With a state waiver from bilingual education rules, Cupertino places students who speak Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Hebrew, French and other languages in English classes where teachers use a variety of techniques to make the core curriculum comprehensible. Three out of four move on to a regular first grade. ELD classes start in first grade.
First graders do lots of singing, chanting and puppet shows.
Limited-English students average one to two years in ELD, then move to regular classes. They arrive with well-developed skills in their native languages, a powerful predictor of success in learning new languages. In addition, many attend afternoon or Saturday classes in Chinese, Japanese or other languages, acquiring a bilingual education at parental expense. But compared to most school districts, these are impressive results. In San Jose, Evergreen also teaches in English under a state waiver, but the district's immigrant students don't come from such affluent, educated homes.