Beltran pushes beyond test scores
Campus Times
May 17, 2002
Former Azusa School District Principal Valerie Beltran began a full-time
teaching position in June 2001 after a five-year part-time teaching dedication
to the university. Beltran teaches English as a second language students
and CLAD certification programs. The CLAD is a certification for teachers
that demonstrates the skills needed to work effectively with second language
students, which started in the summer of 1996.
Valerie Beltran knows what today's school systems lack. Beltran became
a full-time assistant professor of education at the University of La Verne
during the summer of 2001.
Since the state has placed a lot of pressure on raising standardized
test scores, schools have decreased, and in some cases eliminated programs
that have nothing to do with English or math, Beltran said.
"Our No. 1 goal should be producing well-rounded children,"
Beltran said. "Children that can appreciate music, know about the arts,
know how to get along with each other and respect different cultural backgrounds."
Beltran wrote the program for and teaches classes in the Cross Cultural
Language and Academic Development program. She also teaches classes in the
Bilingual Cross Cultural Language and Academic Development program at ULV.
When students graduate from the education program at ULV, they are either
CLAD or B-CLAD certified. CLAD certified teachers are trained to work with
students who are learning English.
"The CLAD class is designed to give perspective teachers strategies
and the rational to teach students to have all the opportunities that the
native English speakers have. It is a good feeling to know that they are
better prepared," Beltran said.
The B-CLAD certificate is for teachers who will teach in Spanish and
emphasizes integrating different aspects of the culture into the classroom.
Teaching was not part of Beltran's plans. During her undergraduate schooling,
she majored in Spanish, sociology and psychology.
"Growing up, my mom was a teacher and I had to grade papers and
cut out letters. I never wanted to be a teacher," Beltran said.
Being the middle child of two brothers lead to an interesting childhood
in Chicago. She remembers playing outside in a fenceless community until
it was dark, something she said is rarely found today.
"My older brother and I are total opposites. I use to drive him
crazy because I always had friends over and he was very quiet," Beltran
said.
Her older brother is a pharmacist in Texas and her younger brother is
a lawyer in Nebraska.
Once Beltran finished her undergraduate degree, her mother moved to
California. There was a high demand for bilingual teachers, but her mother
was not bilingual.
Because Beltran was bilingual, she moved to California in 1988 and schools
in the Azusa Unified School District were willing to hire her as a teacher
without any credentials. After working for three years as a teacher in the
district she worked for the Bonita Unified School District for two years.
Beltran then worked for the federal grant program, Title 7, in Azusa.
The program was in charge of strengthening bilingual programs in three
different elementary schools. She was also the head of the assessment center,
which helped non-English speaking students in the school system.
By 1998, she became a principal in Azusa while working on her doctorate
degree at ULV.
Her future plans include finishing her dissertation, developing as a
teacher and staying current with hiring in different school districts. This
will keep her graduating students up to date with the job market in the
teaching field.
Being a mother of a six-year-old, 14-year-old and 17-year- old has also
posed an interesting experience.
Her husband, Jaime, escaped El Salvador after being a political prisoner
of the Civil War in 1998.
One night her friend called a Spanish radio show that discussed the
Civil War and Jaime called the radio station after recognizing the familiar
voice.
"They both had graduated from the University of Santa Ana in El
Salvador. They both had been captured and tortured in the war and neither
of them knew that they were in Los Angeles," Beltran said.
Two weeks after the distant friends reunited, Beltran met her future
husband at a cultural get together and remembers hitting it off that same
day.
After marrying, the couple sent for Jaime's son and daughter who still
lived in El Salvador. The children arrived in America without knowing English,
but adapted well.
Now her oldest daughter is enrolled in advanced placement classes and
is starting to learn French. Her other two children are doing well in school.
Beltran emphasizes that parental support and improving the school system
are the keys to help today's children succeed as individuals.
