FOR AS LONG as he can remember, 8-year-old Jonathan Vilches has spoken better English than his parents. But according to state standards, his English fell short of what is needed to master academic subjects.
That changed last week when Jonathan was officially reclassified as fluent in English along with 42 classmates at Venetia Valley School in San Rafael.
"It feels really good," Jonathan said.
Jonathan and his classmates are among hundreds of English learners who are reclassified as fluent in Marin each year. In the decade ending in 2010-11, roughly one in eight English learners were reclassified each year for a total of 4,500 newly fluent students.
As the number of English learners has grown in Marin, schools have increased their focus on teaching the language, a key step toward success in advanced subjects.
"This is a base to help our kids move forward," said Claudia Garcia, a mother who sits on an English learner advisory committee at Venetia Valley.
Garcia was a teenager when she immigrated to the United States in 1987, and it has taken her years to learn English. Her oldest daughter, Kristal, surpassed her nine years ago, becoming fluent as a third-grader at Venetia Valley.
Now a senior at Terra Linda High School, Kristal says growing up bilingual has given her a leg up as she prepares to start college.
"It is a gift that we all need to cherish, a gift that will open more doors and create new paths, a gift that will take us further than we expect," she said last week in an address to newly fluent students at Venetia Valley.
Like many English learners in Marin, Kristal was born in the United States but grew up in a Spanish-speaking home. She said she is now grateful that when she spoke to her parents in English they pretended not to understand so she would also learn Spanish.
"It is important that we, as kids, never forget our home language, so speaking it with our parents is very important," she said. "For our parents, they will eventually learn, if not at least understand the English language on their own time."
English learners receive at least 30 minutes of specialized instruction each day at Venetia Valley while other students receive enrichment, said Assistant Principal Mari Kernan, who previously oversaw English language instruction for San Rafael City Schools. Students who are new to the country — a tiny fraction of English learners — receive more intensive instruction.
Most younger students learn English quickly in school regardless of whether it is spoken at home, Kernan said. And those who become bilingual often perform well in their classes.
"By the time they get to high school they are usually outperforming English-only kids," she said.
However, learning academic-level English is more challenging once students reach middle school.
"They fossilize," she said. "They sort of don't move forward."
English learners are tested for language skills each year, but to be classified as fluent they must also hit math and English targets on traditional standardized tests. Teacher evaluations and parent consultations also weigh into reclassification decisions.
"It's not a matter of your basic playground talk," said Suzi Hirshfield, who coordinates English language instruction and other programs for the Novato Unified School District. "It's, 'Have they acquired the English skills to tackle academic content?'"
Among the roughly 4,200 English learners in Marin last year, 79 percent attended San Rafael and Novato schools, and 5 percent attended West Marin's Shoreline Unified School District, which had the next highest concentration.
At some schools English learners make up a sizeable chunk of the population, including 46 percent of students at Venetia Valley and a majority of students at Laurel Dell, Short, Bahia Vista and San Pedro elementary schools in San Rafael. In Novato, Loma Verde Elementary had Novato's highest concentration of English learners with 42 percent of the student body.
"It's become a primary focus in Novato, to move our English learners along," Hirshfield said.
Oliver Sagastume, a seventh-grader at Venetia Valley, said the high concentration of Spanish-speaking students helped him learn English after he arrived from Guatemala about six years ago. Classmates often translated schoolwork for him and taught him new English words, he said.
Now he is considered fluent in English.
"I feel proud to be in the United States and have a new language," he said. "I'll have more opportunities here."