Learners

At some schools, students recognize Mother's Day with paper maché and handmade cards. At Franklin Elementary, Glendale Unified's foreign languages magnet, they serenade their mothers with tunes from Spanish-language headliners Ozomatli and Maná. “They are learning folk songs from all over Spain and Latin America,” said music teacher Sara Quintanar following a performance at the school's third annual Mother's Day breakfast on Monday. “This year is the first year they have learned pop songs.” Quintanar started to give music lessons to her daughter's Spanish-language kindergarten class at Franklin Elementary School three years ago on a volunteer basis.

Gary Moskowitz When teacher specialist Adriana Pestonji teaches her Balboa Elementary School students English-language skills, she's motivated by her past. Pestonji, whose primary language was Spanish, also needed language support as a child, and understands the challenge English-language learners face at school. Results released last month for the California English Language Development Test show that Glendale Unified School District is reclassifying more -- more than 14% -- of its English-language learners as proficient in English, progress Pestonji and other specialists are happy to see. The state average is 8%. "I understand these kids," said Pestonji, 33. "I came from more of the "sink-or-swim" era, growing up in the '70s.

GLENDALE ? The Glendale Unified School District met all three of its state-mandated progress goals for students learning English, according to data for the 2006-07 school year that was recently released by the California Department of Education. The school district met its achievement objectives for English language learners despite the fact that a new, more difficult English language acquisition test was used for the first time last year, said Joanna Junge, director of special projects and intercultural education.

Hasmik Danielian, a co-principal at Hoover High School, spoke to about 1,000 educators last week at a student accountability institute in Santa Barbara. Danielian spoke about how schools with large populations of English-language learners create master planning schedules for the school year. Out of its 2,678 total students, Hoover has 882 English language learners, which is about 33% of the school's population, officials said. Hoover uses a language appraisal team, made up of administrators, teachers, district officials and counselors to study student progress and determine which classes to place English language learners into, Danielian said.

Some of the sixth-graders in a Franklin Elementary School math class were restless and distracted Friday, but that was before they were given a set of pies, rulers and measuring tape. Heads shot to attention and previously preoccupied students scrambled to calculate the circumference and area of the desserts. The activity was part of a lesson on pi — the numerical figure used to calculate some measurements of circular shapes— and was meant to engage students in their learning, said teacher Anna Markaryan, who was teaching alongside Pam Dombroski.

GLENDALE — The Burbank and Glendale unified school districts will receive a combined $330,000 in state grants to bolster English learner programs for elementary and middle-school students, the California Department of Education announced Thursday. Glendale's share of the grants — which have been awarded to districts statewide since the 1999-2000 school year — is $233,900; Burbank will receive $96,400. The funds were among $55.5 million in grants for the English Language Acquisition Program that were doled out to 625 of the 1,051 districts in California this year, said Pamela Lucas, an analyst with the California Department of Education.

Gary Moskowitz Glendale Unified School District is above the state average for non-English speaking students who are becoming proficient in English, according to recent district reports. The district this month released its 2003 Language Census Report, which it is required to do by state law. The report includes statistics on GUSD students whose primary language is not English. The report shows that Glendale Unified this year reclassified more than 15% of its English learners as proficient English speakers.

Who should get the credit for the English language learner success at the Glendale Unified School District? ("District touts its learners' successes," Friday) Should the school district be lauded for its excellence? Or, as contributor to the mailbag Harry S. Bedevian states, it is a shared success not possible without a large Armenian immigrant community infused with a focus on education ("Learners' success is not a one-way street," Monday). Glendale may well be the beneficiary of a wave of highly educated immigrants, where most adults have a college education or some post secondary education at the very minimum.

People have different perceptions about our schools and district. A look at the dictionary tells us that perception, however, is not always reality, particularly when such perception is not based in fact. Perceptions vary from person to person, and different people perceive different things about the same situation. But more than that, we assign different meanings to what we perceive. The following examples highlight three perceptions that the Glendale school staff faced this year, and not one of them was based in fact.

