Adios, Arrivederci, Au Revoir to upper level classes?

Posted on November 21, 2013 by walter carrero in News

Walter Carrero

Chelyah Miller

Chronicle Reporters

The Classes of 2015, 2016, and beyond should learn how to say “goodbye” in French, Italian, and Spanish as there is soon to be a major decrease on the amount of students per class according to foreign language teachers . Future freshmen, sophomores, and juniors must take two to three years of a foreign language as part of their A-G requirements.

All students in the second year of their foreign languages may not be able to advance to the next level, because there are more level one and level two classes and only one level three. More students are also being put into the classes, making it hard for them to learn what they need because of the student to teacher ratio.

Three consecutive years of a language are needed to qualify but because students in the second year classes might not be able to move on to the third year, they may not qualify for a UC.

Many of the foreign language teachers think that if we hire more  teachers, this problem will be resolved. The teachers realize that if this keeps up, it will be difficult not only for them, but for the students as well.

“We need to hire another foreign language teacher to depopulate the amount of students per class,” said Alonso Rolland-Estrada, French teacher.

Currently, all foreign languages have 30-50 students not only for their first level classes but for their second level classes as well. This makes it hard not just for the teachers to help everyone but for the students to learn the material correctly. “If you’re  a student who struggles with foreign language and you’re in a class with 40 or more students, then it’s going to be harder for not just the student but for the teacher as well to help you acquire the help you deserve,” said Emily Taron, Italian teacher. Also, with such amount of students, only 25% of the student in the second level will advance to the next level. We are looking at 60 students not being able to take their third year of the foreign language they are taking.

The Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA), a grant that Hollywood High school gets every year, provides money as long as the requirements are met. There can be no more than 27 students for each social studies, math, science, and English class. As long as these requirements are met, the school can continue to buy books, computers, etc. However, the money can’t be used to hire teachers for  non-core classes or the money will be taken from the school. Non-core classes include PE,  and electives, such as foreign language.

“I support the QEIA funding: however, the money does not go to the foreign language classes,” said Ana Estangui, head of the foreign language department. “Not only does it not affect the foreign language classes, but also for non-academic classes.”

The only way the school can afford to hire more foreign language teachers would be to cut a teacher from another elective class or a Physical Education class.  The general funds only gives enough money to hire 36 teachers and the money from QEIA makes it able for the school to hire the rest.

When the school had complete Title 1 funding, hiring more teachers was possible but now that the school’s Title 1 budget is only $300,000, firing a teacher is the only way a foreign language teacher can be hired.

“I cannot cut any academic classes because the QEIA fund won’t let me, and if I do, we will lose the QEIA funds,” said Principal Alejandra Sanchez. “If I wanted to add another foreign language teacher, I have to eliminate a teacher. The hardest part is which teacher should I eliminate?”