Sorting out details
State regulations require TISD to offer a bilingual education program for any language with 20 or more students in a grade level across all campuses, according to an Oct. 14 presentation from Director of Multilingual Programs Paloma Moreno. TISD leaders plan to request an exemption for the 2024-25 school year since qualified Vietnamese language instructors haven’t been found to teach the program.
District leaders will continue to search for certified teachers, Superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora said Oct. 14.
“When we looked into that last year, [we] weren't very successful,” Salazar-Zamora said. “...There are several districts kind of in the same situation. ... This is something we're monitoring closely, because the numbers do continue to creep up, and they're staying there.”
Put in perspective
Districtwide, TISD has about 167 Vietnamese-speaking students in need of a bilingual program, which means 11 teachers are needed, according to the presentation. The district has one Vietnamese language teacher that travels to different classes in need, Moreno said.
According to Moreno’s presentation, TISD grades with 20 or more Vietnamese-speaking students in need of a bilingual program are:
- Pre-K and Early Education with 28 students
- Second grade with 27 students
- Kindergarten with 26 students
- First grade with 22 students
- Fourth grade with 21 students
TISD has 3,375 Emergent Bilingual students—which include bilingual, English as a Second Language and alternate language program students—according to Moreno’s presentation. The district’s students speak 85 total languages with the most common ones being Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese/Mandarin, Portuguese and Arabic.
According to the presentation, campuses with the highest Emergent Bilingual student populations include:
- Creekside Park Elementary School with 387
- Tomball High School with 322
- Rosehill Elementary school with with 317
- Tomball Memorial High School with 263
- Timber Creek Elementary School with 236
