1996_05 Insight May 1996

              MAY 8, 1996
Insight
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
VOL. 27, NO. 23
Bill puts price on schools' Mure to teach
I College remediation
costs targeted
by Troy Wagner
Stall Writer
"I have the two extremes in my classes.*'
Bentz said. "Those that have no skills at all
and (hose lhat are taking the class to brush up
on iheir skills."
Bern/ teaches three sections of Math ILR.
Basic Mathematics Skills, offered to incoming freshmen scoring lower than 350 on the
Entry Level Mathematics (ELM) lest.
'"There are some students in my classes who
haven't taken a math course since they were
sophomores in high school," Bentz said. "It's
very easy for them to forget some of thc concepts.
"A lol of these students tell me that thc class
has been such a help — such a boost that it
has helped them prepare for advanced courses
later on."
AB 2631 charges school districts
But if stale Assemblyman Brooks Firestone
(R-Los Olivos) has his way, a brush up of
skills could be costly to California school districts.
Assembly Bill (AB) 2631. otherwise
known as the Academic Warranty Act of 1996.
cleared another hurdle last week when it was
passed by the Assembly Committee on Education with a 7-2 vote.
The bill, authored hy Firestone, stales that
it "would make thc apportionment of tumls
for school districts subject to offset for the
costs of remedial instruction in English or
mathematics provided by the University of
California. California Slate University and
California Community Colleges."
Specifically. AB 2631 targets students who
earned a high school grade point average of
3.0 or higher that are forced to enroll in remedial English and-mathematics courses in
their first year in college because of low scores
on basic skills tests such a% the ELM or English Placement Test (EPT).
"Thc current system is misleading our stu
dents." said Firestone, chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. "A high
school diploma, with top grades, should be
indicative of the student's ability to succeed
in higher education. Increasingly, it is not."
Remedial skills below average
According to the most recent statistics from
California State University system, nearly 70
percent of Fresno State students in 1994 were
unprepared for aillege-level mathematics
courses and more than 50 percent of Fresno
State students were unprepared for college-
level English courses.
The average for the entire CSU system had
54 percent of incoming first-year students
needing remedial education in mathematics
and 49 percent needing remediation in En
glish.
Firestone believes that California's colleges
should not have to spend money teaching the
English and mathematics skills that students
should have learned years earlier.
In 1994, CSU estimates that remedial instruction cost its system about $ 10 million.
If AB 2631 passes. California's public colleges and universities would be reimbursed
for up to $20 per clock hour of remedial instruction provided.
Florentino Noriega. Fresno Unified School
District associate superintendent, feels that a
set price should not be put on the education
of students at any level.
"Right now. thc university system does not
See REMEDIAL, page 9
SPEAKING
* LANGUAGE
t first glance. Room 11 at
^B Lincoln Elementary
School in West Fresno
may seem like any other
st grade classroom.
Papier-mache crafts are stapled
the door. Stuffed animals are
jitered throughout the play area.
There
. hoi
and many others.
No one is speaking English.
Room 11 is a bilingual education classroom.
It is filled with 30 Spanish-
speaking students taking their first
steps into the world of the English
language. There is a classroom like
this in every elementary school in
Fresno and Clovis.
The lesson of the day involved
mathematics. The teacher stood at
the front of the room and ad-
TEAM
REPORT
Matt Croce
Valerie Gibbons
Guy E. Sharwood
mmmwm
dressed two squirming 6-year-olds
lhat were perched over a worksheet,
gnawing on their number two pencils.
The question posed lhat morning:
"Que' es cinco y dos?" In other words.
"What is jjv^e plus two?"
NancyDavis. director of special
projects for the Clovis Unified School
District (CUSD), said there are 2.778
Limited English Proficiency (LEP)
students in the district, from kindergarten through high school.
Of that number. 1.378 are of
Hmong descent, w hile 949 are Spanish speaking.
"We have about 41 total languages
spoken by kids throughout the district." Davis said. 'Two are dominant.
while the other 39 are scattered. So
most ofour bil ingual education teachers teach Hrhong and Spanish. Those
two languages are our main concerns."
In Fresno Unified School District,
there arc 25.567 LEP students. Of that
number, 17,707 are at the elementary
level.
"Fresno Unified has one ofthe largest bilingual programs in the state."
said Bill Garrison, a program analyst
for the district. "There are several different programs that we use to introduce the students to the English lan
guage.
£3 Teaching in two languages
J J The first step in the testing pro-
"™ cess is to assess thc students* ability to grasp the English language.
Various tests decide thc level of
English instruction that is appropriate. Students arc placed in one of
three categories, contigence on how
well they can speak English.
Students who received the lowest
test scores require teachers with a
Bilingual/Cross-Cultural and Academic Development (BCLAD) degree.
