But now, as school leaders and policymakers nationwide grapple with a shortage of teachers, officials in Tarrant County districts say they’re struggling to find enough educators who are qualified to teach their newly expanded bilingual classes.
A slate of proposals during this year’s regular legislative session would have streamlined the certification process for bilingual teachers with the aim of breaking down roadblocks keeping teaching candidates out of dual language classrooms. Although those proposals got little traction during the regular session, bilingual education advocates hope they might see more progress during a possible special session later this year.
“We know what we need to do to expand programs and to serve more students equitably,” said Chloe Latham Sikes, deputy director of policy for the San Antonio-based Intercultural Development Research Association.
House Bill 3 Boosted Funding for Bilingual Classes
In 2019, Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 3, a massive overhaul of the state’s education funding system. Included in the bill was a provision that increased state funding for students enrolled in dual language immersion programs, meaning districts got a boost in the amount of money they receive for each of those students.
Dual language programs differ from ESL programs in that, where ESL programs focus exclusively on helping the student learn English, dual language programs are designed to help them become fully bilingual. Students typically come into dual language programs in pre-K or kindergarten and get instruction in all subjects in English and another language at the same time, meaning they learn reading, writing and vocabulary in both languages at once. Such programs have been offered in Texas public schools since 1973.
A month after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill, districts across the state added dual language programs or expanded ones they already had. The Dallas Independent School District announced plans to add programs at seven additional schools, and the Houston Independent School District expanded its program into middle schools.
In Tarrant County, several school districts, including the Fort Worth, Northwest and Keller independent school districts, used that money to create new programs at campuses that didn’t have them or add grade levels to programs that were already in place, allowing students to stay in those programs for longer.
Keller ISD Expands Spanish, Vietnamese Language Programs
In Keller ISD, officials added fifth- and sixth-grade Spanish dual language programs at Parkwood Hill Intermediate School and a sixth-grade Spanish program at Fossil Hill Middle School. The district also expanded a Vietnamese dual language program offered at Parkview Elementary School and Fossil Hill Middle School and piloted a two-way dual language Spanish program at Freedom Elementary School.
In two-way dual language classes, half the students are enrolled because they aren’t proficient English speakers, and the other half’s parents opt them into the program. Students who opt into the program may come from families who speak a language other than English at home, or they may be native English speakers whose parents are interested in a bilingual education.
Mara Betancourt Coker, Keller ISD’s director of language acquisition, said the district used the House Bill 3 money to pay for classroom materials like books printed in both English and Spanish. Before, the district could only afford to buy those materials a few at a time, she said.
But Betancourt Coker said finding enough educators to teach those classes has been a struggle. Part of the challenge is finding people who are proficient enough in two languages not only to be able to carry on a conversation, but also to explain concepts like long division and photosynthesis in both languages, she said. Those teachers also need to be able to teach grammar rules in both languages, she said, something that even the most proficient speakers could find difficult.
Over the years, the district has found excellent teachers who went to college in Spanish-speaking countries, Betancourt Coker said, so district leaders could be confident that their language skills would be up to the task. It also found teachers who spoke Spanish as a second language, but were able to cultivate their skills enough that they could do well leading dual language classes, she said.
But since the beginning of the pandemic, teachers of all kinds have reported higher levels of job stress and burnout. Betancourt Coker said that pressure has made it harder to retain the teachers schools need to make those programs successful. When those teachers leave, the district has a hard time recruiting new educators to replace them, she said. Colleges of education in North Texas aren’t producing enough certified bilingual teachers to keep up with demand, she said.
Fort Worth ISD Looks Overseas for Bilingual Teachers
During the 2022-23 school year, 28,829 emergent bilingual students were enrolled in the Fort Worth Independent School District, about 40 percent of the district’s enrollment. While the district didn’t add dual language programs at any schools that didn’t already have one after the bill passed, it expanded programs in schools that already offered them, allowing students who enroll in the program in pre-K or kindergarten to have access to it through fifth grade.
