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More Hispanic students here, across state Photo by Jim Craven Second-graders Cristina Godinez and Aaron Martenez work on learning how to knit Friday during a class at Talent Elementary School. Hispanic students make up 16.8 percent of the school's population. Schools adapt to Latino influx By Cathy Noah of the Mail Tribune The number of Hispanic students enrolling in Jackson County schools increased 7 percent this year, continuing a decadelong trend that has swelled some schools' Hispanic populations to a quarter or third of total enrollment. Statewide, the increase in Hispanic enrollment was 9.5 percent, according to fall enrollment figures released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education. The increase kept overall Oregon enrollment on the rise and demonstrated a long-term trend in schools and the state as a whole: increasing diversity in the population. In 1975, minority students totaled only 6 percent of enrollment in Oregon schools. This year, minorities account for 18 percent of students. Most minority students are Latinos. The state's Latino student population has nearly tripled in little more than a decade. Although Hispanic enrollment this year held steady in most local districts, it increased 11.5 percent in the Medford school district to 1,448 students, or 11.7 percent of the total population. Kathy McCollum, district curriculum administrator, said she believes the increase comes not from more migrants moving into the valley, but from migrant workers staying here to raise families. Local school administrators have responded to the burgeoning Hispanic population with new dual-language programs for students, increased language and cultural training for teachers and outreach programs to Hispanic parents. In Jackson Elementary School, for example, where Hispanics account for nearly 36 percent of the population, administrators added dual-language programs in the first and second grades and a Spanish enrichment program in kindergarten. At Phoenix Elementary School, where 28 percent of the population is Hispanic, dual-language classes are offered in kindergarten through fifth grades. The classes are half Anglo, half Latino students and are taught in both English and Spanish. The goal is that by the time the students reach fifth grade, both groups are bilingual. "It's a great program. We're really proud of it," said Principal Lynn Calhoun. "Our kids have a pretty healthy outlook on living and working with other cultures." Dual language programs also are offered at Talent Elementary, where Hispanics make up 16.8 percent of the population. Talent recently started a Hispanic arm of the PTA, Los Puentes, in an effort to reach out to parents of Hispanic students. "We feel pretty well set up to handle the two-language issue," said Tim Mobley, director of curriculum for the Phoenix-Talent School District. "The biggest challenge is trying to get the parents to be included. "All the schools are working to integrate the students and their parents as much as possible." McCollum said most of the increase in Hispanic population in her district has been in the elementary schools as well. But those kids will move into the middle and high schools soon enough, she said. It will mean a change in the way schools handle English as a Second Language students, she said. The ESL program will have to change its approach, from pulling students out of the mainstream classroom to learn English to bringing both languages into integrated classrooms, she said. "The whole district is shifting attitudes to try and increase the success rate of Spanish speakers," McCollum said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA