Two generations of kindergartners at Del Pueblo Elementary School have learned numbers, letters, shapes, and the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic from Lydia Leal.
She has taught many of them their first words in English and has helped their teachers organize classrooms and understand the predominantly low-income community on Denver’s west side.
“She’s truly irreplaceable,” said Del Pueblo principal Dan Villescas.
Kindergarten teacher Kori Leaman Miller agrees: “A lot of what I’ve learned about teaching, I’ve learned from her.”
But after nearly 29 years of hard work and glowing performance reviews, the paraprofessional is about to get canned by the federal government.
“It’s very frustrating,” Leal said. “I feel it’s not fair to me.”
Fairness doesn’t matter.
Under No Child Left Behind, paraprofessionals (teachers aides) are evaluated under a strict formula. To keep their jobs, they must have an associate degree or two years of college, or pass a series of reading, writing and math tests.
Leal grew up in New Mexico where her father worked on the railroad and her mother did housekeeping in a motel.
“The families that sent their kids to college were better off than we were,” she said, so she never even thought about going on to school. But in 1977, the principal at Del Pueblo asked her to help in the kindergarten classroom, and she found she really enjoyed it.
When the No Child Left Behind rules went into effect, she had no trouble passing the reading and writing exams, but she struggled with the math.
“You take these tests on computers,” she said. “They’re timed, and the minutes tick off as you work. It makes me so nervous, I can’t think.”
Then there are those exasperating story problems. “You know, something like two people are going on a trip and they take different routes and they leave at different times and if their walkie-talkies go out after so many miles, how much time will they be unable to communicate?” she said.
It’s enough to make her hyperventilate just thinking about it.
Leal is the first to admit she’s not qualified to teach higher-level math, but Leaman-Miller, who has worked with her for four years, said it shouldn’t matter.
“That kind of math has nothing to do with what we teach in kindergarten,” she said.
What Leal does bring to the classroom is organizational skill, exceptional ability to work with the children and proficiency in both Spanish and English.
Being bilingual is essential, Villescas said. Only 15 percent to 20 percent of the children entering kindergarten at Del Pueblo speak English. While the children learn the language quickly, bilingual teachers give both the pupils and their parents a better shot at adapting to school and succeeding.
Under No Child Left Behind, that’s irrelevant.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Leaman-Miller. “Lydia has all these years of experience and excellent job reviews, and none of it counts. All that matters is she can’t pass a test on something that has nothing to do with her job.”
Villescas said he is giving her every opportunity to keep her job. He wants to see her back at Del Pueblo when the new school year begins in August.
But the clock is ticking.
If she can’t pass the test by June 30, he’ll have to find someone to take her place. Leal is scheduled to take the exam again this week.
She isn’t optimistic.
“I’ve come close to passing it, but I always run out of time before I finish the questions,” she said. And though she’s angry about the prospect of becoming unemployed over a test of something she doesn’t teach, she’s turning the experience into another lesson for all the little children who are drawn to her like a very special grandmother.
“I tell them, ‘Stay in school. You need to study hard and go to college someday.’
“I tell them, ‘Don’t be like me.”‘
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com
