For parents, kids,a joint opportunity

BROCKTON -- Sprawled side by side on the carpet, two preschool boys first built skyscrapers out of blocks, then gleefully knocked them down with plastic dinosaurs. Nearby, a pigtailed 3-year-old conquered a computer game that teaches shapes, colors, and letters. ''I got it!" squealed Nelly Silvia as she moved her cursor to the red triangle.

About 15 preschoolers come four mornings a week here to the Brockton Adult Learning Center's early education program, where they learn English, and the ways of a new culture. While they do, their parents are upstairs doing much the same thing. Immigrants from Haiti, Cape Verde, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere come here to improve their literacy in hopes of finding better jobs.

''My English is much better. Now I can talk to my kids and their teachers," said Laurinda Goncalves, a 35-year-old Cape Verdean native who works at a cleaning company. ''Last year I didn't understand. When I understand, I'm happy."

Like English classes for non-native speakers statewide, the family program has a lengthy waiting list. It is on safe financial footing, given that it's financed by local and state grants, but similar programs -- called Even Start -- are threatened by deep budget cuts. Massachusetts later this year will lose $2 million in federal money for its 22 programs. State education officials say they can keep the programs running for another year but, without additional funding, would then have to close most of them.

Supporters say the programs are needed to help reduce poverty and provide academic support for immigrants and their children.

A recent federal survey found that about 1 in 20 adults in the United States were not functionally literate in English and that the literacy rate had remained flat from 1992 to 2003. Those who lacked basic English skills earned less than half the salary paid to employees proficient in English.

Gilberto Mendes, 38, has benefited from improving his English. He moved to Massachusetts from Angola in 1989, and has been taking classes at the Brockton center for five years. He speaks English fairly well, but wants to be closer to fluent so he can advance at work. He already has been promoted from an entry-level position to an assistant account manager at a cleaning company.

Many of the students work multiple jobs but carve out 12 hours each week so they and their children can learn the language and better assimilate into American society.

Anibal Miranda, a 40-year-old who moved to Massachusetts from Cape Verde in 1998, is studying English in the hopes of pursuing his GED and taking classes at community college. The classes also helped his son Joshua, 6, get a jump-start on kindergarten.

''When he was here, he learned to count and to draw," he said. ''Now he's very smart."

The family-learning program builds on its own success, coordinators say, because parents and children can learn from each other.

Marie-Lucie Morancie, 26, originally from Haiti, said her son, 4-year-old Roosevelt, is picking up the language like a sponge. ''He counts his numbers, writes his name," she said. ''It's a good thing. I am so happy because I can learn from him."

But in the long term, parents can best help their children do well in school by mastering the language themselves, according to Linda Braun, who coordinates the adult learning center. ''Parents' education connects directly with their children's achievement," she said.

Cathy Moore, who teaches the preschoolers, said she updates the parents frequently on their child's progress, which is typically rapid, she said. Knowing their parents are nearby helps many of the children feel at home, Moore said.

This is not a school that most students need to be prodded into attending. Goncalves's 3-year-old son, Danny Resende, took an immediate shine to the place. ''He wakes me up each morning, saying ''Mommy, Mommy, we have to go to school,"' reports Goncalves.

On the classroom wall are pictures of the students and their parents. At his teacher's urging, Danny Resende points to the picture of his mother and says: ''She likes to go to school, too."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.