Dr. Jim Rollins, superintendent of Springdale Public Schools, left, is pictured with Dr. Marsha Jones, Dr. Doug Love and Alex Lopes.
 

Springdale Public Schools in Arkansas meeting challenges of educating English Language Learners
 

By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place

SPRINGDALE, Arkansas — Prevalent use of acronyms in Springdale Public Schools are commonplace these days, evolving out of an influx of thousands of English Language Learners over the past ten years from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Marshall Islands.

Frequently used is Home Language Survey, which is shortened to HLS. There is also ESOL for English Speakers of Other Languages. The above-mentioned English Language Learner is quickened to ELL. Another acronym in common use in Springdale and the nearby Rogers Public Schools is ESL for English as a Second Language.

For a third generation now, such terms have been have proliferated in U.S. public schools. The experience of educating students in English as a Second Language mirrors in Springdale, with its 8,000 English Language Learners, what has been happening in school districts all over the United States. This year, Springdale had an enrollment of 18,188.

“Yokwe,” which is Marshallese for hi, and “Hola,” the Spanish equivalent to hello, are heard in school hallways, neighborhoods near downtown, at the Walmart, in restaurants, dancing and listening to live “norteño” in the Springdale Civic Center on Friday and Saturday nights, in churches on Sunday and, just as important, on jobs Monday through Sunday throughout Northwest Arkansas. This is not life in isolation. Rather, it is a synopsis.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest in the nation, had a total enrollment of 617,798 for 2009-2010. 326,893 were listed as English Language Learners and 86 languages were represented in the student population.

In Las Vegas, the Clark County School District has built 96 new schools and replaced 11 aging schools since 1998. Las Vegas is the fifth-largest school district in the U.S. with 309,476 students enrolled in the 2009-2010 count. 135 languages were represented as of March 2010, according to the district’s English Language Learner Program.

Salt Lake City, with an enrollment of 24,000 this year, has students speaking more than 80 languages as their first language at home.

Springdale has a population of 60,096 and nearby Rogers has 38,829. Those numbers are expected to see a dramatic increase when results of the 2010 U.S. Census are reported, especially if outreach efforts worked successfully.

The building here that houses the administrative offices of the Springdale Public Schools has gone through many uses since it was built in 1910. Nowadays administering the English Speakers of Other Languages Department is intensive, with before-school and after-school and some programs that are year-round. This year, the Home Language Survey was returned with students speaking 38 languages other than English as their first language.

It is common now for dignitaries from the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), in the Pacific Ocean not too far from the Hawaiian Islands, to visit Springdale. An opening ceremony for the General Consulate office was held in September 2009. RMI President H.E. Litokwa Tomeing was among the featured speakers.

Springdale is home to Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest processors and marketers of chicken, beef and pork, is headquartered here. Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer with 2.1 million associates worldwide, is just up Interstate-540 North in Bentonville.

Dr. Elena Izquierdo is the people bridge to Springdale. The school district was mentioned during an interview with Izquierdo, professor in the College of Education at the University of El Paso at Texas, and nationally known expert on bilingual education, two-way dual language learning and teaching English as a Second Language. She described Springdale as a progressive district in educating ELL students.

Alliances and programs, as you will see in this article and a companion piece about “Project Teach Them All,” have been designed to advance educating English Language Learners. AmeriCorps, the national network of programs that engages individuals in intensive community service, has sent translators to serve in Northwest Arkansas.
 

Welcome mat is turned out for ‘On the Road: People Bridges to People’
 

Entry into the administration building was met with hello, directions to the second, sit in the high-back chair until Jim is available. “Would you like a bottle of water?” The offer is declined. Al Lopez, community liaison, arrives and introduces himself.

Dr. Marsha Jones, an assistant superintendent, arrives and introduces herself, says, “Can I get you a bottle of water?”

In a moment, Dr. Jim Rollins comes and introduces himself. Any apprehension about a tough-nosed superintendent goes away. He is affable. “Can I get you a bottle of water?” he says. Two-thirds into the interview, Dr. Rollins leaves the room and returns with a bottle of water.

Rollins is originator of the education rally cry “Teach them all,” which nowadays resonates around Arkansas and throughout the nation. He has been superintendent of Springdale Public Schools for the past 28 years.

