OXNARD : School District Gets $1.2-Million Grant

The tiny Ocean View Elementary School District in south Oxnard has received a five-year, $1.2-million federal grant to improve bilingual education, officials said Thursday.

Ocean View was one of only 32 school districts in the United States to get the Title VII Bilingual Education Grant, said Paul Chapman, president of the school board.

The money will be used to provide a variety of educational and support programs aimed at improving the grades and English fluency of students who primarily speak Spanish, said Marcia Turner, the district’s project coordinator.

About 48% of the district’s 2,500 students have limited English skills, Turner said.

One strategy will be to boost student achievement by increasing parental involvement in education, she said. The district will create a family center, for instance, where guardians can learn how to encourage their children to achieve, Turner said.

The center would also offer after-school soccer, arts and crafts and other activities designed to keep students and their siblings off the streets, she said.

About 100 instructors in the kindergarten- through eighth-grade district, meanwhile, will learn how to more effectively teach math, reading and English to Spanish-speakers.

Another goal will be to move students more quickly from bilingual programs to English-only classes, Turner said. Students with limited English proficiency tend to drop out more frequently and score lower on standardized tests, she said.

“When we look at what makes a difference in student achievement, it comes up again and again that the family and parental involvement is the key,” she said.