SPRINGDALE — At Heritage Hill Elementary, the future is now.

        By 2025, 25 percent of elementary students nationwide will be Hispanic, but students with limited English proficiency already make up nearly 20 percent of the Springdale school. Of those, 90 percent are are Hispanic.

        Heritage Hill, a K-6 school of 540 students, is energized by this transformation to a multicultural school. Most new students speak no English — nor do their parents — so signs and literature at the school are posted in English and Spanish.

Kindergarten teacher Judy Rosene sees a sea of waving hands to her question in class. The children are English-as-a-second-language students. (Michael Snyder photos) | ZOOM |

        Hispanic children learn English during the day while their parents can attend school at night to learn the language.

        Twenty teachers, 10 instructional aides and the principal have taken conversational Spanish to communicate with their new students. In turn, so many children signed up to learn Spanish after school that many are on a waiting list.

        Heritage Hill reflects the latest census figures that show a growing Hispanic population in the Springdale and Sharonville areas. Nationwide, Hispanics are moving to rural areas, as well as cities, virtually guaranteeing that most children will one day attend school with Hispanic students.

        Schools will have to be ready for the change.

        “You can see it as a problem, or you can see it as an opportunity. We've chosen to see it as an enriching opportunity,” said Sandra Berg, instructional coordi nator for Princeton City Schools.

        Nationally, the Hispanic population grew 58 percent over the past decade. In the Tristate, the Hispanic population increased 500 percent in that time.

Sonia Veliz, an aide, checks headphones for Noemy Rosales. | ZOOM |

        The growing Hispanic population poses challenges to schools. Hispanics consistently perform below average on national achievement tests, and their dropout rate is twice that of blacks and more than three times that of their non-Hispanic white peers.

        Educators expect all students to be able to read by the end of third grade to be successful in school. But for non-English-speaking Hispanic children, reading isn't possible until they have a grasp of the language.

        “Research has shown it takes six to eight years to reach the level of their peers, yet the state requires them to take proficiency tests after two years here. It's an unfair request,” said Judy Rosene, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Heritage Hill.

        “Our kids are just trying hard to learn what American kids have learned in preschool.”

        Heritage Hill is the magnet ESL school for Princeton. Parents of limited English proficiency students are encouraged to send their children there.

        Most Hispanic students live next door to the school at Hunter's Glen, a government-subsidized apartment complex. The students speak English at school and Spanish at home.

        The wave began about September 1999 with 25 Hispanic students.

        “Last year, we had literally five families standing in our office waiting to register children and they spoke no English,” said principal Steve Zinser.

        Today, nearly 80 ESL students from 14 countries, from Mexico to India, attend Heritage Hill. Not all come directly from other countries. Eduardo Luna, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, moved here in February 1999 from Cathedral City, Calif.

        “I like it here because they have ESL teachers so that when I grow up I won't need any help,” Eduardo said.

        To meet the demand for ESL services, the district received a $524,000 federal grant last year. It hired a second ESL teacher and second aide at Heritage Hill, along with other district ESL staff.

        The school now employs two full-time ESL teachers and two full-time bilingual Hispanic educational aides. Depending on their abilities, 80 students spend one to two hours a day in ESL class, or ESL staff visit their classroom.

        Other services include:

        • Free ESL classes, offered in partnership with Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development three nights a week to parents. Child care is available, or parents let their children work on Spanish with Princeton High School's advanced Spanish students hired as literacy tutors.

        • A Parents As Teachers program, which provides home visits, child development information, screenings, play groups and parenting classes to families with children under age 3.

        The numbers are expected to increase. Teachers hear from students whose uncles live with them and, once they find work, plan to send for their families.

        Teacher say that Hispanic students add to the cultural rainbow at the school, which is 65 percent African-American.

        “If we can help our children understand each other better and work with each other better, we're creating a better future for all of us,” Mr. Zinser said.

        When Curtis Spencer, an ESL teacher, decided to offer Spanish to English-speaking students after school two days a week, he was surprised by the response.

        Eighty students signed up for Los Sabios (The Wise Ones) in October. Another 80 signed up in January. He had to limit class sizes to the first 16 who brought a permission slip from home. He's now teaching his third three-month session.

        It says a lot about how the school embraces diversity, said Mr. Spencer, who taught bilingual education for six years in Houston Public Schools.

        “Most of the kids have somebody Hispanic in their classroom,” Mrs. Rosene said. “It's helped them to understand what those kids are going through because it's difficult to learn a language.

        “Sometimes, they befriend Hispanic kids because they're learning the language. It helps Hispanic kids realize these kids care enough to learn their language.”
       

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