Hundreds Take to Streets in Support of Cesar Chavez Charter School

» SB Local on 11.11.09 @ 07:20 AM

Shut this school down now.
Test scores don’t lie, people do.
California ranks near the bottom of all the states in education.
And this school can’t even rise to those low standards.
Stop being PC and see reality as it is.

» John Locke on 11.11.09 @ 08:52 AM

What is with these people? The school failed standards for three years.  ‘nuff said.

» SCHAT on 11.11.09 @ 09:28 AM

Parents, wake up.  Do everything you can to help your children achieve the BEST they can be.  When I was a teacher in Santa Barbara, parents wanted the best school for their children, they would even fake their address to enroll their child in the best schools.  Now we read an article about parents protesting to keep their children in a low achieving school.  Seek the best for the your children, wake up.

» paloma on 11.11.09 @ 11:32 AM

It is disheartening to read uninformed comments on education and specifically about Bilingual education. The ignorant, racist comments.  There is a whole world out there that speak many languages…People throughout the world speak more than one language this prepares them to deal with the different cultures and are able to communicate in a more informed manner.  Monolingual, English only is not going to cut it in the future or even today…Why deny the children this opportunity…White and Brown children.  Research shows that learning a language fluently takes 6 to seven years, It is reasonable to expect children by 6th grade to have passing to excelling test scores if the children have being in the same school with a consistent curriculum.  Standardized testing does not show high level thinking but it does show average, regular, mediocre achievement.  Read research on bilingual education.  But perhaps people that complain just don’t like Spanish being the second or first language.  What would they say if it was a French or German that was being taught.  Let Cesar Chavez School Teach..
paloma community member

» b_reynaldo on 11.11.09 @ 12:00 PM

“Monolingual, English only is not going to cut it in the future or even today”

Neither will monolingual, Spanish-only.  The English-speaking kids at CCCS already speak English, and are now learning Spanish. The problem is that the Spanish-speaking kids are being coddled in Spanish, and are not learning English rapidly enough.  Thus CCCS is not really dual-immersion, but Spanish dominant.  English is the world-wide language of business, science and technology and we are doing the Latino kids a disservice by not immersing them in it. We are doing the United States a disservice by not demanding assimilation, linguistically and culturally, by its immigrants.

Racism—let’s be honest.  CCCS is really about maintaining and reinforcing Mexican culture in California and is part of Reconquista.

» parent on 11.11.09 @ 12:38 PM

I have a child in 6th grade @ Cesar Chavez Charter School.  Our family is completely English speaking at home.  My child scores above average in every subject and 95+ percentile in a few subjects.  The students take the standardized tests in both English and then again in Spanish.  It takes stamina, but they do it.  My child could probably score a few points higher on the tests in an English-only Hope District School, but there are other things to consider.  I have witnessed these students learn to accept all cultures, support and love each other and learn life lessons that I wouldn’t want them to give up.  My child is now bilingual and I say that is a good thing.  From day one the students help each other and work together in ways that no elementary school I went to ever did.  I would encourage anyone who has taken the time to make hateful or rude comments to take the time to do their homework on this subject.

» Social problems catching up with reality. on 11.11.09 @ 01:52 PM

The illegal immigration chickens are coming home to roost.
The test scores are low because the parents are not doing their jobs to be parents first instead of breeding without the means to support their children and make sure they do their school assignments so they learn appropriately instead of rely on the government schools for everything a parent should do instead.

» Publius on 11.11.09 @ 03:21 PM

There’s plenty of room for innovative education in California. General performance in all schools is embarrassing. Noozhawk should interview Jack O’Connell to find out why. He is paid (a lot) to learn and share the answers, and solve the problems

If the charter school can make it happen, taking a different path, so be it. It’s great!

But there seems to be a big gulf between the School District’s analysis of total test
scores, year by year, and the individual, anecdotal evidence from a few parents who
are thinking with their hearts.

If Caesar Chavez is not cutting it academically by norms that can be measured, and
sustained, compared to other schools, then it is not working as a school, no matter how positive a social experiment it is.

At a time when every California public school student is being short-changed by a
weak economy, large class size, poor English, math, fluency, history, science skills,
there is no longer time or money to spare on experiments that are not working.

The school district staff is providing data they claim show inconclusively that this is
the situation with Caesar Chavez charter school.

If they are deliberately mis-interpreting the data, or providing false data, then they
should be terminated.

But if their test score data and trend lines are accurate, then the total burden is on
the Caesar Chavez charter school to explain why they are not measuring up, and why they shouldn’t be shut down, as (another) well intentioned, expensive failure.