“I found a place that I love and decided to stay here and serve kids,” he said, responding to a question.

Cynthia Newman, secretary to the superintendent, returned an email requesting an interview with Rollins and Mary Bridgforth, director of the ESOL Department. A second email requested that Al Lopez, community liaison for the district, also be included in the interview.

Lopez is also known as “Papa Rap.” He is a music innovator, radio personality on La Zeta, 99.5 FM and columnist for La Prensa Libre. He has traveled the state and country for the past ten years as a conference presenter and performance artist, advocating better understanding among all people.

Jones, assistant superintendent for instruction (Pre-K through 5); and Dr. Don Love, assistant superintendent for instruction (6 through12), attended the meeting in the superintendent’s office on Monday, March 29, 2010. Bridgforth, conducting business related to defending a doctoral dissertation, did not attend the interview.

Rollins would narrate most the interview in a people friendly style that invited responses from Love, Lopez and Jones. Rollins made an impression, sending away a believer in his leadership of educators and instilling children are first. Some questions were prepared and others grew out of the developing narrative.

When did the school district (year) first notice children enrolling who were English Speakers of Other Languages?

Rollins: “During the last decade, we are about ten years into a significant ESL enrollment. We’ve gone during that time to virtually no ESL children to almost 8,000 today.”

What has been the Springdale Public Schools response to an increase in students who are English Language Learners?

Rollins: “I think we all should have the opportunity to address that, but I think the challenge to public education today is to really personalize teaching and learning. When our ESL children began to move into the district and we were dealing with different languages, then we had to personalize teaching and learning at a much, much, much higher level. We redesigned the way we deliver instruction. We had to continuously grow and develop our own skills in dealing with children from different cultures and different languages and began to really breathe a genuine definition into what it means to get teaching down to the individual child’s level.

“I would summarize in this way. I think we have become a much better school system as we have learned how to deal with children based on their individual readiness to learn.”

Jones: “We ‘teach them all’ whether they are from across the street or across the ocean. Please credit Dr. Rollins with that because that’s where that phrase came from. That’s been our responsibility to teach them all to higher levels of proficiency because our community’s future depends on the performance of these children since they have become such a tremendous component of the total.”

Lopez: “It’s a celebration of people arriving here and making sure we have learned the culture that has arrived. We have learned that not everybody that is here is coming from Mexico. There are different places like El Salvador, Guatemala and the Marshall Islands.

“Learning that culture and celebrating that culture. Making sure we are communicating with the parents to understand we can’t do this without them. I think it has been one of the successes of the district where people really feel connected. The school district for most Latinos in the area, and I am going to speak about Latinos now, the school district is like a sanctuary. This is the place where they can come and feel welcome and feel that we are really reaching out and working together.”

Love: “The old adage about getting better and getting better each year we have ratcheted up across the board how we do business in this district. I think the vitality in this district has something to do with the rapid growth. We have been able to bring in some extraordinarily talented teachers. The teaching pool here is consistent with excellent quality. We have added staff and doubled the size of the district since I have been here. Fifty-five percent of our teachers have Master’s degrees or better. A lot of those teachers received intense instructions with dealing with ESL students.

“That’s one big piece. I think the other piece has been this safe school environment. We have a nurturing district that kids can feel respected in and comfortable in and enjoy coming to school every day. That’s back to what Dr. Jones talked about and that’s the nurturing nature of our work here. The third piece is what Al talked about. The third piece and the one we have really advanced upon in the last few years and that is parent involvement. A lot of our ESL parents are not used to dealing with public schools in their native country. They are not setup the way we are here. We have educated the newly arrived community members.

“When we talk about parent conferences, we still have almost one hundred percent of our parents attending parent conferences. The parents feel welcome coming into the schools and each year gets better.”

What has been the community outreach?

Rollins: “Parent conferences, we were known for this at the high school and junior high levels years ago. That was kind of the centerpiece and then the expectation in every school that parents will attend the parent conference. That is the routine. The extraordinary piece is the Toyota Family Literacy connection. That has just blossomed. Repeatedly you hear from people dealing with educating ESL students that you have to involve the family, the parents. They have to understand what is expected of their students. This program does it like no other program.”

