Charts are beatiful. Check out this one, courtesy of MCOE

For the third year in a row, the Monterey County Office of Education has published a report to the community on the county's state of education, an effort aimed at highlighting the good things that are happening in education these days.

If you are a Herald reader -- or follow my blog -- you will find very little news in the report. Most of the articles are about issues we've already covered here. Of course, they look more nifty in a booklet all of their own.

But there are a few articles worth mentioning. The one about Common Core on pages 6 and 7. The one about new funding rules on pages 8 and 9.

And my personal favorite, the chart on English learners as they progress towards proficiency in English on page 5.

It's illuminating. Worth a story. I'll get to it one of these days.

Find the report here.

Marshall West presents Dual Language Charter Plan

It will be a double hitter: parents and supporter of the Dual Language school at Marshall West will host a celebration for Hispanic Heritage Month from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 2 at Marshall West Elementary cafeteria, 225 Normandy Dr., Seaside

There will also present their plans to transform the school into a charter. There will be a potluck, music, and entertainment. Come meet the school's dedicated families, learn about the 2014-2015 charter school plan, and celebrate Hispanic Heritage month.

MPUSD dual language program hosts magnet fair

 If you have a child who will enter kindergarten next year and would like your child to grow up fluent in two languages come learn about the Dual Language Program at Marshall School during the annual MPUSD magnet fair. 

The parent information meeting will take place at 5 p.m.,  Feb. 12, at Marshall Elementary, Room 10, 225 Normandy Ave, Seaside. For more info, contact Luisa Caballero at (831) 899 7052. 

Dual Immersion open house at Marshall Elementary

The Dual Language Immersion Program at Marshall Elementary is hosting an information session on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at the Cabrillo Resource Center, 1295 La Salle Ave., Seaside.

 A dual immersion program allows a child to learn two languages at the same time. Children who attend the program at Marshall learn English and Spanish simultaneously. For more information, click here

Salinas City Elementary to host dual immersion parent conference

Dual Language Program Advocates and the Salinas City Elementary School District will hold its 2nd annual dual immersion parent conference at Boronda Meadows Elementary School from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 17th.

 Dual immersion is a method that teaches students in two languages.

The conference is free and is geared toward prospective parents of incoming preschool, kinder and first graders and current dual immersion parents. Separate tracks for each session (in Spanish and English) will focus on areas specific to either group.

Enrichment activities will be provided for children in attendance.  Dual language expert Rosa Molina will deliver the keynote speech and host one of the breakout sessions.

Boronda Meadows is at 915 Larkin Street, Salinas.

To register click here or or call 831-607-9360. Walk-up registration is welcome.

Dual Language Program Advocates exists to promote and support dual language programs that develop bilingual, bi-literate and bicultural students in the city of Salinas and the state of California. For more info on dual immersion programs, click here or here.

Why bilinguals are smarter

Having witnessed the immigration/cultural battles for a long time, I'm not surprised when people tell me to "speak English" when speaking Spanish, or when people accuse me and other Latinos of not wanting to "integrate" into the fabric of the U.S. just because I hold on to my mother tongue.

What's baffling is encountering education professionals who believe that children who learn Spanish have a hard time learning English. As if the brain was a vessel with just one liter capacity for languages, and if you fill half of it with Spanish, well, English won't have the room it deserves.

But it doesn't work that way. Languages, I've come to imagine, are like love: you can't have enough of them.

It's been great to see more and more reports come out detailing the effects of bilingualism in the brain. I experience it. I'm talking to my mother in Spanish one minute, answering my boss in English the next, and it's like my brain has flipped effortlessly, like a ballerina at the Bolshoi. It's beautiful.

My mother's learning American Sign Language, and she tells me now she understands more English as a result. Languages: you can't have enough of them.

Of the Alisal, revolutionaries, and the future of No Child Left Behind

I recently finished listening to Havana Nocturne, and I was struck by the similarities between the Cuban revolutionaries and some community leaders of the Alisal. Like the members of the Movimiento 26 de Julio, members of the May 1 Alliance of the Alisal are persistent. They know the system is rigged against the poor, against Latinos, and they will be happy at nothing but a complete overhaul of the Alisal Union School District. Like Castro and his followers, May 1 and his followers have been underestimated, dismissed as one would a pesky gnat. For years, they have spoken their truth at board meetings of the Alisal and the California Department of Education, and through their tactics -- which many people despise -- they've managed to bring on a new entire board, and get on it at least two members who are in complete agreement with their political views. I chronicle that story in today's paper.