BCLAD teachers instruct students
Insight photo by Valerie Gibbons   „,u„;r„^m,    ,    „
Signs adorning a bilingual classroom at Lincoln Elementary in '".-terSSXnn ah
Fresno help students adjust to a new language. J*™ Z!?S
Insight photo by Valerie Qbhoot
Bilingual education reaches the first grade class at Lincoln Elementary in Fresno.
our teachers teach in Spanish and five
leach in Hmong. We also have 17
training in Spanish and two in
Hmong."
Both California Stale University.
Fresno and Fresno Pacific University
offer classes leading to a BCLAD credential.
In 1994-95. there were 93 bilingual
students graduating from Fresno State
with teaching credentials, up from 36
the year before.
"'Some of our teachers working on
iheir BCLAD degrees are at Fresno
State and Fresno Pacific." Davis said.
'"They have very good programs."
Students w ho show improvement in
English are placed into the next level
of the program. Instructors at the second level arc required to hold a Cross-
Cultural Language and Academic
Development credential (CLAD).
Advancing English skills
In CUSD. 80 teachers hold a CLAD
credential and 180 more are in training. CLAD teachers help students
further their English development
before they can be mainstreamed
into regular classrooms.
This process is helped by the
Specialized Designed Academic
Instruction in English iSDAIE)
program which relies on multimedia and other tools.
With SDAJE, the student can put
the English terms together with
their images and leam the core academic curriculum such as math
and social sciences, in the English
See BIUNGUAL, page 3
Food Services bids for FCC contract
I Food vendors will
give FCC students
more choices
by Caryn Carrasco
Staff Writer
The recent proposal made by Fresno
City College to bring in franchise food
vendors has Jim Prince smiling as big
as Carls Jr's Happy Star.
"I think it's a win-win situation."
said Prince. California State University. Fresno's director of food services.
'"They get out of their losses and we
provide students with franchise food."
Prince said about the proposal.
If chosen, Fresno State food services will move into FCC's cafeteria
and open fast food restaurants like
Taco Bell and Rpjjnd Table.
Prince sees an opportunity for
profit.
"I'm greedy," Prince said. "I approached them."
According to Prince, FCC's current
food service is like Fresno State's
about 5 years ago.
"It's outdated," Prince said. "They
are losing money because of their system."
If chosen. Fresno State would pay
FCC out of their profits.
"They won't be losing money any
longer because wc will be paying
them a percentage of our gross profits," Prince said.
According to Jim Sharpe, vice
chancellor of business at FCC. the
proposal states that the money for the
changes will be provided by the chosen vendor.
Prince said if Fresno State is chosen, they will raise thc required funds.
"We will either get the money from
a reserve or borrow against that one
particular operation. We're only talking about $150,000," Prince said.
More choices for students
Sharpe said there has been ongoing concern about the cafeteria's
money losses.
Bringing franchise food vendors to
FCC will increase choices for students, provide longer service hours
and improve the atmosphere.
Prince and Sharpe have spoken
about the proposal.
""But we can't assume that Fresno
State will get the contract,'* Sharpe
said. "The proposal is out so that
many vendors have the chanceto give
us a bid.
Insight photo by Tommielynn Del Real
The lines stay pretty short even in the middle of the lunch hour at
Fresno City College.
"Fresno State is a serious candidate,
but this is an open process," Sharpe
said. i,
Merriots, a "fast-food vendor, was
another candidate Sharpe mentioned.
Cafeteria's business declines
The lunch-lady-style cafeteria food
currently has students running as far
from campus as possible for meals.
"We are getting slower and slower.
I guess people- go off campus, we
don't get much busier than this." said
Sourya Syhalath, an FCC cafeteria
cashier during a slow lunch hour.
"I don't know what will happen if
See FOOD, page 10
New food labels
show what's within
by Troy Wagner
Staff Writer
Roger Ikeda. 44. stared through
the glass doors at the frozen food
section of Albertson's on the
southeast corner of First and
Bullard.
He couldn't decide what he
wanted for dinner.
"I'm trying to watch myself,"
Ikeda said grabbing his gut —
prominent through his black San
Francisco Giants T-shirt — with
both hands. "I have to stop eating
fatty foods."
Thanks to the Food and Drug
Administration's (FDA) Nutrition
Labeling and Education Act of
1990 (NLEA), Ikeda can simply
read the label to see what is in the
food he is eating.
"Reading labels can be really
helpful," said Ikeda. "They take
all of the guesswork out when I
go grocery shopping.
"If I'm nol sure how healthy
something is, all I have to do is
look at the label. There is no excuse for buying unhealthy foods
anymore."
The labeling of all roods — except for meat and poultry products, fresh fruits and vegetables —
became mandatory in Jan. 1994 *
with the NLEA, which was later
amended by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of
1994.
The foods exempt from mandatory labeling include: meat and
poultry products, food served for
immediate consumption (hospital
cafeterias, airplanes), ready-to-eat
food mat is not for immediate consumption but is prepared primarily
on-site (bakeries, delis), food
shipped in bulk and medical foods.
Plain coffee and tea, some spices
and oiher foods that contain no sig-
See LABELS, pagel