DISTRICT APPEALS TO PARENTS TV SPOTS IN ARMENIAN, SPANISH, OTHER TONGUES.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The Glendale Unified School District is reaching out to students with non-English-speaking parents, beginning with an informational spot on local TV that will be broadcast Tuesday in Armenian.

School officials and education experts say such efforts are essential in the district, where more than 65 percent of students speak a language other than English at home.

``The district can't do its job unless we can communicate with parents,'' said Joanna Junge, a coordinator for Glendale Unified's Curriculum and Intercultural Education Services. ``When parents are involved, their children do better in school.''

TV programming this fall will include information on how the district works and what parents should do if they want special help for their children. It will be offered first in Armenian, and in subsequent weeks in Spanish, Korean and English.

In spring 2003, another series will be shown on TV, addressing gifted and talented education, the high school exit exams, the dress code and cross-cultural understanding.

The TV broadcast is a first for the district and is coming out of the district's general fund, said GUSD spokesman Vic Pallos.

Broadcast on Charter Cable Channel 15 at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the first program will be a live call-in program and will cover ``essential operations of the district.''

``You can ask any teacher or administrator - children do better in school when there is a close link between school and home,'' Pallos said.

The majority of children the district calls ``English learners'' speak either Armenian, Spanish, Korean or Tagalog at home, but 68 languages are represented in the district.

About 40 percent of students statewide come from homes where English is not the first language, according to Norm Gold, a state Department of Education retiree who now consults on English learning for California school districts.

Reaching those children's parents is an issue at the forefront of education in California, Gold said.

``This is not going away. Every time this issue has been studied, it's been show to be absolutely crucial that parents are involved in the studies of their kids,'' Gold said.

And outreach programs like Glendale's are exactly what the demographic changes call for, Gold added.

``We're considered a model district when it comes to providing services for our English language learners and their families,'' Junge said.

Among the state's school districts, Glendale has the second highest rate for moving students from ``English learner'' to ``fluent English proficient'' status.

Parent outreach programs in Glendale include providing translations for official documentation distributed by schools and dispatching interpreters to help parents communicate with teachers.

For language groups that make up more than 15 percent of a school's student population, these programs are required by state law and subsidized federally.

Loyola Marymount Professor of Education Magaly Lavadenz, who used to be a teacher in the Glendale School District and now lives here with her children, said outreach to non-English speaking parents is imperative in such a diverse district.

``The TV program makes tremendous sense - we need to pursue avenues to ensure that parent involvement happens for all different groups in Glendale,'' Lavadenz said.