Spanish-Speaking Students Talk About Their Education with Framingham Superintendent

Parent group “La Voz de la Comunidad - Framingham” (Community Voice of Framingham) met Wednesday night with Framingham Superintendent of SchoolsStacy Scott, Chief Academic Officer Sonia Diaz, Director of Bilingual Education Gen Griece, Fuller Middle School Principal Sharon Seyller, Fuller English Language Arts Coordinator Lori DiGisi and Fuller math coordinator Barbara Rappaport and Brophy Elementary School and Fuller teachers.

Parents and elementary, middle and high school students shared testimonies of their children’s experiences in the Framingham public schools.

Parent leader Sandra Perez and her daughter Kateryn Perez who moved from Colombia to Framingham, a year and a half ago both shared their stories.

Kateryn studied at Brophy Elementary for several months last year and was in the Transitional Bilingual Education program. Able to study academic material in her native language as well as take electives, like gym and art, in English, Kateryn thrived in school, became accustomed to her new environment and learned English.

However, Kateryn struggled this past school year at Fuller Middle School in the SEI program where she was suddenly immersed in English only classes except for a literacy class in Spanish.

Sandra said that even though Kateryn has completed a year of SEI, she would place Kateryn back in TBE until both she and her daughter feel she is ready to transition to all English classes.

Sonia, a mother of three in Framingham, told her story of being a new student in sixth grade and how she benefited from bilingual education in her East Boston middle School.

Sonia is also the guardian and cousin of Rosita who attended all English classes in elementary schools in Chelsea and Lawrence, however when she moved to Framingham, testing administrators suggested that she go into Fuller’s bilingual education program because her reading and writing in English and Spanish were not strong enough. Rosita attended sixth grade in bilingual education and flourished. By the next year, Rosita was able to attend and excel in all English classes. She is now a student at Regis College.

Omar and Olga Pocon are brother and sister who arrived to Framingham four months ago. Olga completed her first year at Framingham High School and testified that she would like bilingual education for her brother since she was able to receive it at the high school. Omar attended one month in Brophy and will attend Fuller this year. They have told me that the classes in middle school will be difficult since the classes are in English. They will teach me in all English except for my literacy class in Spanish. I am worried because if the teachers speak in English, I won’t understand anything and I won’t like my classes like in Guatemala. I won’t learn English or the content. I won’t want to go to class. In Fuller, I would like my classes to be half in Spanish and the other half in English. And when I am ready, I will go to all English classes.

Daniela and Dariana are sisters who moved to Framingham a year and a half ago. Dariana completed half a year of third grade and a full year of 4th grade while Daniela completed half a year of first grade and a full year of third grade. While Daniela could possibly be competent in conversational and academic English, her sister Dariana might not be ready to have all her content classes in English when she goes to Fuller next year.

Click here to watch video of Daniela speaking

Dariana said, ”I like my classes [in Brophy] because I understand the information more. If they were in English, I wouldn’t understand. Right now, I’m learning English. When I know more English, then I’ll be ready for classes only in English. Maybe I will be ready in middle school. I would like the option of classes in Spanish in the future. Also if other students from other countries come to middle school and there aren’t classes in Spanish, they won’t understand nor learn the material well.”

Superintendent Scott, Chief Academic Officer Diaz and Director of Bilingual Education Grieci announced that FPS administration and the Fuller administration are committed to bring back the Transitional Bilingual Ed (TBE) program for Fuller 6th, 7th and 8th grade.

TBE program will offer mathematics, science and literature in students’ native languages: Portuguese or Spanish while ELD (English Language Development), other core classes and electives will be in English.

The SEI program will still be available for parents wishing to opt out of TBE and have students take all classes in English with the exception of literacy in the student’s language.

When students return to school this year as well as for newcomer students throughout the school year, there will be a TBE program for 6th grade native Spanish speakers.

A Portuguese teaching assistant for native Portuguese speakers in 6th grade. 7th and 8th graders will only have teaching assistants in their native languages in the classroom this fall.

The Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer Diaz and Director of Bilingual Education Griece commented that the school district has funding but they are currently searching for qualified Spanish and Portuguese bilingual staff to teach 7th and 8th graders in the content areas of math and science.

Fuller Middle School eliminated the original TBE program in 2010 and MCAS data from 2011-2014 shows achievement in middle school scores in Math and English Language Arts dropped drastically.

The parents of La Voz de la Comunidad responded, ”We are excited that the Superintendent, FPS administrators, and Fuller school administration and teachers came to our meeting and listened to our parents’ and students’ testimonies. We are very happy to hear that the Superintendent and his team are committed to bring back the Transitional Bilingual Ed program to Fuller for 6th, 7th and 8th grade as soon as possible. The TBE program will help our students get accustomed to their new home, new school environment and language- keeping up in academic material in Spanish while learning English. We are excited to hear that 6th grade Spanish speakers will be able to have a TBE program. Of course as parents, we prefer that all Spanish and Portuguese speaking students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade have the TBE program because we’re worried that the upcoming and recently arrived throughout the school year Portuguese speaking 6th graders and Spanish speaking 7th and 8th graders will not be able to benefit from TBE program, fall behind in classes and become overwhelmed, depressed and uninterested in school. We look forward to a quick and efficient hiring process or re-assignment of current bilingual math and science teachers at Fuller to the TBE classes. Students like Kateryn Perez, who shared her story for the first time at last night’s meeting, will not have access to the TBE program as a 7th grader. We hope all students in each grade have access to the TBE program as soon as possible, preferably within 2-3 months. We are committed to help the administration and school as much as possible. At our meeting, we invited FPS and Fuller administration to meet in a month to visit how the process is going and we look forward to it. We want the best education and learning environment for our children and city and are ready to work together to help Fuller staff, teachers, parents and students.”

La Voz de la Comunidad is a volunteer membership-based group of immigrant parents, family and community members dedicated to supporting our children and education and building our voice in the schools and in Framingham. Our priorities are outreach, organizing, and advocacy around immigrant rights and education.