‘The road to success’ is paved with Spanish sounds

The first wave of kindergartners enrolled in ‘El camino al exito’ are excelling in reading

By Jennifer Clampet

The Times, Nov 15, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jennifer Clampet / The Times

SOUNDING OUT SUCCESS — Instructional assistant Kerry Gavett focuses on pronuncing Spanish sounds with a group of kindergartners in the “El camino al exito” Spanish intervention program at Metzger Elementary.

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TIGARD – Kerry Gavett and Sandy Burnett, instructional assistants at Metzger Elementary School, think they may have found the true “road to success” for young Spanish students struggling to read.

This year six elementary schools in the Tigard-Tualatin School District are using a new Spanish intervention program for kindergartners that in its first year had a 100 percent success rate in a pilot program at Metzger.

“El camino al exito” (“The road to success”) is a 129-lesson, five-volume intervention program for young Spanish students, created by Gavett and Burnett. The program targets kindergartners and first-graders identified as needing intervention in their Spanish language instruction.

All 14 students enrolled in the program last year met the district’s benchmark assessment standards for Spanish reading developed by the University of Oregon.

In the Tigard-Tualatin School District, students who are determined to be stronger in the Spanish language when they first enter school are enrolled in a Spanish native-language instruction program. Some educators, like those in Tigard-Tualatin, believe that by teaching students in their native languages, students can learn a second language more easily. Spanish native-language instruction continues until the fourth grade when students begin a transition into English.

However, a lack of intervention sources and material has been frustrating to educators who watch as Spanish-speaking students struggle, said Metzger Elementary School Principal Karen Twain.

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