SAN BENITO — Instruction for English language learners is about to get an upgrade.
The San Benito school district has implemented a new bilingual model after board approval this past summer.
Raul Trevino, the executive director of leadership and performance at San Benito CISD, said this will be the first year of implementation for the early exit model.
For the past 20 years, the district has been going off of a late exit system that kept students learning English in bilingual classes from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade.
Once students entered middle school, they were placed into completely English classrooms which were jarring for students, Trevino said.
Early exit will allow students who exit from the bilingual program to transition to all English instruction as soon as students are ready and as early as first grade.
“We reviewed the data and the performance of the middle school grades and decided it was time to change,” Trevino said.
Student test scores took a dramatic dip after the transition, Trevino said.
The early exit model is becoming increasingly more popular among districts in the Valley.
“The trend is to move to early exit,” Trevino said.
While moving bilingual students into English classrooms sooner sounds premature, it keeps students from regressing.
Trevino said this course of action moves students into all-English instruction when they’re ready and prevents any loss of understanding.
Up until sixth grade, students are allowed to pick the language in which they take their standardized tests.
The languge of the test determines the language of instruction.
“When they get to that point of transition, they might choose Spanish to test in and instead of transitioning, what could’ve been happening gets minimized,” Trevino said.
The new system will benefit about 2,700 students that account for 26 percent of the school district’s population.
What is an early exit?
Students learning to speak English will be allowed to transition to English classrooms when they are ready and as early as first grade.
What is a late exit?
For the past 20 years, students were kept in bilingual instruction up until sixth grade. Once students entered middle school, they were placed in English classrooms.
School district
By the numbers
• 20 campuses
• More than 10,000 students
• 26 percent English language learners
