Same Warnings Sounded as Schools Eye Money for Disadvantaged Kids Again Education voiceofsandiego.org

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Same Warnings Sounded as Schools Eye Money for Disadvantaged Kids Again

By EMILY ALPERT

San Diego Unified has gotten in trouble before for the way it spends federal funds for poorer schools and a new plan is raising similar concerns.

One School Scraps Picture Books, Goes for Novels for English Learners

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  Sam Hodgson

  San Ysidro High teacher Jessica Vargas challenged English learners with more advanced texts than usual.
  

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Posted: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 8:25 pm | Updated: 8:47 pm, Wed Jun 2, 2010.

By EMILY ALPERT

Stuck in a race against time to prime high schoolers fresh to the United States for the high school exit exam, Jessica Vargas and her fellow teachers realized that simple books meant for small children wouldn't cut it.

So they stepped it up.

San Ysidro High School, in the sparse, industrial stretches of Otay Mesa, took the books and readings meant for English learners at the advanced level and gave them to students in the middle level this year. They handed the middle books to kids in the basic level. And so on.