Like the Cuban revolutionaries, May 1st followers have charismatic leaders who inspire some people to follow them. Disillusioned by an educational and political system that seems to have no room for them, hard working people of the Alisal see in May 1st the answer to their troubles. If you show up to enough meetings, film your opponents and distort the facts to your advantage, you are bound to win elections and get somebody on board who supports your political leanings. Then you'll get what you want: the books you want, the educational system you want, the teachers you want. If you get rid of State Trustee Carmella Franco, and get a local boy to lead the schools, then he'll do what the newly elected board wants, the children will blossom, and the happy ending will make Cenicienta feel like a total loser.

This is where July 26 and May 1 part ways. Castro and his revolutionaries were aiming at the meros meros, at the source of Cuba's inequalities. May 1st is barking -- very loudly -- up el árbol equivocado. The entire forest still stands. For as long as No Child Left Behind continues to brand school districts as failures, the Alisal and hundreds of other school districts will remain labeled as "under performing", in need of dramatic intervention that will have little to do with the desires of May 1. California will have no choice but to demand the changes required at the federal level, or withhold financial support.

With the effectiveness so far displayed by May 1, maybe they ought to focus on trying to dismantle No Child Left Behind. The law has many detractors, and May 1 could win lots of supporters in the process. Already, South Dakota has pulled out of NCLB, even risking to lose millions of education dollars. But Education Secretary Melody Schopp was quoted as saying the law is proving unworkable.

My post is not aimed at endorsing either the Cuban revolution or May 1 supporters. Nor am I advocating for the dismantling for NCLB. All I'm doing is an analysis of what's going on a district that educates 7,000 children, is in desperate need of help, and, in many ways, reflects what's going on at a national level.

Does my Spanish offend you?

If you've ever called my office, you will have heard my outgoing bilingual message. It's your run of the mill, "hi, I'm not here," message, then repeated in Spanish. Did I mention the message is BILINGUAL?

Today I got a message from a reader upset that I have a message in Spanish (a complaint that I get fairly often, actually). This particular reader equated my outgoing message with how supporters of the Dream Act (as depicted in a photo that ran along with an article I wrote) also use Spanish.That's the problem, the caller said. That we don't want to learn English.

And did I say my message is in ENGLISH and Spanish?

I have an outgoing message in TWO languages not because I want to impose my own tongue on English speakers. I have a message in Spanish to make callers who may only speak Spanish feel like they can talk to me, like they'll be listened to. In fact, my message says "I will communicate with you in either language."

For the record, not one of the young Dream students I interviewed spoke Spanish to me. They all speak perfect English, even the ones who arrived here when they were nine or ten. This is the rule, not the exception: every single student I've interviewed over the years, regardless of where they're born, spoke perfect English after two or three years in this country. In fact, that's a condition embedded in the Dream Act: if you want to attain residency, you have to go to college. Have you ever heard of a student attending college and not having to take English 1A?

And why wouldn't they learn the language? It's everywhere: they all listen to Justin Bieber, watch Glee and read Twilight. English is the dominant language in this country, it's the global language of commerce and trade. These young people are smart, and they're being socialized with English all around them. They would have to live in a cave not to learn it.

So why do I have an outgoing message in Spanish? It's because their parents need it. It's field laborers, maids, people who migrated to this county when they were older who still have a hard time with English. Not because they don't want to learn, mind you -- there are lots of ESL classes that attest to that. It's because after a full day stooped on the strawberry fields it's hard to process a foreign language. It's because they have children they have to feed, it's because their brain at 25 or 30 or 40 is not what it used to be when they were 15.

So how exactly does this offend you? And by the way, did I mention my outgoing message is BILINGUAL?

The beautiful and grim reality of Alisal

Today was career day at Cesar Chavez Elementary school in the Alisal, and I, along with a dozen professionals, came to the school to try to inspire the children into seeking higher education. There were professional basketball players, firefighters, corrections officers, college professors, and one or two journalists. We all gave the students 'high fives' in the cafeteria, and then we had a chance to talk to them in their classrooms. You have to read every day, study hard, and pay attention in class, I told them. These kids are all so precious in their curiosity, their eagerness, their bilingualism: the ease in and out of English and Spanish like a fish swimming in two different waters without noticing if it's sweet or salty.

Then came the questions: Do you go when someone gets shot? And the comments: My uncle got shot in the stomach five times and he died. My cousin saw when somebody got shot the other day. My mom wants us to move out of here. It seems like every single one of the kids I visited with had an experience with violence, experiences that had clearly left marks. And that's all they wanted to talk about. It made me wonder, how much time is there for processing this type of trauma when you have to focus on learning? And can you focus on learning when you haven't processed the trauma?