Jones: “We have community support for translators. That’s one kind of practical thing that we have. We have AmeriCorps volunteers that are native language speakers, so that families already welcomed into the school, not just on parent conference day, but anytime with a native language speaker.

“Then all of the public relations work that come out of the radio station to advise parents of their expectations to attend.”

Rollins says to Lopez, “Al, talk about the business leaders coming into the schools interacting with the kids.”

Lopez: “Mentoring programs, working with the Hispanic Council, Hispanic Women’s Organization, making sure they are our partners, making sure they have a pulse of what is happening. We work to keep those relationships real tight. They are among the ones who are going into schools to mentor children. Creating the partnership, we have not waited for people to come ask if they can come and do this. We started the initiative. In other words, we opened the invitation, which is very different from when someone tries to push themselves into a situation. We said, ‘No, no, we need to have your help. You need to be a part of this.’

“The radio station here, it’s just awesome how they have given us that time without any cost. To be able to use that to build bridges to the people and just to connect with them. Mexico people are not used to dealing with the school district. In Mexico, they say to parents, ‘You stay home and we will do the schooling and you do the discipline.’ That’s what we have to change in people’s minds. No, here you are part of that process also. One hundred percent attendance in parent-teacher conferences shows that people have been changing their mindset about that and are coming to the schools.
 

Cultivating resources, Toyota Literacy Family Program, equips parents to be involved in education
 

Rollins: “We are into our second year of the program itself. Last year, in three of our elementary schools, we started a program where we invited the adults, the moms and dads, primarily Hispanic families early on, to come into our schools and spend about four hours, four days a week with us. During that period of time, about an hour and a half, there was an adult education component where the families themselves had an adult education teacher. They were growing their literacy skills, their communication skills, their survival skills from the standpoint of coming into a new culture and really being an active part of it. That took about the first hour and a half for them some days.

“The second component the parents actually went into their children’s classrooms, side by side, and were partners in the learning process. The parents experienced the teaching and learning. They might read books together. It was just an educational component where they were there with their child supporting and encouraging and learning themselves.

“And then the third piece of that, which was obviously a tremendous benefit to the school, armed with a growing literacy base themselves and being in the school and understanding how the school worked and the expectation for their children. That third piece had to do with the partnership at home, helping a child set goals, helping a child with their homework, helping the child come and give their best effort. Out of that program, which we call the Toyota Family Literacy Program, has emerged a success story that I think is one of the finest in the nation.

“It has been featured at family literacy conferences each of the past two years. The real success of that is from the first year when we had only three schools involved in a pilot program. In the second year, we have eight of our schools with this kind of model. In each of the schools, twenty-five parents come in and participate in that general calendar I told you about. In just a few days, we will have representatives from our district at the National Family Literacy Conference in San Antonio sharing their experience. I think this model is one we can transfer anywhere in the country.”

Jones: “Toyota gives grants. That’s where the name comes from.”

Love: “It’s been written up in Parade Magazine.”

Rollins: “It’s just been great seeing the hope and the excitement and the culture-building and the success-orientation in the face of those parents. They have become, obviously, the more they understand about school, the more comfortable they are, the stronger advocates they can be in their community and these are some of the strongest supporters that we have.

“The neat thing is not only is it wonderful for the parents and the families, but the children of those families are performing at a much higher level, doing much better in school than they did prior to the families being a part of their day-to-day school experience. You can read research about how important it is for a parent to be involved in a child’s education, but we are kind of living that research and we are seeing first hand here today and it is a beautiful thing to see.”

Love: “Families are generally from rural Mexico and they have not had any formal education themselves. So even to have a vision for their child to, say, graduate from high school is something that they didn’t arrive at our program with. But as a result of this, not only are we having them set their vision to graduate from high school and beyond. That to be successful citizens you have to have more than just a high school diploma. You are really changing a mindset about what should be the purpose of schooling. These parents are also building their own literacy skills because they are not literate in their native language or in English.”

Rollins: “It is absolutely inspirational to go in and visit and interact with our parents who are part of this program. You see the hope. You see the excitement. You see their joy. You see the respect. You see the human dignity that comes forward both ways. I would be the first to say, I expect for each of us, who have been here and been a part of the school system for many years, are benefitting just as much from our Hispanic families as they are from us.