» E_Diaz on 11.11.09 @ 03:50 PM

““Monolingual, English only is not going to cut it in the future or even today”

Neither will monolingual, Spanish-only.  The English-speaking kids at CCCS already speak English, and are now learning Spanish. The problem is that the Spanish-speaking kids are being coddled in Spanish, and are not learning English rapidly enough.  Thus CCCS is not really dual-immersion, but Spanish dominant.  English is the world-wide language of business, science and technology and we are doing the Latino kids a disservice by not immersing them in it. We are doing the United States a disservice by not demanding assimilation, linguistically and culturally, by its immigrants.

Racism—let’s be honest.  CCCS is really about maintaining and reinforcing Mexican culture in California and is part of Reconquista.”

There are so many things that exude utter ignorance in this statement I’m not even sure how to begin.
First,
Let’s talk about languages. Any college professor would tell you that English is NOT the language of “business, science and technology”. You want to talk business, you’d better learn mandarin. You want to talk science and technology you’d better learn German. So kindly realign your ethnocentrism.

Second,
Have you ever been to CCCS? Have you ever sat through a day at school there? If you did, you would know that mornings, that is 8-12 are done in English, in surprise, Language Arts. The afternoons, when most teachers do math, are spent in Spanish, that is from 12:30-3. So look at the hours, you tell me, is the school predominately English or Spanish speaking?

Last,
Let’s talk about the Reconquista. Are you aware of what it was? Simply,the Ottoman Empire took over Spain. A foreign power took over a Spanish speaking country and the Reconquista, was Spain reclaiming their land during the Crusades
A strong Mexican culture does not equate to this.
Do your research.

I would also encourage you to look into the test scores for yourself. They are posted on the CCCS website. There is a much bigger picture here, and I suggest you broaden your vision for a minute and look at it.

Try again b_reynaldo

And by the way, I am an American. A white one.

» Bill Clausen on 11.11.09 @ 11:02 PM

For all the parents who speak of their high-achieving kids who attend César Chávez Charter School as well as those who support its goals:  Why not sign your full names?  I say this because how do I know you are not one person who is blogging under multiple names and/or is afraid to present your case publicly?

I do not have children, nor do I have any first-hand knowledge of C.C.C.S. so I certainly allow for the possibility that those who advocate its advantage may be right.  I also believe in educational choice and oppose the government forcing this school to close. In short, if this school is on average outperforming other schools, and if the students educated in its methods can compete with students from Japan and the more academically advanced countries from Europe than by all means we need to re-think our strategies.

To those who argue about monolinguilism:  When I attended two school board meetings back in the 1990’s, not one of the parents who got up to speak in favor of bilingual education spoke—nor made any attempt to speak—in English.  This is not about English being the worlds lingua franca, but the fact that it is the language which unites this country socially.  Yes, I agree that people should learn more than one language, and despite having grown up in an English-only home and having not had the opportunity to live abroad, I can speak, read, and write Spanish well.  Furthermore, I find it insulting to those who have come here from countries other than those where English and/or Spanish is the predominate language that they have to learn a *third* language because the P.C. police have decided that those from Spanish-speaking countries should not have to learn a second. (Hypocritical much?)

And to those who see English as a colonial language imposed on the Western Hemisphere by force, let me remind you that Spanish was imposed the same way: at the end of a gun, so the symbolic value of Spanish being an oppressed language goes out the door.

To the person who says that five years is required for fluency in a language, how do you explain how kids (and their parents) who come from Asian countries where the languages not only have nothing in common with English, but are not even written the same way, achieve fluency so much quicker? 

To this cynic, I wish there were a public medium by which we could catagorically see the end results of the various teaching methods.  I daresay that Japan and much of Europe are leaving us in the dust, and since their methods are the ones that work, I’d be inclined to favor those ways, but if C.C.C.S. can do as well or better, than more power to them.

If anyone doubts this is my real name, then check with Bill Macfadyen, founder, publisher and CEO of this news service, and he will verify who I am—having worked with me at the News-Press for a number of years.

» benzo on 11.12.09 @ 09:15 AM

To all those making neative remarks it is pathetic…if you do not have first hand knowledge of this school you should not remark. Your children do not attend CCCS so your comments are irrelevant, further more is it sad to see racial comments posted here as we teach our children at CCCS we are all equal, and for you who make these remarks if you have children they learn from you and will take your same ignorance of racism to our community you do not see this comming from our school. Seek information first hand about what you are going to comment about!

» Bill Clausen on 11.12.09 @ 07:39 PM

“Dear Bill Clausen, since you are so curious, my full name is Bridget Lackaye.  I have a very high achiever in 6th Grade attending Cesar Chavez.  I am not afraid or ashamed to state positive comments from firsthand experience about my child’s school.  I’m wondering why you didn’t ask the people making negative comments their full names - maybe it is just one person….maybe it is you….....spooky. “

Nothing spooky about it.  I was more interested in who you were because you people are the ones who are actually involved in the process and can give first-hand accounts as opposed to mere opinions.

» Marching protesters on 11.19.09 @ 11:23 AM

Hopefully, they keep marching right on down to Avenida Revolucion, Tijuana, BC, Mexico!