the percentage of time spent in Spanish slowly decreases to the point where in fifth grade, DLI students only spend half of their time in class speaking English.
Esperanza Jimenez, a fifth grade DLI teacher at the elementary school, said teachers use various different strategies to teach arithmetic in both languages. She pointed out one day where a teacher brought in tortillas to help teach fractions.
The model is primarily used so that students like Yatziri Hernandez Santiago, an Amador Valley High School senior who is also in the middle college program, could learn English. During the informational night, she said that while it was initially hard during that first year in kindergarten, the teachers at Valley View made it easier for her.
“The support they gave me was so amazing that I was able to speak English by the end of kindergarten,” Santiago said. “Being in the Valley View (DLI) program has had a great impact on me because not only is it nice to be able to speak in two languages, but … it’s such a good program. The teachers are amazing and they’re always there for you.”
However, it is also for students like Madani who said that while their Spanish is not quite fluent, she appreciates being able to communicate with more people in the world.
“It’s just a really cool thing to be able to talk to other people who have different experiences than me that if I didn’t speak Spanish, I wouldn’t get to learn,” Madani said.
Carnahan, who had family come to the U.S. from Mexico, said she became a teacher in order to pass on her family’s history of biliteracy and bilingualism to her students and to the future generations.
“It’s something to be celebrated to be bilingual and to be biliterate,” Carnahan said during the informational night. “Choosing to put your child into this program is a gift that you’re giving to your kids.”
But a lot has changed since that first grade class in 1998. Not only has the program increased in size at the elementary school level — educators are now working to expand it throughout all grade levels.
“Our goal is to make this a full K-12 DLI program (by) adding more content classes through the years — at least one every year — because to really grow vocabulary, just having one Spanish class doesn’t grow the vocabulary,” Felicia Douwes, a former DLI teacher at Valley View for 16 years who now teaches a sixth grade DLI class at Pleasanton Middle School, said during the informational night.
The program currently feeds Valley View students into Pleasanton Middle School and finishes at Foothill High School where chosen core classes are taught in Spanish, according to the district.
Douwes has been helping the program grow in middle school for the past three years and said the goal is to eventually create more core classes — math, science and history classes — in Spanish at Foothill. She said they currently teach Spanish and history in Spanish at Pleasanton Middle School along with other special classes in seventh and eighth grade.
But all of this work couldn’t have been done without the help of the village, according to Valley View staff.
“It’s a community- and family-oriented program as well … we are all in it together,” Valley View principal Andrea Withers said. “You’ll find that as you enter the program, that you’re never alone.”
Many recognized how hard it could be for parents on either side of the language barrier, but students like Santiago said that isn’t so much a problem at Valley View.
“Not only did they support me, but they supported my parents,” she said.
And while Carnahan said that the district has been affected by attrition of teachers, Valley View’s staffing level hasn’t been hit as hard because of what she called one of the best bilingual teacher stipends in California.
“We currently offer our DLI teachers a $5,000 stipend to attract and retain the amazing teachers that contribute to making this program possible,” Gannon said.
Carnahan said the school didn’t have any issues filling empty positions this year because of that stipend and she also pointed out that PUSD partners with local colleges who offer bilingual credentialing, which makes Valley View a pipeline for bilingual student-teachers.
She also said apart from attracting new, bright teachers, the school also has a reputation of teachers — like herself — settling down there and making Valley View their permanent home.
“We’ve had graduates out of the program who’ve come back and now are teachers in our program,” Carnahan said. “I think that says a lot about who we are as a school and how we grow our students to be successful.”
It would be nice to see the data on the success of this program presented in a public forum like a board meeting.
This article runs counter to much of my understanding of the program. Like, how many DLI teachers actually have an elementary teaching credential? Are these students’ test scores similar to those of their nonDLI peers, at VV and at other elementary schools? And, wasn’t that $5000 stipend offered by a former HR head outside and in exception to the ratified teacher contract? So for a district that talks a lot about equity, no other elementary teachers can earn that $5000. Reporter, please ask deeper questions next time around.