2017 Bilingual Education Recommendation Committee

This school year the Walla Walla School District Board of Directors directed district administration to continue facilitating a thorough review of the current Bilingual Education Program. The district’s bilingual education program primarily consists of a dual-language approach. This locally-supported, research-based and highly-regarded model brings together English and Spanish speaking students in mixed language classrooms beginning in kindergarten. The desired outcome is participating students become bilingual in both languages.

Despite levels of program successes, the Board requested that the district identify and recommend program-wide improvements to address many concerns and deficiencies expressed by parents and staff alike over recent years. In order to ensure a thoughtful and inclusive process, an application period was advertised in order to develop a diverse committee of parents and staff to oversee the review and recommendation process. The committee was charged with developing recommendations by early March 2017 for program improvements based on the following criteria: research-based to best support the needs of English Language Learners (ELL’s); are financially sustainable and programmatically viable; ensure optimal learning environments for students who choose not to participate in bilingual programming; and attempt to capitalize on the opportunity to expose second language acquisition skills to native English language speakers, when feasible.

The Board of Directors has fielded numerous concerns from parents, staff, and community in recent years.

Program improvement focus areas:

• Increasing performance outcomes for non-English speaking students. For example, the district’s Hispanic/Latino students continue to struggle in English proficiency attainment as they mature through school, lagging behind both their non-Hispanic WWPS counterparts as well as Hispanic state averages in state testing, college entrance exams, and post-secondary remediation rates.
• The “traditional” or single strand English-only classrooms (e.g. non-dual classrooms at Edison and Sharpstein) continue to be highly problematic as reported by staff and parents due to factors such as larger class sizes, high number of special population students, inability to separate and/or move students, and long-term student “tracking.”
• There are an increasing number of “Heritage” Hispanic/Latino students who are struggling in the current dual programing. Often 2nd and/or 3rd generation students, these are pupils entering kindergarten who may struggle in both English and Spanish, or who have stronger English than Spanish skills despite their Hispanic/Latino heritage.
• Modest numbers of native English speaking students on the “English side” of dual are struggling to meet and/or maintain grade-level academic standards in English as they progress in age.
• Student performance/success varies between bilingual programs at schools due to differences in program delivery, student entrance criteria, and student demographics, creating discrepancies in program outcome when students exit elementary school.
• With current programming spread across four of the six elementary schools to varying degrees, lack of program continuity/alignment, curriculum, collaboration, and professional development continues to be problematic.

The Bilingual Education Committee has met more than a dozen times. There have been multiple parent meetings (in English and Spanish) and numerous surveys to staff, parents, and current/former students. Members have visited classroom and researched best-practice models across the state.

After six months of extensive study, research, and outreach, the Bilingual Committee has identified three program options to best meet the Board of Directors Charge while addressing many of the deficiencies in current programming. The committee presented an update to the Board of Directors Tuesday, February 7, 2017, and will meet as a committee on Wednesday, February 8, 2017 with the intention of finalizing specific program models to be shared with staff, parents, and stakeholders the week of February 13 for further feedback.

Visit our website to read more about the models for consideration, the extensive work of the committee, and how you can provide input at upcoming school site meetings and through additional survey opportunities.

• 2017-03-07 Board Meeting Presentation
  • 03.07.17 SB 05 SPEC PROG.ACTION Bilingual Prog Final Recommendation.pdf
• 2017-02-28 Survey Input
  • Spanish Responses for All Questions.pdf
  • Slow Implementation Comments.pdf
  • Moderate Implementation Comments.pdf
  • Fast Implementation Comments.pdf
  • Comments for Sharpstein.pdf
  • Comments for no Preference of School.pdf
  • Comments for Edison.pdf
• 2017-02-28 Board Meeting Presentation
  • 2017.02.28 BERC Board Update.pdf
• 2017-02-13 & 16 Parent Meeting Presentation
  • Reuniones.para.padres.Febrero.pdf
  • February Parent Mtgs Presentation.pdf
• 2017-02-08 Meeting
  • BERC10_Feb8.pdf
• 2017-02-07 School Board Update
  • Bilingual Brd Mtg Update_Feb 8_Final_Presentation.pdf
• 2017-02-03 Survey Input
  • Parent Input on Initial Two Concepts_Spanish Summary.pdf
  • Parent Input on Initial Two Concepts.pdf
• 2017-01-25 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 9.January 25.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 9.January 25.English.pdf
• 2017-01-24 Listening Session
  • BERC Parent Session.01.24.17.pdf
• 2017-01-19 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 8.January 19.pdf
• 2017-01-12 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 7.January 12.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 7.January 12.English.pdf
• 2017-01-06 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 6.January 6.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 6.January 6.English.pdf
• 2016-11-30 Survey and Listening Session
  • Spanish Parent Bilingual Education Survey.pdf
  • Parent Bilingual Education Survey.pdf
  • BERC Listening Session- November 30.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Listening Session- November 30.English.pdf
  • 2016.11.30 Staff Input_Bilingual Programming.pdf
  • 2016.11.30 Parent Input_Valued Aspects of Programming.pdf
  • 2016.11.30 Parent Input_Programming Concerns.pdf
• 2016-11-02 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 5 November 2 Presentation.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 5 November 2 Meeting.SummaryQuestionsWonderingsfromBilingualVisits_Oct28.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 5 November 2 Meeting.Summary of Wonderings and Conclusions from Oct 26.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 5 November 2 Classrooms.pdf
• 2016-10-26 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 4 October 26.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 4 October 26.English.pdf
• 2016-10-12 Meeting
  • BERC Meeting 3 October 12.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 3 October 12.pdf
• 2016-09-28 Meeting
  • White Paper April 27 2016 final review.pdf
  • Program Models.Spanish.pdf
  • Program Models.pdf
  • Funding & Dual Language Models 2016-17.Updated.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 2 Sept 28.Spanish.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 2 Sept 28.pdf
• 2016-09-14 Meeting
  • Fact Sheet Spanish.pdf
  • Fact Sheet.pdf
  • Bilingual Program terms Spanish.pdf
  • Bilingual Program terms.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 1 Sept 14.pdf
  • BERC Meeting 1 Sept 14 Spanish.pdf