Dear friends,
For others who may also be interested in language rights issues and multilingual education, FYI...
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James Walsh
Star Tribune
Published Jan. 20, 2003
Tong Xiong is a little guy with big plans.
Not only is the 7-year-old going to help his classmates learn some of his native Hmong language this spring, he said he's going to get better at it as well. In the process, officials at Phalen Lake Elementary School in St. Paul figure that Tong's and other students' achievement will skyrocket.
In a move to appease increasingly influential Hmong parents, retain students and respond to research that shows kids do better if they learn in their native tongue as well as English, Phalen Lake will integrate Hmong language and culture into its everyday curriculum starting in April. National experts say it may be the first traditional elementary school to do that.
Starting as a pilot program, Spanish language and culture also will be offered to students at the East Side neighborhood school as part of a World Cultures and Languages enrichment program.
School officials acknowledge that they are trying to keep Hmong parents from fleeing to nearby Hope Academy Charter School, a Hmong-centered program.
But parents at Phalen Lake -- where 45 percent of the students are Asian -- and Hmong community leaders applaud the move as a step forward in learning. Many fear their children are losing the core of their cultural identity.
Lee Pao Xiong, president and CEO of the Urban Coalition and a Hmong community leader, said the St. Paul schools are responding to the needs of a rising community. One out of every three children in the St. Paul public schools is Asian -- many of them Hmong.
"It's an acknowledgment that you have a significant population," Xiong said. "It's an acknowledgment that you need this type of service. And, guess what? They're taxpayers."
It's also an acknowledgment, he said, that Hmong voters were a key to the success of the district's recent excess-levy proposal. In a district that has no Hmong school principals and few Hmong administrators, Xiong said, infusing this program into Phalen Lake's regular curriculum shows a greater respect for the needs of Hmong students and the importance of their parents.
"In the back of their mind, the school district knows they're losing students to charter schools," he said. "This is a way for them to keep those children. I hope it will be a permanent commitment and not just a response to a declining enrollment."
This is no add-on, after-school or "extra" program, Principal Jan Hopke-Almer said. Phalen Lake's 640 students will get to study Hmong or Spanish language and culture for 50 minutes of regular class time, two days a week. Vocabulary and concepts that students are learning in their regular classes will be reinforced and taught in their language classes, helping them better connect what they're learning in English to their native language.
"We just think it's a wonderful fit," she said.
An unusual move
Except for charter schools, no other U.S. public school apparently is integrating Hmong language with its regular curriculum, a researcher at the Education Commission of the States said.
While the school has translated much of its curriculum into Spanish to help Spanish-speaking students in English Language Learner programs, Hopke-Almer said, Hmong students have had to learn only in English. Now, she said, teachers will be able to explain vocabulary, concepts and problems in Hmong and English -- a strategy that research shows helps Asian students accelerate their learning.
Starting April 21, kindergarten through third-grade students will be offered the language and culture enrichment. Next fall, all students in grades 4 through 6 will receive the instruction of their choice two days a week. Eventually, Hopke-Almer said, all students will be able to take the curriculum at the same time. A survey of parents and students shows that about as many families plan to take Hmong as those who want to learn Spanish.
Eager to learn
Astre Munguia, 7, only spoke Spanish when she first walked through Phalen Lake's doors as a kindergarten student. Now a wise second-grader, she figures she's mastered English and is ready for Hmong.
"I already know a lot of languages," she said. "I want to talk to anybody."
Ciearra Payne is champing at the bit to learn "Español." The 7-year-old already greets teachers in the halls with "Hola." Why is she so hyped to learn Spanish?
"My sister already knows a lot of Español," she said. "My dad keeps asking me, 'When are you going to learn Spanish language? Because I want to learn some words, too.' "
Hispanic and Hmong parents are pleased that their children will have a better chance to retain their culture and customs, said Thao Lor Lee, a Hmong parent liaison at the school who also has a child in kindergarten there. And Xiong has heard the complaints of older Hmong parents frustrated that their teenage children speak "Hmonglish" -- a stylized conglomeration they cannot understand.
But Lor Lee said parents also are just jazzed at the prospect of their children heading down the road to trilingualism. Her child, she said, will take the Spanish program "because I teach Hmong at home."
Xiong praised St. Paul Superintendent Patricia Harvey and Mo Chang, Harvey's special projects coordinator, for making the program happen. Chang, a product of the St. Paul schools who has a master's degree in teaching and learning, approached Hopke-Almer with the idea in August.
St. Paul has French immersion schools and Spanish immersion schools. Those languages and German are offered in the junior highs and high schools, Chang said. The time has come for Hmong to become a full-fledged part of the St. Paul schools, she said.
"I think it's very important that we, at the school district, look at how to meet the needs of our population," she said. "But the intent is not just for Hmong students, but to promote the culture among all students."
Hopke-Almer said 85 percent of Phalen Lake parents surveyed said they support adding the languages and culture curriculum. The school has been using the Core Knowledge curriculum, a specific body of facts about American history and culture, world civilizations and geography. Test scores have steadily risen, she said, to at or near state standards. Fifth-grade writing scores are in the top 20 percent statewide.
This program will become one of those Core Knowledge areas, she said.
For Chong Moua and Fou Cheng, 5-year-olds and pals in Jan Callahan's kindergarten class, the best part of the deal might be learning the vocabulary to describe the emperor penguins they were laughing about in a book they couldn't yet read. As they work to master a new language while still getting comfortable in their own, they might provide the best sign that this dual-language approach could work.
"I like school," Chong said.
"Me, too," said buddy Fou.
-- James Walsh is at jwalsh who-is-at startribune.com.
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