Although the bill wasn’t the thing that prompted those expansions, it still smoothed the process, said Cloris Rangel, the district’s director of bilingual and ESL programs. The district used the extra money to buy more instructional materials that support students who are learning to read in two languages, she said. Schools also got a bump in the amount of money they receive for each bilingual and ESL student enrolled, she said, so much of that money went directly into the classroom.
Like many districts across the state, Fort Worth ISD has struggled since the beginning of the pandemic to find enough teachers of any kind to fill its classrooms. Bilingual programs have presented an even greater staffing challenge, because teachers must have a special certification to teach bilingual classes. Over the past two years, the district has used federal pandemic relief money to get nearly 400 of its own teachers certified to teach bilingual or ESL classes, said Gracie Guerrero, the district’s associate superintendent of leading and learning. That includes training, test reimbursements and a one-time $3,000 stipend for teachers who get certified, she said.
The district has also looked overseas for educators to fill high-need areas, including bilingual education, said Raúl Peña, the district’s chief talent officer. The district started recruiting international teachers for hard-to-fill jobs, also including math, science and special education, in the spring of 2022, and stepped up those efforts this year. The district hires those teachers on H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers who are credentialed to work in a number of specialized fields, including education. More than 20 international candidates are in process for jobs in the district for the upcoming school year, Peña said.
The district has also expanded a program designed to help bilingual students become teachers, he said. The bilingual teacher assistant program pairs college students who are studying to be bilingual teachers with current educators, who can act as mentors while the students work as teacher assistants in their classrooms. The program has grown from five participants in the spring to 24 last month, Peña said.
Bilingual Teacher Shortage Predates Pandemic Workforce Strain
Latham Sikes, the bilingual education advocate, said the shortage of bilingual- and ESL-certified teachers has been a stumbling block for efforts to expand access to dual language programs across the state. That shortage dates back decades, Latham Sikes said, and it touches all parts of Texas. Some of the reasons for the shortage are connected to the larger shortage of teachers overall, she said, but there are other factors that make it especially challenging to recruit and retain enough bilingual teachers.
The exams that teachers are required to pass to get certified to teach bilingual classes are a major barrier for some candidates, she said. In addition to the tests that candidates have to pass to get their teaching certificates, bilingual teachers have to pass another round of exams demonstrating not only their fluency in another language, but also their ability to teach in that language. Each round of tests comes with a fee. Many candidates hoping to get certified to teach dual language classes are first-generation college students, Latham Sikes said, so coming up with the money to cover those fees can be a challenge for some.
Aside from being costly, those exams are lengthy and require extensive study. They also aren’t always set up in a way that makes sense for native speakers of another language, Latham Sikes said. For example, the Spanish-language version of the exam uses a highly academic version of the language that doesn’t account for the countless differences in vocabulary and word usage that exist across the Spanish-speaking world, she said.
In January, the Texas Education Agency released a plan outlining strategies for improving high school graduation rates among bilingual students. Increasing the number of certified bilingual education teachers in the state was the first goal listed in the plan. In order to do so, the agency recommended that lawmakers take a number of steps to streamline the process for teachers to get certified in bilingual education, including allowing students who don’t pass the bilingual certification exam to retake only the sections that they failed, rather than the entire test.
The plan also included recommendations that the state offer higher pay for dual language teachers and set up dual language programs that can help prepare candidates for careers as bilingual teachers.
During the regular legislative session, Rep. Bobby Guerra, D- McAllen, authored 10 bills that would have amended state law based on those recommendations. One of those bills would have created a career and technical education program designed to help high school students prepare for a career teaching bilingual education, English as a second language or Spanish.
But none of those bills made it to the governor’s desk. Latham Sikes said the fact that none of those proposals became law is disappointing, although she noted there’s still time for them to be taken up in a special session. Dual language programs are a valuable resource for the students who have access to them, she said. But if the state can’t produce enough teachers to staff those programs, bringing those services to students who need them will always be a challenge, she said.
“We know exactly what needs to be put forward. The work has been done,” she said. “...But it’s a matter of really (having) the willpower to say, ‘We’re going to really sink some resources into this, because it’s valuable.’”
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