Zooming out
The number of emergent bilingual students in the district grew from 461 in the 2021-22 school year to 683 at the end of the 2022-23 school year, said Jessica Solis, bilingual English as a second language coordinator, at an Oct. 16 board meeting.
Additional data provided by Solis showed the number of emergent bilingual students has grown over the past several months with 712 recorded in August. As of Oct. 19, that number had increased to 862 students, making up almost 10% of the district’s enrollment.
Since 2018, the emergent bilingual population in the district has increased by over 350%.
Zooming in
Emergent bilingual students in LHISD receive ESL or dual-language instruction in both English and Spanish. Over 45 languages were represented within the district and almost 70% of all students were at elementary campuses last school year, Solis said.
The majority of these students receive content-based ESL instruction in which all of their core classes teachers are ESL certified. About a third of students receive ESL instruction only by their English and language arts teacher, while some students receive bilingual instruction.
“Our teachers deliver instruction using specific methods that support our students with English language development while making the content comprehensible,” Solis said about the ESL program.
Moving forward, the district is aiming for all elementary teachers as well as English and language arts teachers at the middle and high school level to be ESL certified, Solis said. She said the district submitted 32 waivers and exceptions allowing uncertified staff to teach ESL and bilingual education last school year.
“We continue to search for highly qualified teachers to grow our programs,” Solis said.
What’s next?
The district will focus on the following goals to further support its emergent bilingual students moving forward, Solis said:
- Hiring ESL and bilingual certified teachers
- Continuing its in-house ESL certification test prep course
- Increasing parental involvement
- Closing the gaps on state assessments
- Beginning a newcomer program at middle and high schools
