I am turnng this in today.

I interviewed Dr. John Sellarole, who is currently a professor for San Jose State, but he was an administrator in various capacities for East Side Union District for more than thirty years, many of them were spent as principal at Independence High School. During my interview with him he talked about watching the demographic at the school change considerably. He was principal when the first group of Vietnamese students arrived. He has watched the school go from having a primarily white population and having fewer than 5% of the students be second language learners to being an incredibly diverse campus which holds students who speak 47 languages. At present the school boasts that 36.4% of the population is Hispanic, 19.4% is Vietnamese, 17.1% is Filipino, 12.6% is other Asian groups, 9.5% is White, 4% is African American, and the other remaining 1% is American Indian or other. This is remarkable diversity even for the bay area. It was his belief that this school is largely a representation of the world and the educational needs of this school are indicative of what will be needed generally speaking in the future. He did not know the exact percentage of students who were second language learners, but indicated that it was extremely high and the demographics would serve to support that assertion.
The process for enrolling new students at this school is quite typical for California at this time. Students and their parents have to fill out an array of forms and students who are identified as not having English as a first language are given language exams to determine their placement. The Home Language Survey is given long before a schedule is even considered. The CELDT is given by members of the office staff and there is a loose sort of committee that goes over the results of the exam to determine the best placement for students. The student is assigned to a counselor pretty much immediately and that counselor works with the student and his or her parents to determine the best schedule for the child. The teachers are informed about the students status in a somewhat haphazard way because they are not pulled in on discussions of placement. There are several fairly distinct levels for student language proficiency and teachers largely know about the proficiency of their students simply by having them assigned to their class.
The school has an amazing ESL program that technically has three levels but in practice has more based on the quantity of classes available and the fact that there are many options for students. There is not a bilingual program in place though it has been attempted in the past. This administrator was very adamant in his support of English only education. There are many SDAIE classes available for students, though it is highly unlikely that a student will remain in SDAIE all the way through school. It is in fact looked at as a failure on the part of the teachers. While Dr. Sellarole was principal the school offered Spanish and Vietnamese for native speakers and has since added Japanese. The school offers an incredible array of after school tutoring and has many clubs that help students maintain their cultural identity as they become more mainstreamed into general American culture. The school receives Chapter One funding and in fact this administrator was the person who headed the committee to distribute the money in the very first year it was available. He is incredibly in favor of this program in general and feels that it has been a wonderful boon in addition to other sources of low income assistance that the school has. He does not believe that the school has lower class sizes for ESL/SDAIE and this is because the union has fought for low class sizes in general and the teachers in the school have preferred solidarity over favoritism given that the most of the student population is in fact ESL.
The program for redesignating language minority students is quite aggressive and incredibly fabulous in my opinion. Students are reevaluated a minimum of once a year and usually at each semester. This process mostly involves test scores. Students take a variety of tests: SOLOM, CELDT, and the standardized tests. Some students are moved up a level mid-semester if a teacher brings the issue up to an administrator and wants it as long as there is desire on the part of the student and the family. Eventually the school decides that a student is fully English proficient based on test scores and classroom performance, which is admittedly a somewhat sketchy beast. At any point in time parents can elect to influence where their student will be placed anywhere along the continuum from SDAIE to AP. There are no prerequisites for any classes and students are allowed to be put anywhere if a parent wants it. Usually moving a student involves a conference between the parents and an administrator as the administrator tries to talk the parent into the placement that he or she feel is most appropriate; there have been cases where administrators are over-ruled though. The goal throughout this process is to mainstream students as rapidly as possible and encourage their further development of English. This school firmly operates under the principle that only students who are English proficient have a good shot at making it in this country and the school wants to provide it’s students with all the opportunities that it can.
There is one person in charge of the ELD program and that person has a staff of people who are able to go into any classroom and assist as necessary. Primarily, however, the goal is to have each teacher in the school be an expert in ELD students because the population is so diverse that there is no way that every student can be helped by one specialist and the money does not exist to have enough specialists for all. The entire teaching staff goes to frequent training sessions on second language strategies and the decided goal is on having everyone be able to handle the needs of as many students as possible. All teachers were previously required to have CLAD and now that is embedded in the standard credential so there should not be a teacher on the campus who has not had training in ESL/SDAIE techniques.
This administrator thinks that the school is doing a wonderful job with language minority students. He gleefully tells stories of many students who have managed rather remarkable feats. He recalls one girl who entered as a freshman not speaking a word of English and went on to be valedictorian. His stories are so many and so varied that it would easily be a book, not a paper, in order to recall them all. He feels that the schools greatest strength is being able to recognize what a student’s needs are and then go about meeting them. Given the diversity of the staff this is something that is within their capabilities. He feels that the most significant weakness is in the lack of funding to support all of the programs that really should exist. His complaint is one that pretty much all administrators in California share.
I did my student teaching at this school and Dr. Sellarole was my supervisor. I feel that I was incredibly blessed to have had the experience of working at this school. I have nothing but respect for how the school integrates and fully values every student there. I think that their system is the way that all schools will have to be in the future in order to meet the needs of the various people who make up this diverse state. I could not have more admiration for a school than I do for Independence and I know that Dr. Sellarole played a huge part in making the school what it is today. I am so grateful that there are men like him in education.