Robin Alcoba has a fourth grader enrolled at Veterans Elementary School. She said that for the past four months, he’s been sitting in class not learning the Spanish language arts he needs to pass standardized testing at the end of the year.
“I’m feeling really confused and disappointed in the school district,” she said. “We’re already halfway into the year. I don’t know what he’s learned since July.”
She listened in Chula Vista Elementary School District’s last board meeting as one teacher after another spoke up about the struggles they’ve been having teaching kids without the curriculum they need.
“In January of 2025, we went to a biliteracy training, and we were told and showed all the new [2025] materials and were really excited to get them, and then all of a sudden in May, out of nowhere, we were told that we would not be provided that,” said Hedenkamp Elementary dual immersion teacher Anita Lopez. “We have been told to use Chat GPT to help us come up with ideas.”
The district denied telling teachers to use Chat GPT. It also said “teachers received curriculum for the 2025-26 school year based on the language allocation model, which is determined by the instructional minutes allocated to each content area and language.”
Teachers said this model is why they haven’t had the Spanish language arts curriculum all year, and this only affects third- to sixth-grade dual immersion students while English language arts students in the same grades still have their materials.
“There’s a Williams Act, where every student is supposed to have an equitable experience in school,” Alcoba said. “They’re supposed to be given the materials that they need. When you have one grade and one language receiving it and you have another group not, it’s not creating a learning environment that’s equal.”
NBC 7 asked the district several questions: Why haven’t these students had their curriculum for the past four months? Why does this only affect third- to sixth-grade students, and will they still have to take the standardized California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) exam at the end of the year, despite the curriculum they’re missing?
The district has not yet responded.
Rosi Martinez, Chula Vista Educators union president, responded to parent and teacher concerns:
“After meeting with the Superintendent last Friday, I was able to secure that all Adelante materials will be purchased for all Dual Immersion teachers. As part of our Consultation rights, we have been working with the District on strengthening our Dual Immersion program district wide. We are very proud of all the teachers who came to speak to the Board and have their voices heard. We are appreciative of the Superintendent being open to hearing our concerns and pivoting the plan to include more teacher input.”
Alcoba said this effort is too little, too late. She’s thinking about opting her son out of CAASPP testing this year.
“I don’t know what these tests are and how is that going to measure … how fair is that to him? I’m not going to put that stress on him,” she said.
Other parents said they plan to follow suit.
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