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 News from Around the Americas | September 2007 
Utah Hires Mexican Teachers
 Roxana Orellana - Salt Lake Tribune
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 |  | She speaks my language and because I've recently arrived, she can translate what I don't understand.
- Ariana Bernuy |  | |
Ariana Bernuy walked up to her teacher with a handful of paper. "Los boto?" ("Do I throw them away?") the fourth-grader asked.
"Si," responded Alejandra Esquivel, a new teacher at Stansbury Elementary School, in West Valley, Utah.
For students such as Bernuy, starting the school year with a bilingual teacher such as Esquivel is a welcome relief. "She speaks my language and because I've recently arrived, she can translate what I don't understand," Bernuy said in Spanish.
Esquivel is one of 10 teachers hired this summer from Mexico as part of an agreement between Utah and the Mexican Ministry of Education.
The state's new visiting-teacher program allows the teachers to legally work in public schools in "high-need" areas for up to three years. Their salaries and benefits are the same as those of Utah teachers who have similar experience, according to the agreement.
"They had to pass a very stringent interview process all done in English," said Richard Gomez, educational equity coordinator at the Utah State Office of Education. The 10 teachers were chosen from a pool of 40 to 50 pre-qualified candidates during interviews in Mexico City.
Gomez said all the candidates were assessed in a variety of skills, from their level of language fluency to experience in the classroom.
"It's a great experience not only for me but for the students," said Esquivel, who last week completed her second week of classes at Stansbury.
"The people who can barely speak Spanish we can help a lot as well as those parents who have difficulty with the language (English) so they can help their kids at home to improve their performance."
Esquivel is one of three visiting teachers at Stansbury.
The district placed the women at Stansbury because about half of its students are Latino, said Randy Ripplinger, Granite School District spokesman.
Critics of the program have asked why bilingual teachers were not recruited in Utah or elsewhere in the United States.
"The fact of the matter is, there aren't enough teachers in Utah and there certainly are not enough who are bilingual," Ripplinger said. "We have in our district a very high percentage of teachers who are ESL (English as a second language) endorsed."
Those teachers can sit down and teach a child English. But what they can't do, Ripplinger said, is talk to parents about their children and help them get connected with their education.
Esquivel hopes she can help more students see that they can pursue higher education rather than just finding a job after high school.
"There is great capacity here from what I have seen. They have responded well. To see me here and tell them not to limit themselves and to continue studying, it encourages them," Esquivel said. |
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