More than a third of the students enrolled in the nation鈥檚 urban districts are Hispanic鈥攁 milestone the Miami-Dade County, Fla., schools met and surpassed years ago.
The 347,000-student district, the fourth-largest in the nation, is about 65 percent Hispanic. About 54 percent of students speak Spanish at home, with sizable percentages speaking such other languages as Haitian Creole, French, and Portuguese. Seventy percent of the district鈥檚 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a measure of poverty.
Its demographic challenges notwithstanding, Miami-Dade has largely managed to buck the negative trends seen in many other big-city districts with large populations of Hispanic students.
Local educators say part of that success is due to an education system that has had years of practice in educating students whose home language is Spanish. Another piece can be linked to the district鈥檚 ties to a community where Hispanics are not only present in large numbers, but also have political clout and an appreciation for maintaining bilingualism.
鈥淲e embrace the cultural and linguistic diversity that students bring to us,鈥� says Alberto M. Carvalho, who has been superintendent since 2008.
For decades, people from Cuba, Central America, and South America have migrated to South Florida, laying down roots that have extended for generations. At the same time, the area鈥檚 demographic makeup has been shaped by political upheaval, such as the massive Mariel boatlift in 1980 that brought 125,000 Cubans to Florida in the span of five months. The new arrivals included many with far fewer economic resources than the Cuban immigrants who came before them.
However, the district鈥檚 4th and 8th grade Latino students have managed to earn above average scores in mathematics and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The achievement gaps between Latinos and whites in these subjects are also smaller on average than they are for other large, urban school districts and the nation as a whole. In addition, Miami-Dade ranks first in the nation in both the number of AP exams taken by Hispanic students and the number of Hispanic students earning a 3 or higher, out of a possible 5, on at least one AP exam, according to statistics provided to the district by the College Board, the New York City-based sponsor of the testing program.
The U.S. Department of Education has directed states to use a new graduation-rate calculation, which includes standard diplomas but excludes the GED and special diplomas. By that calculation, Miami-Dade鈥檚 graduation rate for Hispanic students in 2010-11 was 72.8 percent, compared with 69.4 percent for Hispanic students statewide. The overall graduation rate for the district was 71.3 percent versus 70.6 percent statewide.
That still leaves a lot of nongraduates. Using a different formula, the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center elsewhere in this report names the district as one of 25 鈥渄ropout epicenters鈥� for Latino students鈥攍argely due to its size and its high concentration of Hispanic students. But the overall progress of Hispanic students here appears to be better than for many other big-city districts with similar socioeconomic stresses.
Community Support
In maintaining its above-average performance, Miami-Dade County has some advantages that other districts grappling with large Hispanic student populations may not have. For one, the district has had decades to hone its English-language-learner programs, and it also has a high percentage of teachers and administrators who are familiar with the cultures that students bring to school. Spanish language and Hispanic culture is tightly woven into the fabric of the community.
69传媒 in the community 鈥渟tay very well connected to their Hispanic or Latino roots,鈥� says Mileidis Gort, an assistant professor of language and literacy education at the University of Miami. Such ties help students academically, she says.
the 2011 NAEP trial urban district assessment provides achievement-gap data on a national group of 18 large, mostly urban school districts. Across those systems, Latino students on average score lower than their white peers in both reading and mathematics. The achievement gaps between Latino and white 4th and 8th grade students are consistently smaller in the Miami-Dade County district than they are for TUDA districts on average or the nation as a whole.
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2011 Mathematics and 69传媒 Assessments.
鈥淚t does make a difference that you do have that mixed income represented across the community, and that you do have people with very strong voices who have been here for a very long time,鈥� Gort says. 鈥淣o one will argue that you don鈥檛 need English, but it鈥檚 not just English that you need.鈥�
Despite those advantages, other school systems can still learn from Miami-Dade鈥檚 example, says Carvalho. The district鈥檚 practices are 鈥渇ully exportable and scalable to other districts,鈥� he argues.
