In a nutshell
During the presentation, Alicia Calderon, senior director of bilingual and ESL programs, said the increased emergent bilingual population of around 150-170 students is not as significant as previous years, which have seen a steady increase in the percentage of emerging bilingual students from 11.6% in the 2016-17 school year to over 20% in the current school year.
Calderon said the district’s next steps include increasing student performance on STAAR assessments, improving TELPAS performance, increasing students' proficiency levels and enhancing biliteracy practices. Calderon also noted that the district offers a series of tests to help teachers with professional development.
“We have 12 hours of professional development offered at least five times a year to support their exams, three hours of professional development on content-based language instruction to support instruction in the classroom, and then also the reimbursement for their testing and certification once obtained,” Calderon said.
NEISD ESL teacher update:
- 149 teachers on bilingual waivers
- 25 teachers no longer with the district
- 18 teachers obtained certification
- 135 teachers on ESL waivers
- 10 bilingual teachers with exceptions
