Nuestro Mundo Community School Project, a committee made up of educators and community members, has set a proposal before the Madison Metropolitan School District asking permission to start a Spanish/English-immersion charter school.

According to Debra Gill-Casado, a member of the committee and a social-studies teacher at Madison Memorial High School, the aim of an immersion school is to begin teaching early education nearly exclusively in the target language until the students are completely bilingual.

Gill-Casado said that ideally half of the students would begin as monolingual Anglophones, or English speakers, and the other half would begin as monolingual Spanish speakers.

“The French-Canadians have been doing this type of education very successfully for 20 years,” Gill-Casado said. “Here, all of the students are surrounded by English from very early on. The Latino students learn quickly–many with very little English deficiency.

“Currently, in Madison, Spanish-speaking students receive Spanish instruction until they reach a level of English proficiency in the classroom. In the immersion school, they receive all instruction in both languages, and they can read and write equally in both. It’s much better.”

Gill-Casado said the immersion school is not intended only for Latino students.

“For Latinos, it builds on their strengths in the beginning,” she said. “For the Anglo students, in the end, they can read, write and speak in two languages also–something they might not have been able to do otherwise.”

Ruben Medina, University of Wisconsin professor of Spanish and Chicano Studies, agreed with Gill-Casado.

“Caucasian English-speakers would benefit the most,” he said. “Caucasians who can speak Spanish have opportunities in jobs, communications, and it shows that they care. They are able to know about their neighbors, and they can have racial and cultural relations.”

In response to claims that students who graduate from bilingual high schools have deficient English skills, Medina said she thinks it is important to teach both languages without favoring one over the other.

“It’s about how you implement that pedagogical approach. With proper skills, there should not be a problem,” she said.

English and grammar skills are not initially high compared to those of students attending traditional schools, Gill-Casado said. However, she said the differences soon equal out.

“By the fifth grade, both languages are equal,” she said.

Medina said a common problem among Latino students is a language barrier between their parents and their teachers.

“Latino parents often don’t speak English,” Medina said. “They often have different work schedules than middle-class white parents. School meetings are not in Spanish–the schools need to make the extra effort.

“Five years ago, my son’s school meetings started being translated for the Hmong- and Spanish-speaking parents. They’re attending the meetings and following the discussions, sharing their ideas. Latinos and Mexicans want to learn English and integrate into society.”

UW sophomore Sergio Gonzales disagreed. He said he felt the responsibility to teach the importance of learning a language belongs to parents, not the school system.

“It’s through the parents that the child learns he needs to learn English,” Gonzales said. “Too many Latino parents don’t care. They send their kids to school, but when they get back home they don’t care. They don’t implement study habits because they don’t care.”

Gonzales, whose family moved to the United States from El Salvador 11 years ago, is majoring in Spanish and education. His family speaks Spanish at home.

Gill-Casado said the Madison school district currently uses a transition style of English instruction, and Latino students are given language instruction until they are able to perform with their English-speaking peers in the classroom.

She asserted that an immersion-style school might eliminate situations in which linguistically capable students with Spanish surnames are needlessly placed in programs designed to give students extra help with English.

“Institutional gaps do exist–even in Madison,” Gill-Casado said. “People try to identify students who may need help with the language, and, unfortunately, they are not always sensitive to differences.”

The school committee plans to write its proposal for the Madison School Board next year, raising money for its project and addressing the concerns of school-board members.

In fall 2003, if the proposal is accepted, the committee will begin hiring and training teachers and faculty in order to open the school in 2004. Should the school’s funding be granted, it plans on opening as a pre-kindergarten through first-grade school, adding one grade each year until fifth grade.