鈥淢y advice to superintendents and educators is that they do what their colleagues are doing鈥攃ome and visit and inspect our practice,鈥� he says. 鈥淗ow do we move the needle of language achievement?鈥�
In Miami-Dade, Carvalho says, 鈥渢he question is not whether Hispanic students can achieve at high levels, it鈥檚 鈥榳here is this being done?鈥� 鈥�
When it comes to fostering English proficiency, for example, the district provides a menu of options. To both promote students鈥� English acquisition and preserve their heritage languages, Miami-Dade maintains bilingual programs in some of its schools, where students can spend 40 percent of the day getting core academic instruction taught in Spanish and 60 percent receiving academic instruction in English. The district also maintains secondary magnet programs where students use the academic curricula of such countries as Spain and Italy.
The school system has also become adept at evaluating incoming students鈥� language and academic skills quickly, administrators say. Most English-learners are given a double dose of English-language instruction each day. One class鈥攐r block of time, at the elementary level鈥攊s spent on grade-level reading and language arts.
Because the district serves so many English-learners, it鈥檚 able to divide those classes further, keeping students who are less proficient in English together, and grouping students who have better English skills in a different class.
All students eligible for English-as-a-second-language services also take a second class that is devoted to English-language development. The developmental class includes a mix of students at various levels of English proficiency.
For most students, other subjects are taught in English. But thanks to a 1990 consent decree, every teacher of basic subjects, in addition to every administrator and guidance counselor, is required to have training in strategies for teaching students with limited English proficiency. That decree grew out of a lawsuit between the state of Florida and eight organizations, led by the League of United Latin American Citizens, or lulac.
The plaintiffs 鈥渉ave continued to maintain their interest in the well-being of English-minority students,鈥� says Rosa Castro Feinberg, a former Miami-Dade school board member and a retired professor of education at Florida International University in Miami, who does volunteer work with LULAC.
鈥楽ecurity Blankets鈥�
In middle and high schools, if enough students speak Spanish, the school is assigned a teacher or paraprofessional who serves as an 鈥淗LAP teacher,鈥� which stands for Home Language Assistance Program. That instructor, who has access to classroom materials, works with beginning English-learners solely in their home language to translate textbooks and assignments.
The home-language-assistance program is also available for students who speak Haitian Creole. A multilingual team based out of the central office provides support in 20 additional languages, such as Mandarin and Hebrew.
HLAP helps ensure that students don鈥檛 fall behind in other subjects while they鈥檙e learning English, says Caridad M. Perez, a regional supervisor in the district鈥檚 department of bilingual education and world languages. 鈥淎nd, they want that security blanket,鈥� she says of students.
Finally, administrators and teachers say they watch for students who show the ability to do higher-level work, even if those students are still struggling to master English.
鈥淵ou have teachers who often help guide students toward those upper-level courses,鈥� says Lisa L. Pizzimenti-Bradshaw, the principal of W.R. Thomas Middle School. Her school of 750 students, nearly all of whom are Hispanic, has a college-preparatory Cambridge Academy magnet program.
鈥淵ou never want to hold a kid back,鈥� Pizzimenti-Bradshaw says.
And each high school offers Advanced Placement courses or dual-enrollment programs with local institutions of higher education.
But the top-level view of Miami-Dade as a district offers only one perspective. Another view of the district鈥檚 work with English-language learners can be found in Leidy Vargas鈥� 1st grade class at the 1,300-student Kensington Park Elementary. The school, about 97 percent Hispanic, has 700 English-language learners at varying levels of proficiency, says principal Genaro Navarro.
Classroom View
In Vargas鈥� classroom, the students come in with little or no proficiency in English, and sometimes with little or no literacy skills in Spanish鈥攖hough they speak the language, they may not know how to form letters or read.
The combination makes for some quiet days at the very beginning of the school year, Vargas says. She says she uses Spanish in the very beginning, but adds a small fib: 鈥淚 tell them my Spanish is not very good, so they鈥檙e forced to speak to me in English.鈥�
鈥淚 tell them, this is a family,鈥� she adds, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e not here to make fun of anybody.鈥�
Vargas says she identifies with her students because of her own experience. She moved to Miami-Dade from Cuba when she was in 2nd grade, and her teachers did not speak Spanish. 鈥淚 was a struggling student in the beginning,鈥� she says.
