School Board Talks Bilingual Education

Bilingual education was on the forefront at Monday night’s meeting of the La Grange school board. Kim Miori, coordinator of federal programs and parent involvement, gave a report to the board for the 2015-16 school. 

Currently, the district has 267 students who qualify for bilingual/English as a second language (ESL) services, 100 of which are in the PreK-grade 2 bilingual program. The district does not offer bilingual education to students in grades 3-6 because there is a shortage of bilingual teachers across the state. The district applies for a waiver each year to allow the school to service those students in grades 3-6 through the ESL services. 

It is important to the district to offer these services to the students because they are required to take the STAAR and EOC exams in English in grades 3-12 except where there is a STAAR exam available in Spanish in grades 3-5. 

Teachers across the state of Texas are working to teach English to all of these students, however, research shows that it usually takes seven years to master a new language and these students are being expected to learn it in four. 

La Grange currently has 46 ESL certified teachers, six of whom got their certification this past summer.

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