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Since 1986, the district has enjoyed the leadership of a vigorous superintendent who has established strong, cooperative relations with the community, the Board of Education, and the faculty, and who has encouraged innovation and risk-taking. District staff members characterize the superintendent as a charismatic leader who promotes organizational arrangements that support professional development and empowerment. Rather than dictating or directing, central office administrators provide opportunities for staff to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to make informed procedural decisions that affect their work. According to the coordinator of bilingual and ESL programs, "Staff development became the district's key to change through learning and collaboration."
A late 1980s needs assessment revealed that increased immigration to the area demanded an immediate increase in efforts to provide educational services to language-minority students. However, educators certified to teach students with limited English proficiency were in short supply throughout the state. District officials reported to the California Department of Education a shortage of 88 such specialists in 1989.
In the fall of 1989, FUSD's bilingual/ESL program coordinator requested that the Fontana School Board establish a bilingual teacher Career Ladder program to increase the number of certified bilingual educators in the district. In December 1989, the board unanimously approved the Career Ladder, which began during the spring semester of 1990 as a pilot program. Fontana's Career Ladder now supports its participants in teacher preparation programs at two community colleges and a university and hires them after graduation to teach in the district. The cornerstone of the district's bilingual education plan, the Career Ladder offers a comprehensive approach to recruiting and developing the talent of school district personnel.
The plan gains its strength, in part, from its coordinator's energy and commitment. Chief designer of Fontana's bilingual program, she is also an officer in the National Association of Bilingual Educators (NABE), the California Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE), and other professional organizations, frequently making presentations about the district's bilingual program during annual conferences. A native of the area, she is well connected throughout the academic and professional community.
Elements of support. The Career Ladder pays all participants' educational expenses, including college or university tuition, application and parking fees, and textbook costs. The project eases the way for participants; they explain: "We go to the university and sign up for classes and pay nothing. . . .We go to the book store and don't wait in line. We just pick up our books and sign for them." For first-in-the-family college students and busy adults, such forms of support may be very important.
The program also promotes professional and emotional strength. The program facilitates access while supporting achievement of high standards. "It's easy to get on the Career Ladder," one participant explained, "but it's not easy to continue on track." To help them stay on track, participants attend regular meetings with FUSD supervisory staff in which, to use the coordinator's words, "We share our lives as teachers." They exchange information, relate experiences, and brainstorm potential solutions to problems. Speakers, professional trips, and discussions of general employment skills enrich the gatherings which provide Career Ladder participants with a network of educational resources. The reassurance they find in such collegial meetings is highly valued; as one participant commented, "Encouragement isn't something you can find just anywhere." The coordinator considers these meetings as critical to the preparation of candidates as the content they learn in college or university classes. The school district assists credential applicants in preparing for the rigorous tests leading to California teacher certification.
Institutional collaboration. The district has cultivated strong relationships with two nearby community colleges, Valley and Chaffey, and with California State University, San Bernardino. Each of these institutions offers Career Ladder participants the undergraduate and preservice professional education required for California teacher certification, as well as career counseling, course advising, and individual student assistance. The three institutions provide support that is more accessible to participants than to the school population at large--a feature that many institutions report is essential for retaining the enrollment of adults who face the multiple demands of working, going to school, and raising a family, as Career Ladder participants do.
Accountability. Participants sign a legally binding agreement that commits them to the pursuit of an educational program that prepares them to become bilingual teachers. For every year of district support, they agree to teach one year in Fontana USD. If participants move or drop out of the program (which very seldom happens), they must repay the district by a certain date for the expenses the district has incurred. Certified graduates of the Career Ladder program are guaranteed a job in the district.
Funding. The major funding sources are the California Emergency Immigrant Education Act (EIA) and LEP Programs. Because the program is embedded within the district's management and staffing structure, its funding is stable and continuation is assured.
Related programs. The Career Ladder is part of the district's bilingual program, which also offers introductory through advanced language training for district personnel, preparation courses to meet the requirements for California language development certification, and the Fontana Future Bilingual Teachers of America (FFBTA) program. Future Teachers is conceptually, though not formally, linked to the Career Ladder program. The FFBTA encourages high school students who speak a language other than English to consider teaching as a career. The bilingual/ESL coordinator, who directs the Career Ladder, calls it "the first rung in the ladder." Future Teachers offers a semester-long afternoon seminar that develops students' understanding of goals, methods, and teaching strategies for language minority students. Participating students are eligible for jobs during the summer and, depending on class standing, during the school year. They can serve as paid tutors in elementary school bilingual or ESL classrooms, earning $4.25 an hour for their work, paid through EIA funds. FFBTA students are not expected to make a commitment to the district beyond their high school years, although the district is particularly proud of the students who are proceeding through the pipeline to become teachers, either through Fontana's Career Ladder or through other means.
Participants demonstrate a sense of pride in their involvement in the program and in their educational and professional achievement: "You feel the support. . . . The program helped me to define my goal and pushed me to [achieve] that goal." Around the area, other districts look to Fontana's Career Ladder as a model, and some have begun their own programs.
[Funds of Knowledge for Teaching]