In spring 2008, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) issued a mandate to all school districts: separate your English language learners (ELLs) for four hours a day of intensive instruction until they are fluent in English ��“ reading, writing and speaking.

It sounded like a good plan to the state Legislature. But it required schools to create more classes at each level, said officials of the Nogales Unified School District No. 1. Where was the money for more teachers?

Former Superintendent Guillermo Zamudio opposed the state model because “it gives money to districts (with larger class sizes) that do not have a large ELL population,” he said. Because NUSD had reduced class sizes, ADE determined the district had enough teachers.

“The Legislature appropriated $40 million in ELL funds to address the Flores case,” Zamudio said. He referred to the lawsuit that charged schools with not doing enough to help students learn English. “Ironically, NUSD, where the case originated, will get $0.”

The district asked ADE to allow it to use an alternative model that did not split the classes, said Lucina Romero, assistant superintendent at the time.

Reading specialists and aides could work with ELL students in small groups while English-proficient students would read in another group, Romero said. “The problem we’ll have is finding enough highly qualified English teachers with the SEI (Sheltered English Instruction) endorsement.”

Again, ADE said “no.”

So principals and teachers began the work of shuffling the classes to separate the ELLs while trying balance the class sizes.

“We have made the best of a challenging situation,” said Superintendent Shawn McCollough. “We are doing this on a shoestring budget.”

He believes NUSD is in compliance with the requirement, he said. “We can’t waste time fighting it. But it has been a strain.”

NUSD sent about 40 teachers who did not have an ESL or bilingual endorsement for training in SEI techniques, said Angel Canto, school improvement coordinator.

Now teachers use more specific English language development (ELD) skills, said Minerva Valenzuela, English-language acquisition coordinator.

In Nogales, kindergarten and first-grade classes are primarily ELLs, Canto said.

“Unless their primary home language is English, they have to pass the AZELLA (Arizona English Language Learner Assessment),” Valenzuela said.

This happens in the first 10 days of school, she said. Then the students are assigned to the appropriate classes.

By fourth or fifth grade, many students are proficient in English and those still learning the language are a much smaller group. But the mandate requires them to learn English in a separate class.

At Coronado Elementary School, “we have separated the four hours into sections,” said fifth grade teacher Liliana McPherson, who is also the curriculum coordinator.

ELL students get one hour, 40 minutes of reading and writing with her, then the same amount of time on spelling and grammar with another teacher. After lunch, the ELLs get another 30 minutes of reading.

Those fifth-graders also study math, science and social studies, McPherson said. “This block has a lot of language, but the state says it doesn’t count.”

Nearly 97 percent of the teachers at Coronado are SEI-endorsed and many are bilingual, McPherson said. “We are lucky we are a large school, because we had a lot of teachers to move around.”

But the mandate skews the class sizes.

In second grade, two teachers have about 18 ELLs per class, McPherson said. But in third grade, one teacher has 30 ELLs all day.

McPherson enjoys the time she can spend with the small ELL reading class, she said. But after her 12 ELL students leave, 33 English proficient students crowd into her classroom for a reading class.

“We were allowed to have some mixed classes at some schools due to space restraints,” Canto said. ADE approved the classes on a case-by-case basis.

At the high school level, taking four hours of intensive English means a student can take only two other classes per semester, said Mark Valenzuela, Nogales High School principal. This makes it harder to earn the 22 credits to graduate ��“ 17 required courses plus five electives.

“A kid who is in four hours of ELD isn’t taking all the requirements,” Valenzuela said.

At NHS, 264 students out of the 1,788 total (15 percent) are classified as ELLs, said Claudia Weldon, NHS vice principal. ELL students take two to four hours of English language development daily, depending on how they scored on the language test last year.

“If students pass the reading portion of the AZELLA, they can be exempted from those classes,” Weldon said.

Luis Miranda, a 10th grader enrolled in four ELD classes, is eager to get back into mainstream classes, he said.

“If I am around English talkers, I will learn more,” said Miranda, who speaks English with ease.

This semester, his other classes are geometry and history, he said. “I want to get rid of my ELD classes and take electives ��“ computer classes and cabinet-making.”

Miranda was studying hard for the AZELLA tests that could move him out of ELD classes next fall, he said.

Stephanie Salazar-Lopez, a soft-spoken 11th grader, was doing well in regular classes last year, Weldon said. But her AZELLA test results placed her in two ELD classes this year in reading and writing, as well as a regular English class.

“I had good grades in my English class (last year),” Salazar-Lopez said. She also earned an “A” in chemistry.

“She’s one of those exceptional students,” Weldon said. “She pushed herself and studied hard.”

Unfortunately, the tests don’t measure student motivation, Weldon said.

Salazar-Lopez has her eye on college and would like to study international commerce, she said.

Minerva Valenzuela believes the state wanted the four-hour requirement because some ELLs lingered for years in structured English programs, she said.

“I don’t feel they (ELLs) are being segregated,” Valenzuela said. “They are being provided with specific skills that will allow them to participate in our mainstream program sooner.”

But NUSD was already doing a good job of teaching ELLs in regular classes, McCollough said. “Why should we be punished for the inadequacies of other school districts?”

“Philosophically, I have an immense problem with separating children out based on language,” McCollough said. “In my experience, inclusion and good teaching strategies is the solution for helping children learn English, not segregation.”

McCollough favors teaching that allows students to develop skills in English and Spanish at the same time, he said. But the state no longer supports bilingual programs.

“While I am a proponent of learning multiple languages, my role is to provide the best opportunity for education in spite of challenges like that law,” he said.

This week, NHS ELL students are buckling down with the AZELLA tests that will determine where they are placed next year.

The AZELLA testing runs from February to APril at different grade levels in the district.

Even after the students reach proficiency in English and exit the structured program, the state requires schools to retest them for another two years, Canto said.

“We have to make sure they (ELLs) meet the same academic standards as the English-proficient (students),” Valenzuela said.

Canto is waiting to see what happens with the reclassification (to English proficient) rates and the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) scores, she said. Students take the AIMS test in third through eighth grades and again in 10th grade.