LAUSD TRAINING PLAN UNDER FIRE; PROP. 227 SPENDING CHALLENGED.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Unified School District board is set to vote today on spending $1 million to train teachers to implement Proposition 227's ban on bilingual education, even though most teachers already have had extensive training in the English-immersion replacement curriculum.

District Superintendent Ruben Zacarias has issued dire warnings that the schools are unprepared to implement Proposition 227 and has asked the board to authorize $1 million for English-immersion training and other costs.

But of the district's 16,644 teachers who teach children with limited proficiency in English, nearly 75 percent have completed more than 100 hours of training in techniques including immersion. The rest are being schooled in immersion methods through university course work in their credential program, said Mike Acosta, employment operations administrator for the LAUSD.

Some teachers and supporters of Proposition 227 say Zacarias' concern is unfounded and the extra training is unneeded.

``Zacarias can save the taxpayers that money. We've already had the training,'' said Doug Lasken, a teacher at Ramona Elementary School in Hollywood who supported the initiative against anti-bilingual education. ``What they're saying is untrue. It will not be extremely difficult to implement 227.''

District officials, however, say the extra training is needed to comply with the new law that requires children not fluent in English to be placed in mainstream classes after a year of intensive English instruction.

``We have to look at how to accelerate our program,'' said Forrest Ross, director of the LAUSD's language-acquisition branch. ``Planning of the instructional day will have to be different. The way information is presented will have to be different.''

Most bilingual students in the LAUSD have been taught in their native language before a gradual change. In the past school year, of the district's 309,800 students with limited proficiency in English, 8 percent made the transition into mainstream classes taught in English.

Last week, Victoria Castro, president of the Board of Education, predicted chaos when the district tries to implement Proposition 227 by Aug. 3. Castro said there ``was no methodology in any college or any system; this program does not exist anywhere for us to do this.''

But state and district officials say that tens of thousands of teachers in California have been trained in teaching English as a second language and in giving sheltered English instruction - the methods required under Proposition 227.

``The methodology is the same,'' Acosta said.

Bob Salley, director of the certification division for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, agreed.

``Districts are not starting at square one by any means,'' Salley said. There are more than 29,000 teachers throughout the state who have received the required training, Salley said.

On Monday, Castro called the training a ``good start'' but said teachers need more extensive instruction. The teachers learned how students master English but did not learn how to teach subjects such as science or social studies through that method, Castro said.

But Carolyn Ellner, dean of the College of Education at California State University, Northridge, said course work for elementary teachers includes instruction on how to present all academic subjects in English to bilingual students.

The challenge under Proposition 227, she said, is for teachers to put all subjects into one year of instruction for the children.

``Learning English will be the first priority,'' Ellner said. ``The year will have to be much more concentrated.''

It will be up to the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, of which Ellner is a member, to determine if the English-immersion courses now offered through most universities are sufficient, she said.

Salley said that analysis from the commission, with staff support, could take up to two years.

Handing out some 1,400 credentials each year, CSUN produces most of the LAUSD's new teachers. For the past six years, Ellner said the vast majority of those graduates received training to teach children who do not speak English fluently.

There are two types of certificates for teachers who conduct classes for students not fluent in English. One is for those who teach in English and the other for instructors who conduct the classes in the student's native language. For either certificate, teachers learn strategies on English-immersion teaching.

Steve Zimmer, who teaches English as a second language at Marshall High School and is organizing instructors against Proposition 227, said he still believes instructors need more training for the transition than they have received.

``Our greatest concern is how to transition a child that has been in a bilingual course for a year or two,'' Zimmer said. ``Immediately going into English will be like a cold shower. It will take an emotional toll and an educational toll.''