Emergent Bilingual Coordinator Vanessa Hurtado-Jaramillo presented a bilingual program update to the board of trustees Oct. 20.
Some context
Emergent bilingual, or EB, refers to students who are acquiring the English language.
In CISD’s dual language one-way program, students are classified as non-English-proficient and are learning Spanish and English at the same time, she said. Prekindergarten through first grade students have reading and language, science, and social studies taught in Spanish, while math is taught in English.
CISD’s English as a second language program provides intensive English language instruction by certified ESL teachers who are trained in second language acquisition methods, according to the meeting presentation. All core content teachers in CISD are ESL certified, according to the meeting presentation.
The number of students gaining English proficiency in school has grown exponentially by 398% over the past six school years.
Learn more
There are 54 total languages spoken by CISD families. Some of these languages are Telugu, Spanish, Hindi and Urdu.
In the 2024-25 school year, the district had 121 newcomers which are students who have recently immigrated to the United States. CISD had 78 newcomers at the elementary level, 24 in middle school and 19 in high school, according to the meeting presentation.
Students came from varying countries, including but not limited to:
- China
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- France
- India
- Korea
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Ukraine
- Vietnam