“We are just growing in our commitment to serve all children at a higher level and you can’t do that by yourself. You have to have moms and dads in the picture with you. To see these families come and give so much of themselves . . . I will tell you this story that shows you how poignant it is:

“Early one morning, before school even started, I arrived at the school where the Toyota Family Literacy Program took place. And the hallways were even dark. I was going to address the group that morning, so I go down the hall, a darkened hall, and I see a figure at the end of the hall. When I get there, there is a Hispanic mom, there before school started, waiting to be a part of the program and to support their child. The mom had worked third shift. In effect, she had worked all night, and she said to me (He has a heartfelt pause.) ‘I will do whatever I can do to help my child to be a great student in school.’ She went on to talk about how much she loved the program. She wanted to be a partner with the school so that her child could be successful so that she could be a learner so that her family would have hope for the future.

“That memory just stays with me every day.”

Lopez: “They are our cheerleaders. If you multiply the number of parents for each school that is participating in the program, they are going out there and telling other parents. In the Hispanic world, the word of mouth is one of the most important things. We tell car salesmen here. If you do wrong business with one, you won’t get another chance to do business with anyone else. That’s how powerful word of mouth is to Hispanic people.”
 

Major employers and expanding economy attract multicultural workers to Northwest Arkansas
 

What are the jobs that brought people here? Was it primarily Tyson Foods and Walmart?

Rollins: “Many smaller companies that are spin-off even from the large corporations are creating entry-level work for many, many families. Our area, as you look back on this last decade, like any community, there will be ebb and flow, if you will, in terms of industrial spikes, but this community has been a part of one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, per capita, during this period of time. There is the commercial side. There is the residential growth side. In that process, you really understand the strength of multiculturalism. So many needs of the community have been satisfied by the families that moved into the district.

“The construction industry felt an enormous benefit from our multicultural families. They came in and brought their trade skills and so forth and every aspect of construction, I think, benefitted. Then there is the manufacturing piece, without question. Over this period of time, we have seen families come into the economic picture from the standpoint of bringing their own small businesses — restaurants and every specialty trade you can imagine.”

How did people from The Marshall Islands get to Springdale?

Rollins: “The Marshall Islands story, the Marshall Islands, the Marshallese, is one of the more interesting stories in the Springdale book. Today, we have over 1,300 Marshallese students in our school district and we understand we have the largest population of Marshallese students outside the Marshall Islands. That ethnic group continues to grow. We have regular visits from the dignitaries from the Marshall Islands.

“The Marshall Islands consulate was set up here in the last year. This, too, is a fascinating story. You ask yourself, well, how did that happen? It may sound like a simple answer, but I think word of mouth is a very important part of this conversation. Families from different countries come to our community and there is a tremendous success orientation here and when families come and have a good experience, they call home. Other family members follow suit.

“It’s been a beautiful thing to be a part of. Like I said, at the heart of this experience, we have seen a school district grow and personalize and get better in our effort to teach all children at high levels. This school district is many fold improved as I look back over the last decade and compare what we were doing then and what we are doing now. We are genuinely trying to teach them all.”

What other programs have grown out of this experience?

Rollins: “In our effort to get better, we have a certified staff of about 1,250 teachers from all backgrounds and different levels of preparation. Some are beginning teachers. Some have Master’s degrees. Some have doctoral degrees, etc. The point is, however, we have all had to put new tools in our toolbox so the capacity-building piece is ever-present. One of the things we are doing now is trying to bring an entire faculty forward — like I said 1,250 certified teachers and another 800 support personnel — with the idea that we are all contributing partners to this educational system.”

Jones: “One of the challenges that Dr. Rollins gave to us is. ‘How can we get teachers prepared, all across the district, K through 12, to work with our second language learners? We searched and the faculty discovered instructional models that encouraged the use of academic language in the classroom. It’s called the Gradual Release of Responsibility. There is a researcher by the name of Doug Fisher, who is the developer of this and the promoter of it. Dr. Fisher is from San Diego State.

