The bumper sticker on the upright piano in the music room says it all: “If you want peace, work for justice.”
Clearly, the folks at Escuela de Guadalupe have a whole different attitude.
While high-dollar educators hover over Denver Public Schools, issuing action plans, developing curricula and trying to find something – anything – that will improve academic achievement among low-income, minority and English- as-a-second-language students, Guadalupe delivers.
Nobody says it’s easy.
Nothing is easy at Guadalupe, from the eight- to nine-hour school days and the regular homework assignments to the ever-present demands on board members to raise funds to keep the little dual-language Catholic elementary school running.
Guadalupe opened as a K-2 program in the old St. Patrick’s School building in northwest Denver in 1999. It has expanded to 120 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, two-thirds of whom qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch.
Serving neighborhood children is a priority, and with tuition at $6,500 a year, nearly all of the children are on scholarship.
Thirty-eight percent of the students arrive at Guadalupe as native Spanish speakers. The rest arrive speaking very little Spanish, despite the fact that the student body is 85 percent Latino. But by the end of fifth grade, all of them are fluent in both languages.
“One of our fifth-grade students visited another school recently and sat in on a sixth-grade Spanish class,” said principal Vernita Vallez. “She came back and told us, ‘I could have taught that class.”‘
Vallez didn’t doubt it. Language is not a class at Guadalupe; it’s every class.
Beginning in kindergarten, all the children are taught half of their classes in English, half in Spanish. That means in alternate weeks they study literature, writing, math, geography, history – everything – in English and Spanish.
The results are obvious, even on the playground where the cacophony from the squealing, giggling children is dual-language all the way.
The results also are demonstrated in tests, which show students perform at or above grade level, and in their graduates’ success in elite schools.
David Card, president of the school, said Guadalupe students move on to Graland Country Day School, Colorado Academy, St. Mary’s Academy, St. Anne’s Episcopal School and other demanding, selective schools.
“Ours is a college-prep culture,” he said, and Guadalupe maintains strong relationships with its graduates and their families, helping them with applications to middle and high schools and assisting them in finding financial aid.
The student-teacher ratio is a lavish 9-to-1, and Vallez said parents also are a big part of the equation.
Even though many of the parents are not high-school graduates, they are expected to support their child’s learning by providing a home environment that complements the school work. They also are expected to volunteer at the school, engage in regular educational projects with their children and abide by the strict attendance policies – no excuses.
One family didn’t return from a Christmas visit to Mexico by the time classes started last month. “That child is no longer at our school,” Vallez said.
All these factors are important to the success of Guadalupe, but the real key is respect.
“There’s very conscientious planning around the fact that learning is about the students, our students,” Vallez said.
“We remind them that when they come to school, they already are communicators. They bring their gifts of language, family and culture to share with the community.”
Nobody is an outsider. Nobody’s language skills are a disadvantage. Nobody’s culture is a threat.
Nobody is an alien.
Every child belongs and every child succeeds.
It’s not impossible.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