Now, her classroom is a riot of text, with English labels on everything, from the closet to the teacher鈥檚 desk to the restroom. By January, she says, those shy students of a few months earlier have been transformed. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like they鈥檙e a new set of students,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 see the jump.鈥�
Some have learned English well enough that Vargas recommends them for the school鈥檚 dual language program, which educates English- and Spanish-speaking students in both languages.
Reaching Teenagers
Jorge Euceda, who teaches 7th and 8th grade students at the 1,015-student Citrus Grove Middle School, also works with students with barely any English skills, and often limited Spanish skills. It鈥檚 harder, though, for the older students to break through their fear of trying a new language, he says. So, he enlists the other students to help.
After the first few days of class, 鈥渋f a student says something to me in Spanish, I say, 鈥業鈥檓 sorry, I don鈥檛 understand you,鈥欌�� Euceda says. Then he sends the student off to one of his or her peers for help.
鈥淭here鈥檚 always someone who knows a little more language than the one who comes in,鈥� he says. The student giving help feels proud to be considered a classroom leader, and the student who gets the help learns more about his or her classmates, Euceda says.
Euceda doesn鈥檛 place labels on objects in his classroom as teachers of younger students often do. He takes advantage of technology,
however, to give students a visual of vocabulary words. During a recent lesson on words that have the root 鈥渕orph,鈥� he sent students to the classroom computers or asked those with smartphones to search for a picture that could be linked to 鈥渁morphous.鈥�
His students need several different methods to fix vocabulary words in their minds; that requires careful lesson scaffolding, he says, in which he builds on previous knowledge.
Citrus Grove once had an academic program that allowed students to be taught some regular subjects, such as social studies, in their home language. Euceda says he recommended the school do away with it, and immerse thechildren in regular English as soon as possible.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tough on them, but if you鈥檝e got to learn the language, you鈥檝e got to live in that language,鈥� he says.
The Citrus Grove principal, Emerce Ladaga, agrees that the change has 鈥渢otally helped with language acquisition,鈥� as has an admonition from teachers to speak only English with students.
Sheltering 69传媒
The district still maintains some classes that offer basic subject instruction purely in Spanish for secondary students who have very low English proficiency, but such a program is expensive, says Beatriz Pereira, the executive director ofthe district鈥檚 division of bilingual education and world languages. A school has to have at least 25 students at the same proficiency level, plus a teacher who is qualified in the subject area and in teaching English as a second language.
The double dosing of English used in most Miami-Dade schools is more cost-effective, 鈥渁nd I really feel we鈥檙e getting good results,鈥� Pereira says.
How to incorporate a student鈥檚 home language into academic life is an area of active research across the country, says Claude Goldenberg, a professor of education at Stanford University who focuses on academic achievement among language-minority youths.
What Miami-Dade is using is a type of 鈥渟heltered instruction,鈥� inwhich students who are learning English are grouped together in language arts classes, Goldenberg says. The 鈥渟heltering鈥� of those students is from competition with proficient English-speakers.
Many school districts use that technique, but one broad concern some have with it is that 鈥渨hen you shelter the instruction, you also water it down,鈥� Goldenberg says.
鈥淣o one purposely wants to offer watered-down instruction, but that鈥檚 a potential risk,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you keep English-learners in sheltered instruction too long, you鈥檒l be depriving them of high-level, rigorous content.鈥�
Miami-Dade tries to avoid that problem by offering most students sheltered instruction only in language arts, for a limited time. Rosa Castro Feinberg, the former school board member, says that districts without the community resources of Miami-Dade could look to a Mexican or Spanish consulate for help with curricula, such as the Plaza Comunitaria program sponsored by the Mexican government. They could also invest in parent training and consider drawing Spanish-speaking teachers from other countries or from Puerto Rico, she says, and train them until they can 鈥済row their own.鈥�
But a broader goal for all districts, in Castro Feinberg鈥檚 opinion, is to look at language diversity as a benefit to the community.
鈥淎ccept the principle that the home language is a resource. And put it to work on behalf of the students,鈥� she says.
