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Breaking barriers success story - Ontario

September 21, 2009

Ontario : Starting early

The Ontario School District’s approach to reducing its Hispanic dropout rate is to start before it’s too late – which is long before high school.

“One of the best things we do is to have programs in elementary and middle schools,” says Ontario School Board Chair Evelyn Dame. The district offers a Spanish-English immersion program that not only builds on the content areas of students whose native language is Spanish, but connects these students and their parents to English-speaking students and their parents.

Each elementary and middle school also has a full-time bilingual Parent Center coordinator. “This helps native Spanish-speakers feel much more comfortable and enables them to be as involved in their children’s education as they want to be,” Dame adds.

Dame praised Ontario Middle School staff who took advantage of training available through an Office of Bilingual Education grant. In fact, Oregon’s 2000 Teacher of the Year, Xochy Fuhriman-Ebert teaches at the school and was instrumental in these efforts.

“Xochy helps native English-speaking teachers understand Hispanic culture and language so they can communicate concepts and ideas when teaching,” Dame says. “Recently, 14 teachers attended a training on Teacher Research in the Bilingual Classroom, so they could do research in their own classes to determine how to be more effective.”

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