With communities that diverse, bilingual instruction in the county's 43 school districts is given in a variety of ways, from students being pulled out of class an hour each day to learn English, to students taking most of their courses in their native languages. The goal in all cases is for students to master English while learning their core subjects. San Diego Unified, by far the largest district in the county, provides dozens of bilingual programs. Spanish-speaking students learn in Spanish and attend ESL classes. English-speaking students learn Spanish and French at its Language Academy.
Asian students learn social studies and math in a variety of Asian languages.
The district also relies heavily on aides who speak such languages as Afanoromo, Farsi, Ibo, Romanian, Somalian and Urdu to serve as translators for the students. Advocating English Supporters of the initiative acknowledge their proposal would trigger radical changes. Afterward, the students would move to all-English classes. Their mouths dropped open and they shot worried glances back and forth when told their ESL class might end and they would no longer have their Japanese interpreter assisting them in their other classes. My grades would go down and my parents may be angry.