“We have been working with him to bring up our level to being able to deliver curriculum through a model of instruction that encourages the use of academic language. If you want to learn a second language, then you need to speak it. The model we are asking all of our teachers to use places the student more in charge of using academic language to gain knowledge and understanding once the teacher has done the basic instruction on what it is to be learned. We also know that in Springdale, Arkansas a student is going to be much better off to have more than one language, but necessarily English in order to able to be a fully invested member of the community.

“This use of both academic language, creating a classroom where English is the language of teaching and learning, builds the students’ capacity to be a full contributor to the community. We are not trying to extinguish their native language. We value their native language and wish we could really have more of a dual-language model. We do recognize the practical side that says you have to be fluent in English if you are going to have the best chance of being invested in our community.

“We try to hire as many dual-language folks as we can. We encourage families to keep the language of their home intact with the children. There is research behind the fact that youngsters who understand their own language will have a better transition into the new language.”

Love: “Some of their best work is done in El Centro, in the Imperial Valley, which is the poorest county in California. A lot of the poor rural kids from Mexico come there for the agricultural jobs. They became a major program to get ESL students into prestigious colleges and universities. The presentation we attended, it was the former superintendent of El Centro and Doug Fisher talking about how they worked hand in hand.

“Their entire faculty, for the most part, was trained on the campus of San Diego State University. What we want out of this professional development is for this to be the way we do business in Springdale. This is the way we deliver instruction. We are putting a lot more technology in there. We are working with curriculum development. We have Spanish for native speakers, classes to re-enforce the Spanish skills. Primarily it is the teachers’ release of some of their responsibility and the students picking that up. We are just a little over two years into this program. You can see it in the classrooms every day that the classrooms are more open and that the students have more ownership in their learning.

“Dr. Rollins started this school year in front of all those teachers and said the days of standing in front of the class and lecturing are over in Springdale. For somebody who has been a high school principal for 18 years, there was a time when someone would have said those are fighting words. Our people realized we couldn’t get the job done doing it the same old way. Our clientele had changed that much, but by the same token, we are finding that all kids are benefiting from this. Our gifted kids, our special education kids, across the board, it’s just good teaching.”

Multicultural outreach programs change mindsets of parents who guide students in seeing college is the destination

Rollins says, “Al speak to our kids from all backgrounds going to college.”

Lopez: “We have college fairs, bringing in people, for example, from the Hispanic scholarship programs. Parents get support through the radio and LaPrensa Libre. Crowder College in Missouri has a migrant program.

[CAMP (College Assistance Migrant Program) is a federally funded program designed to provide an opportunity for students from an agricultural and or migrant background to successfully complete their freshman year of college at Crowder College.]

“Meetings that announce scholarship opportunities are met with a full house. Five or six years ago, probably, we would not have had that because maybe the mentality was to learn English and then go to work. Now parents are beginning to see the value.

“One of our successes here is the language. We have at the high school Spanish for native speakers. That sends such a powerful message. I think when you tell people we only want you to speak this language. We don’t want you to speak that language. That creates a kind of a battle in their hearts and minds. They feel that we are trying to take something away, but when we say, ‘You have the opportunity to be bi-lingual when you graduate. We would love for that to happen.’ When we talk to parents in elementary schools and we say ‘Your child is going to learn English so fast, he might forget Spanish so we are putting it back on you. Then we create the partnership with the public library to make sure we have Spanish books there also. We are continually re-enforcing parents with the idea that it is a wonderful thing for their children to be bilingual.

“Therefore, I think, the parents have taken it real seriously that my child needs to speak English. I am going to make sure he learns because what you bring to this community is strength that it is important. When you talk to people that way, they respond favorably. I speak to people and they feel obligated in a way to say ‘If you are trying to learn my language, I need to learn your language. I think that has been our success to reach out to people to let them know that we celebrate what they bring to this community in the way of culture, in the way of language. We are learning from them also.

“We never had here before Cinco de Mayo. Now we have Cinco de Mayo celebrations.”

Love: “We have the Bilingual Nursing Consortium for early identification of elementary-age and middle school-age students and their parents and this is through a grant. They are educated and work their way up through our nursing professions program at the high school. Then that opens the door for them to get into nursing schools. The medical profession here, being bilingual here, is a golden opportunity for them.

