You can't have a rainbow without a tormenta: A description of an IHE's response to a community need for a dual-language school

Bilingual Research Journal, Spring 2002 by Clark, Ellen R, Flores, Belinda B, Riojas-Cortez, Mari, Smith, Howard L

You Can't Have a Rainbow Without a Tormenta: A Description of an IHE's Response to a Community Need for a Dual-Language School1

Abstract

Schools, with an ever-increasing presence of language minority students, are now compelled to critically analyze the programs and the practices in which they engage their students for academic achievement. This manuscript presents a case study2 in which a school and a university worked together in a restructuring process to create a community of learners. The implementation of a two-- way bilingual model at Tormenta Elementary School was the main mechanism that drove the restructuring process in both settings. The findings may assist universities in realizing their crucial roles as catalysts for change and as learners in and with the community.

Introduction

In the last 15 years, literature on "school reform" and "school restructuring" has burgeoned. Educators and the public are urgently seeking ways to reduce the numbers of dropouts, low achievers, and under-educated high school graduates. Increasing numbers of ethnic minority and poor students challenge the curricula, the epistemology, the philosophies, the values, and the administration of schools. Schools, strongholds of tradition and conformity, are now compelled to critically analyze the ways in which they engage their students for academic achievement and the degree to which they form affiliations with the community. In their attempt to help schools improve, researchers have left one element relatively unexamined: the role of the university.

This manuscript presents a case study in which two educational entities collaborated to create a community of learners. The elementary school partner is located in a poor, predominantly Mexican American neighborhood that began the process of school reform in the fall of 1994. To maintain anonymity, we use the pseudonym, Tormenta (storm) for the school and have changed the names of all participants. The institution of higher education (HE) partner is part of the largest state university system in Texas and a major Latino-- serving institution in south Texas.

The implementation of a dual language model at Tormenta Elementary School was the main conduit through which changes occurred. The university's Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies was instrumental in assisting the school during the transformation process, so the study will focus on this aspect. This research is timely in light of the call for the implementation of two-way bilingual programs by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley (as cited by Balli, 2000). The findings from this research may assist other schools, which primarily serve low income, language minority children, as they undergo their own restructuring process. The findings may assist universities in realizing their crucial role within the community, specifically in K-16 initiatives.

Professional Development

Today's teachers are no more prepared to teach to a diverse society than their counterparts were at the onset of the civil rights movement. In fact, teacher preparation in the last century has relatively remained unchanged. For the most part, teachers are prepared to teach "Dick and Jane" as if the United State were a monolithic and monocultural society (August & Hakuta, 1997). This type of teacher preparation has created inequities within our society (Valencia, 1991; Valenzuela, 1999). While some teacher preparation programs include one course on diversity, this approach has left teachers feeling inept to meet the growing demands of diverse classrooms (Lewis, Parsad, Carey, Bartfai, Farris, & Smerdon, 1999). Unlike their monolingual counterparts, bilingual teachers have been prepared to teach linguistically and culturally diverse students (Garcia, 1996). A recent Institute of Higher Education Policy (2001) publication indicated that minority teachers are more likely to be effective with culturally diverse and lower socioeconomic students because they can make connections to the students' lives and cultural backgrounds. Similarly, minority students prefer teachers that reflect their ethnicity, bilinguality, and gender (Galguera, 1998). Minority teachers often intuitively know the needs of their minority students because of similar experiences they have had (Flores, 1999). However, given relatively low numbers of minority and bilingual teachers as compared to majority teachers, all teachers have to become cultural brokers between the school and the community (Phelan, Yu, & Davidson, 1994).

In the last 10 years, some universities have begun to acknowledge that minority students form the majority of the school populations. In addition, schools of education are beginning to restructure their teacher preparation programs to prepare culturally responsive teachers (Ladson-Billings, 1995a, 1995b). One of the challenges faced by schools of education is that the majority students are often fearful of going into urban school settings because of preconceived notions (Ladson-Billings). It has been argued that the beliefs of teachers were formed long before they entered the university (Rodriguez, 1993), especially those beliefs they have formed about minority students (Burstein & Cabello, 1989; Cabello & Burstein, 1995; Olmedo,1992). Institutions of higher education (IREs), specifically the teacher preparation programs, can have a significant influence on the quality of teaching and school reform (Tatto, 1998; see Flores, 1999).