McNealy, the West Orange Elementary teacher, is doing her best to get students over the hump. Chattering nonstop in English with her students, McNealy uses song, chant, dance and art to bring the language home. One morning, about 15 youngsters were building insects with glue, scissors, brads and construction paper. A girl came up to the teacher to show her work. The class is part of what school officials call a massive effort to get children remedial help in English.
Schools also offer extra English language classes after school and during vacations.
In addition, teachers have logged many training hours to learn how to teach students English and to make other subjects, such as math and science, understandable in English. All that effort came at a price. Contrary to popular assumptions, district officials said they have saved little money by dropping bilingual education. In fact, expenses rose in the short term. But McKinnon said Orange Unified's example could prove useful to others.