“The other piece at the University of Arkansas, it’s 10 miles down the road, the Fay Jones School of Architecture has been nationally recognized as one of the hidden gems in the United States among architecture programs. It was highlighted this past year in a national publication as having the greatest percentage increase in diversity of any college at the University of Arkansas.

“It was directly attributable to the Springdale High School Architecture and Engineering Academy, where we early identify students in middle grades, students for summer enrichment at the university, feed them into our architectural academy. They get to know the professors while they are still sophomores and juniors. The professors get to see the caliber of their work and the scholarship forthcoming. We have become the major feeder program into that school.

“The Language Academy and IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization), we identified students in grades nine through twelve who were first year in this country and have three area core teachers who work with those students in two-hour blocks. The results have been nothing short of phenomenal. It is a school within school and those students venture forth for one period a day to pick up an elective class. The other time they are immersed in instruction. It is the most caring and nurturing environment that you could imagine. That one received some accolades as of late.

“The International Baccalaureate at Springfield High School totally reflects our diversity, both economic diversity and ethnic diversity. Seventeen students have been awarded $2.2 million in scholarships.

What have been the biggest lessons learned?

Rollins: “There have been a lot of lessons learned. I think the thing that has inspired me the most. Let me speak to my teachers first and foremost. I think our teachers understand that they have to continue to grow and develop their skills, in fact, if they are going to reach every child. It has been absolutely phenomenal. To have seen that and to have been a part of it, to try to support it in whatever way we might, is a phenomenal experience. The commitment of Springdale teachers to teach all kids at high levels is inspirational.

“The power of partnerships has been equally impressive. When you are able to open the doors and take people for who they are and to take their children, no matter what their background, no matter what their readiness to learn might be, and realize that they all have enormous potential and enormous promise and to be a part of a school system, an instructional delivery system that is committed to helping each one of them to be successful in school, is phenomenal.”

Jones: “Make sure we are looking through the lens of what we want to do is to make sure it is not the lens simply of our personal experience. We have to get into a lens that reflects their cultural experience, their orientation to the world and that’s what helped prevent misunderstandings and miscommunications. That’s why it has been for me, personally, to establish close friendships with people who are willing to say, ‘Marsha lets think about this differently. Let’s think about it from a different perspective than your experience base.’”

Lopez: “For me, the lesson learned is, you come into a community, me being a Latino. I felt at one point what is going on, how do I? How do I take sides? Then I realized that the people from this community are wonderful, loving people. At some point, they could have had some fear of change. When they saw it as an opportunity, accepted it as a challenge, things were going to be all right.

“My job is to make sure that the Hispanic—and I hate to say Hispanic because are one community — is to make sure every time Dr. Rollins says something about ‘Teach them all,’ Dr. Love talks to me about a program, or Dr. Jones comes and talks about Toyota, that I say that on the radio. I want people to know what is being talked in the district, so that people can understand that we have more friends here than they can imagine. Now it’s on our part — and when I say on our part, I am going to speak as a Latino — to meet people half way.

“Jump out of that box and go and work with the community. Go and build a home for Habitat for Humanity. Just to do those kinds of things because I want them to know what goes on in the way of reaching out. It goes both ways, so that is what I have learned in the way of making sure I am balanced and just bringing people together. We all benefit from that, especially our children and then eventually our children. That’s the lesson learned.”

Love: “To me, it’s showing that a progressive school district can face challenges and grow and improve and maintain all that that school district was known for before, for the solid academics, for the athletics, the bands and choirs and art programs and all the things that can set a district apart.

“We have been able to incorporate about 8,000 or 9,000, since I have been here, really, since I have been here 16 years. We have been able to incorporate 10,000 new students into this school district. It took us some adjustment. Then I think the flywheel started. I think our district is posed right now to be a district that people will be writing about in a very positive sense — somebody who figured out how to do it and how to do it better.”

Rollins: “In the end, you understand that it is doable. When you have great people, who are committed to serving children from all backgrounds to the highest level and you learn how to build a partnership, you understand teaching them all is a doable thing.”

Dr. Jim Rollins, superintendent of Springdale Public Schools, said "Teach Them All" in leading the effort to educate the district's English Language Learners.