At some schools, students recognize Mother's Day with paper maché and handmade cards. At Franklin Elementary, Glendale Unified's foreign languages magnet, they serenade their mothers with tunes from Spanish-language headliners Ozomatli and Maná. “They are learning folk songs from all over Spain and Latin America,” said music teacher Sara Quintanar following a performance at the school's third annual Mother's Day breakfast on Monday. “This year is the first year they have learned pop songs.” Quintanar started to give music lessons to her daughter's Spanish-language kindergarten class at Franklin Elementary School three years ago on a volunteer basis.

GLENDALE — Pam Zamanis' students divided themselves into three groups — the pros, cons and undecideds. A few minutes later, two students argued the benefits of euthanasia against more than a dozen of their classmates who politely and articulately disagreed. It was controversial and revealing as students made their case. "It's really selfish," eighth-grader Cynthia Ramirez said. "You'll affect everyone if you take your life away. " If the debate seemed high-brow, that's by design, Zamanis said.

Campaign politics are heating up for candidates in the 43rd Assembly District special April 13 primary election, with supporters of two Democratic hopefuls questioning the qualifications of the other. Glendale school board member Nayiri Nahabedian and attorney Mike Gatto have gained key endorsements in a race where they consider each other the main competition. But in the arena of education, with which both candidates identify, they have each been alienated by some of their peers.

Shushanna Petrosyan wrapped up the Pledge of Allegiance and instructed everyone at a recent Glendale Unified School District Board of Education meeting to be seated. “I’m in fifth grade at Horace Mann Elementary School,” she began. Born in Armenia, Shushanna said she enrolled in Glendale Unified four years ago. “I didn’t know a word of English,” she continued. “Three months later, I was speaking faster than all my friends.” Glendale Unified is no stranger to students like Shushanna.

Some of the sixth-graders in a Franklin Elementary School math class were restless and distracted Friday, but that was before they were given a set of pies, rulers and measuring tape. Heads shot to attention and previously preoccupied students scrambled to calculate the circumference and area of the desserts. The activity was part of a lesson on pi — the numerical figure used to calculate some measurements of circular shapes— and was meant to engage students in their learning, said teacher Anna Markaryan, who was teaching alongside Pam Dombroski.

Bowing and speaking in Korean, kindergartners in the Korean Dual Language Program at Mark Keppel Elementary School told their parents on Monday they were thankful for family, friends, food and the opportunity to learn Korean. Parents of the 31 students in the dual-language program gathered at the school for a Thanksgiving food festival to hear how their children were progressing in learning English and Korean, and to sample traditional Korean fare like kimbap — a rice and seaweed roll — and kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish.

GLENDALE ? The Glendale Unified School District met all three of its state-mandated progress goals for students learning English, according to data for the 2006-07 school year that was recently released by the California Department of Education. The school district met its achievement objectives for English language learners despite the fact that a new, more difficult English language acquisition test was used for the first time last year, said Joanna Junge, director of special projects and intercultural education.

Academia has always been a part of Jane Spilios' life. For decades the Glendale resident taught conversational English to foreign-born students at Los Angeles City College. And now in pseudo-retirement, she teaches there part-time. For the Kansas native, school was just easy, and learning came naturally to her, she said. After completing high school, Spilios went to college, majored in English and minored in speech, music and French. She earned her master's degree in speech from USC. When she started teaching at Los Angeles City College, Spilios noticed the difficulty her students had with pronunciation.

GLENDALE — The Burbank and Glendale unified school districts will receive a combined $330,000 in state grants to bolster English learner programs for elementary and middle-school students, the California Department of Education announced Thursday. Glendale's share of the grants — which have been awarded to districts statewide since the 1999-2000 school year — is $233,900; Burbank will receive $96,400. The funds were among $55.5 million in grants for the English Language Acquisition Program that were doled out to 625 of the 1,051 districts in California this year, said Pamela Lucas, an analyst with the California Department of Education.