'They get reading, writing, math and science in both languages'
EUGENE, Ore -- Many Spanish-speaking students are still not proficient after five years of learning English in schools. That's according to a report issued Dec. 9 by the Department of Education.
One district that did pass the test is Eugene 4J. A program in Eugene might be the shining star in educating Spanish-speaking kids.
River Road/El Camino del Rio Elementary School is the first in the Eugene-Springfield area to offer dual immersion. Kids spend half the day learning in Spanish, the other half in English.
"They get all the core subjects," said Principal Paco Furlan. "They get reading, writing, math and science in both languages."
The program was extremely popular since day one. All 120 spots are full of students, and there are another 50 on the waiting list.
Furlan considers the school a huge success.
"Really, you only learn how to read once," said Furlan. "So things like phonemic awareness, alphabetic principal, those kind of things, those transfer from one language into another language."
Kevin Gordon's daughter, Avery, is a first grader at El Camino.
"What I have found is that Avery enjoys her subjects in every language and at every level," said Kevin Gordon.
"I taught my little brother how to count in Spanish and now he can sometimes count in Spanish," said Avery.
KVAL News asked Avery if she ever got frustrated during the Spanish half of the day.
"It was at the beginning but not very much anymore," said Avery.
She said her Spanish-speaking classmates helped her out a lot. The school only offers kindergarten and first grade this year. Every year they will add another grade and another class of bilingual learners.
The learning doesn't end in the classroom. Furlan said the parents meet routinely and hold bilingual meetings and some of the moms have formed groups to learn each others language.
