Carrying signs that read “Washington Parents for Choice” and “Keep our neighborhood school,” about 150 community members gathered before the Evanston/Skokie School District board Monday night to protest a plan that might prevent their children from attending Washington Elementary School.
If the board accepts a committee’s recommendations, Washington Elementary School would become the only site for Two Way Immersion (TWI), which has been the district’s experimental bilingual program since 2000.
Most of the 30 residents who addressed the board opposed the recommendations, saying a “bilingual magnet” school would displace the majority of students in the area. Many parents said they live near Washington so their children can attend the school.
“TWI is not the right choice for every student — we need to look at the district as a whole,” said Charles Peters, of 1217 Lee St., an Evanston resident and parent of two Washington students. “In order to improve education for (Limited English Proficiency) students, we don’t have to destroy a neighborhood school.”
After the Transitional Bilingual Program (TBE) failed to improve student achievement, the district adopted TWI in 2000 as an experimental replacement, said Dawn Gale, co-chairwoman of the bilingual education committee.
Starting in kindergarten, students are taught primarily in Spanish, and English is introduced gradually as they progress through the grades. By fourth grade, class is taught half in Spanish, half in English.
“They don’t teach Spanish as curriculum,” Gale said. “They teach the district’s curriculum in Spanish.”
Currently, there are two schools using TWI — Washington, 914 Ashland Ave., and Orrington Elementary School, 2636 Orrington Ave.
If the board accepts the proposal, incoming students at Washington will have to choose between the TWI program at Washington or attending one of the nearby neighborhood schools.
Some parents believe that the TWI classrooms are less helpful for English-speaking students because many parents cannot provide the at-home support in Spanish.
Beatrice McKenna, who is a native speaker of French and whose children are bilingual, noted the difficulties of keeping her children bilingual at home.
“I believe in bilingual education,” she said. “But the TWI program does not have the parent commitment it needs.”
Parents of Spanish-speaking students support the proposal to expand TWI because it allows their students a better chance to integrate into the school system.
Evanston resident Jorge Escobar said his son Esteban was finally accepted into the TWI program at Orrington a few weeks ago. Escobar said his son’s first words when he came home were “they speak like us at school.”
Likewise, Evanston resident Rose Garcia noted a difference in her daughter’s performance in school when she switched from TBE to TWI.
“She is learning both languages at the same time,” she said. “She is social, she is motivated, and she is happy in school.”
Garcia said she came to the meeting to represent all the Latino parents who support the proposed expansion of the TWI program.
The earliest the board could vote on the recommendation is Feb. 18.
