VAIL VALLEY. Colorado — From his own childhood, Eugene Garcia knows how daunting school in Colorado's Vail Valley and elsewhere can be when you don't speak fluent English.

“I spoke Spanish as a primary language,” he said, noting he grew up the son of migrant workers in Grand Junction. “I came from a home that was poor in one way and rich in another.”

Garcia spoke to Eagle County School District employees Wednesday about how to motivate students for whom English is a second language. A vice president of education partnerships for Arizona State University and a member of President Barack Obama's education transition team, Garcia spoke at a conference in Beaver Creek on motivating and engaging students.

In studies, Latino students cite cultural barriers as the reason why they dropped out of school, Garcia said.

“They essentially come to the conclusion: This place is not for me,” he said. “I am not respected here.”

That's why Garcia said it's so important for teachers to respect Spanish-speaking students. He recalled how when he was a kid in Grand Junction, teachers changed his sister's name from Ciprinita to Elsie because they couldn't pronounce it.

Achievement gap

Motivating Spanish-speaking students is highly relevant to the Eagle County School District, where many students in the district speak Spanish as their first language.

The school district is enrolled in a three-year state pilot program called Closing the Achievement Gap.

That program addresses the disparities in how students from different income levels are performing on standardized tests, and it reaches out to students for whom English is a second language, said Tera Gall, math director for the Colorado Alliance Achievement Team, with EdisonLearning, Inc. in Denver.

Through Closing the Achievement Gap, which went into effect in November, students in grades three through 10 took monthly tests on the curriculum, so teachers could figure out what things kids are struggling with and change the way they teach the material, Gall said.

This year the program will continue with more training for principals and teachers on how to engage English language learners, she said.

Speaking the language

One way to respect Latino culture is to learn Spanish, Garcia said. All teachers should know Spanish, but it's especially critical in the younger grades, he said.

“Everyone should know another language,” he said. “Everyone in the United States. We're too marginalized by not knowing other languages.”

For teachers who don't know Spanish, Garcia recommends enrolling in a Spanish course through the local community college and traveling to Mexico.

That's exactly what Jake Gasau did. He's the music teacher at Edwards Elementary, where he said just over half of his students speak English as a second language.

Gasau spent a year in Mexico, teaching English in a small school and learning Spanish. Now he incorporates songs he heard in Mexico into his classes and posts signs of music terms in both English and Spanish.

Reaching out to families

To reach out to families of her Latino students, Minturn Middle School teacher April Slagle calls parents, using a translator if necessary.

If she doesn't see parents on back to school night, sometimes she'll make visits to the parents' homes to introduce herself. That way, parents can put a face to the teacher's name.

“I'm not just somebody at school who's abstract,” she said. “I'm somebody who cared enough to come meet them on their terms.”

Garcia said reaching out to the families, especially moms, of Latino students is very important to their success.

Speaking to family members in Spanish can build trust, he said. So can opening up an ongoing dialogue. He suggests writing letters to family members to get to know them on.

Spanish as an asset

Garcia said teachers should highlight the assets Spanish-speaking students bring to the classroom.

Jenelle Gillis, a second grade teacher at Gypsum Elementary, does just that with her Spanish-speaking students.

“I tell them ‘you can teach me.'” she said. “I'm Spanish as well but I'm from the Caribbean, so our dialects are different. They're always teaching me new words and new phrases and how to say things.”