Beginning in the fall, Cal High will no longer offer any English Language Development (ELD) classes for non-native speakers, district administrators said.
Instead, these students will have the option of joining other students in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District for a more comprehensive program at Dougherty Valley High, said Toni Taylor, the district’s director of educational services.
The ELD program, formerly known as English as a Second Language (ESL), is designed to help students whose English is not yet proficient, as well as foreign exchange students staying for shorter periods of time.
Next school year, all ELD classes will be moved to Dougherty in order to provide more opportunities for English learners, said Taylor, noting Dougherty has the most ELD students in the district.
The decision is completely voluntary, and students will be given a choice to either stay at their current schools or to move. For those who stay, help from teachers will still be provided.
“Each high school has a relatively small population of ELD students, so the idea is, by concentrating, they have a better support system and larger classes,” said Cal High ELD teacher Jessica Heagle.
The idea was inspired by a program at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek.
“We visited, did some research, and realized we could offer a really strong program for language learners if we took resources and concentrated them into one location,” said Taylor.
This way, different levels of instruction can be offered to students who need either more or less support for learning English. The new Common Core standards will also be more easily met by teachers trained to help students do so.
“We could offer not just English classes, but also more structured support [to ELD students] in all classes throughout the day,” said Taylor.
The district will provide buses for students to get to Dougherty, a few miles east of Cal. Coincidentally, many of the district’s ELD students already live near Dougherty.
At Cal, the current ELD program has 35 students, and it is designed to help all students who are still in the process of learning English. There are only two ELD courses offered. Students take them depending on their proficiency.
The decision to move the ELD classes to Dougherty, not the students in the program itself, could possibly affect about 20 of the 35 ELD students at Cal, Heagle said.
District-wide, around 60 high school students are eligible to move, Taylor said. Only beginning and early intermediate students would have the option of moving, and the rest will remain at their current schools, taking regular English classes.
The students in Cal’s ELD classes have begun to discuss whether or not to move.
“I think the general consensus is to stay,” said Heagle.
A few students really resent the change.
“It’s really sad because some students really need this class,” said junior Daniela Medina, a foreign exchange student from Chile. “I’ve grown really close to the people in my class, and it’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of diversity, people from everywhere, and I learn things every day about different countries.”
Sophomore Alton Yue, who enjoys the current ELD classes as well, expressed his reservations about the change, too.
“I just came here two months ago,” said Yue. “My English is not that good, but I don’t want to go to DVHS.”
On the other hand, freshman Parsa Rezaei and junior Kevin Yan, were unsure of their stance regarding the decision.
“It kind of depends on how much time it takes to get [to Dougherty],” said Rezaei.
But he had specific reasons for staying at Cal next year.
“I like the school and I have many friends at Cal High,” said Rezaeim who plans to take English 10.
For those who do choose to move to Dougherty next year, they have the option of moving back to Cal if they have trouble adjusting or once there is no longer a language barrier.
Ari Anugroh, a Cal parent, wants her son, Muhammad, to remain at Cal for a stable environment.
“He has found some new friends and developed a good relationship with teachers and school staff at Cal High,” said Anugroh, who fears sending her son to a new school would make him uncomfortable.
Because information about the change has just been sent to parents, Heagle says there have been no complaints yet, but she expects some.
Cal’s two ELD courses Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) and ELD, have been well-received. SDAIE is similar to ninth and tenth grade English, and the ELD class focuses more on grammar and vocabulary.
Senior Charlie Perschau, who lives with Chilean foreign exchange student junior Diego Moyano believes the ELD classes have been very helpful for Moyano since enrolling.
“He spoke barely any English,” said Perschau. “Now, he’s 100 percent fluent.”
English teacher Donna Montague thinks Cal’s ELD classes are part of a very strong program. and wants it to stay.
“My main reason is that we have such a successful program,” said Montague. “I feel like this is home base.”
Both of the classes are taught by Heagle, who will stay at Cal because of the other Spanish classes she teaches. Heagle is torn about the decision to relocate ELD classes to Dougherty.
“They have a larger-targeted support,” Heagle said, “but students have already established a community, have friends, and are close to home.”
