![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
Balderas serves 1,100 students, of whom about 750 are on campus during any term. Ninety-four percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunches, and 70 percent have limited English proficiency (LEP).
Teachers delay formal instruction in reading until the second grade but embed early literacy lessons in studies in the content areas. For example, students learn the concepts of literacy and numeracy in the context of daily story-telling and investigations in science and social studies, followed by related pencil-and-paper or computer work. Reading, writing, and mathematics are included in every appropriate interdisciplinary lesson. Multidimensional lessons building on the language, skills, and concepts that students already know allow teachers to provide learning opportunities that serve native English speakers and those with limited English proficiency equally well.
All students keep portfolios of their work, often including drawings, writing samples, and journals. Content-based activities, often involving cooperative learning, promote learning of academic content, reflection, language development, and task engagement. To ensure that multi-language students have the academic support they need, students belong to triads--cross-age groups of students--that meet after school and at other times during the year to work together on home work and class projects. In these "afterschool" groups, each student works daily with two others who speak the same language and helps them develop and apply their English language fluency.
Planning and Design. The programs are based on these principles: (1) student, staff, and parent empowerment; (2) individual responsibility for learning; (3) active learning experiences; (4) high expectations; (5) interdependence; (6) character development; and (7) collaboration with community partners in education. Business partners from Dow Chemical, Pacific Bell, the Fresno Bee, and Continental Cablevision contribute their technical expertise in ongoing task force work aimed at making Balderas' electronic infrastructure a model for the nation.
Organizational/Management Structure. Balderas follows a year- round "90/30" program that divides students into four tracks of 250 students. Each track attends school for three months, followed by a month-long vacation while students from another track rotate in. In addition, extracurricular programs extend the school day two hours beyond the district's norm. During the first hour, all students work on homework in multi-grade groups. During the second hour, native speakers offer primary language instruction in Spanish, Hmong, and Khmer; approximately one-third of the students attend these classes.
Students in all grades belong to triads--groups of first, third, and fifth graders or second, fourth, and sixth graders--that meet during the afterschool homework period and at other times during the year. Within each afterschool group, each student works every day with two others who speak the same language. In addition, teachers keep classes for two years.
Professional Environment. To meet state certification requirements for teachers of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students and to cultivate a knowledgeable and cohesive faculty, Balderas' principal negotiated with California State University, Fresno (CSUF) to teach a series of graduate courses organized to address the specific professional needs of Balderas' faculty. Teachers attended class for six weeks before school opened and studied the languages and cultures of students, among other general topics related to teaching LEP students. In 1991-92, they completed 180 hours of formal instruction in sessions planned during regular staff development time, after school, and on Saturdays. Virtually all Balderas teachers now possess the Language Development Specialist credential--a situation that is rare in the district and in the state.
In a precedent-setting arrangement with CSUF approved by state and district administrators, Balderas paid for the graduate-level coursework with categorical funds. All teachers received inservice credit for their participation; those who wished to apply the coursework to a masters degree program and earn CSUF graduate credit paid a reduced rate for tuition and completed additional assignments. Program evaluation data collected after the first year indicate that participants considered the coursework relevant to the demands of their work, and after passing the certification examinations, teachers' classroom experience confirmed that they had received the solid foundation of knowledge and skills required to meet the challenges of real teaching.
Cultural Inclusiveness. The study and celebration of students' cultural resources influence every aspect of daily life at Balderas. Native language speakers provide daily and weekly afternoon and evening extracurricular classes in primary language literacy to all interested students and parents. Community leaders hold concurrent sessions of parent meetings and programs for each language group to involve all parents, using bilingual members to coordinate and unify parent planning. The four informal "pavilion" areas surrounding the media center in the large central courtyard of the school each feature a mural that captures important values of a certain culture: The Cambodian pavilion portrays the temple at Angkor Wat; the Mexican shows central characters in Mexican history; the Hmong summarizes the journey from Laos to Fresno; and the American focuses on the Explorer spacecraft, among other things the symbol of the Balderas Explorers. During the 1992-92 school year, the Balderas community celebrated the Hmong, Cambodian, and Lao New Years, African-American History Month, and Cinco de Mayo, in addition to having a multicultural fair.
Parent and community involvement. Parents of every cultural background actively participate in Balderas events; approximately 80 percent attend the monthly parent education workshops regularly. When a school site council was elected, hundreds of members of each language group attended pre-election meetings conducted in their own language and shared responsibility for choosing their group's representative. School-home communications are routinely translated into five languages and followed up with calls to those who cannot read in any language. Two English classes are offered at the school for parents, and proposals are being developed to solicit funding for even more extensive parent education and family support programs. Each month the school offers a parent workshop that is given in the languages spoken by school families. Each group has a native-speaking presenter and an English-speaking teacher as a resource. According to a district administrator, the rate of parent and community volunteerism at Balderas is remarkably high, and the volunteer core includes many retirees and college students who work every day. At the parents' request, Balderas has a monthly open house, during which the school's programs are explained, student guides take visitors on a tour of the building, and parents eat lunch with their children.
In addition to involving parents in the school, Balderas' principal continues to build relationships with important members of business and industry. Engineers from Dow, Pacific Bell, Continental Cablevision, the Fresno Bee, and other companies meet at least monthly to identify promising technologies, educate school staff about their applications to teaching, and plan ways to install them at Balderas. The school is already far in advance of others in Fresno with its computers, voice mail, and other electronic equipment, but even greater things are planned--fiber optics, a satellite dish, and networks with other cities and countries. The principal often attends management training seminars offered by these companies for their own personnel and makes presentations about her school to their boards.
Balderas Elementary School
4625 East Florence
Fresno, CA 93725
(209) 456-6800
-###-
[Connecting Education with Experience]