Federal regulation of bilingual education was likely inevitable, as the late 1950's and early sixties brought an influx of Cuban immigrants, refugees and migrant workers into Florida's counties. The overwhelming need to promote racial harmony in the communities, advance cultural assimilation and provide a useful education to all of the children prompted Dade County officials armed with the Ford Foundation funding to pilot a Bilingual-Bicultural education program. The experimental program would bring together both English and Spanish speaking children with the expressed intent of making both groups into functioning bilinguals. The general aim was to move toward linguistic and cultural enrichment for the total school population and the school's immediate communities, while experiencing the least amount of disruption to the already existing culture.
Florida's Dade County boasts the success of their early model program in Bilingual Education. The 1963 goal of the Dade County School District was to create functional bilinguals who would maintain both languages throughout their school years from Kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12.) Designed for both English and Spanish speaking children, the program worked well in its pilot stage and quickly grew to include a number of elementary and secondary schools in the district. Unfortunately, like past immigration policy, it too fell victim to federal funding and government regulations. Once under the influence of federal guidelines the program aimed at transition to English with no support for native language beyond merely surviving in their other courses.
Although ambitious in its aim to maintain the culture of both groups in a common public setting, (but with private funding) the original program was piloted in just one school, Coral way Elementary School whose population, like so many other schools in the county had recently changed to consist of a vast number of language minorities (LM.) For the most part, many of the new immigrants constituted a non-English speaking group. Another segment of the migrating population was classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP.) Additionally there were those for whom English was a first language.
The model program was structured to offer the children of Coral Way Elementary School an equal attempt at cultural exchange, a validation of their native cultural practices, a non-threatening environment in which to learn and a solid footing between their two worlds. The curriculum design included equal access to opportunities for transitional learning and maintenance of one's own culture.
What worked at Coral Way Elementary School in the early sixties was a combination of appealing curriculum, in both languages; a clear concept of the program's goals; thoughtful planning and competent staff. A.M. Sessions -all same first language groups (Spanish or English) received instruction in that language for all academic subjects; Midday Sessions -both student groups mixed for lunch, art, music, physical education- and both faculty groups mixed to exchange information about the group's progress and coordinate lesson plans; P.M. Sessions -both groups of students received reinforced morning lessons in second language.
Included in this successful formula is recognition of the foresight and groundwork of the project's leaders, Pauline Rojas and program director /curriculum coordinator, Ralph Robinett. Both former educators on the island of Puerto Rico thought it necessary to begin working with children from their points of strength. In this scenario children would receive instruction for learning in the language with which they were most familiar and concurrently learn a second language.
Some accolades also go to the students who were open to the idea of learning and who achieved in both language curriculums. Then there were the parents who accepted the school's plan. For English -speaking parents there was the concern that their children would suffer by being in classes that were taught in a foreign language. They felt that students who didn't readily grasp the English language should be given some alternative provisions. That was in direct contrast to the predominantly Spanish -speaking parents who readily accepted the idea that their children would benefit from both languages.
The intent was to provide a program of instruction such that Spanish- speaking children would achieve as much success in learning as they would in a monolingual (Spanish) class and improve their command of the English language. Using the same logic, English-speaking children would gain a measurable proficiency in the use of Spanish and at the same time maintain or improve their levels of success in English classes. The district's annual evaluation showed that students in bilingual programs performed at levels that were comparable to students who were instructed in monolingual classes.
Emphasis was rightly placed on goals of achievement for all children. Because the program received no federal funding, it abided by no federal regulations. If the underlying concern was assimilation, the program worked. It appears to have been a single goal supported by a fundamental desire for cultural sharing and learning combined with an effective method of dealing with two dominant languages, in one school setting and buttressed by a general acceptance of immigrants to America. The Dade County School was able to serve as an acceptable model for other Florida districts who found themselves in similar situations with their LEP immigrant populations.