Bilingual Education

More Trained Bilingual Teachers are Needed

Last Updated Aug 20, 2008 02:59 PM

Who is Teaching the Children?
More Trained Bilingual Teachers are Needed for Excellent Education

Fair and equitable education involves being taught by individuals who are properly trained and certified to teach them. But the number of certified bilingual education teachers is not adequate for the number of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students enrolled in U.S. schools. Also, the percentage of minority teachers does not reflect the percentage of minority students enrolled in the nation's public schools. Minority teachers comprised 13 percent of teachers, and minority students comprised 32 percent in 1993-94 (Henke, 1996).

Student Population
According to 1990 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Council of Chief State School Officers, nearly one-third of all children under 18 are from ethnic or racial minority groups. About 7.6 million students belong to culturally distinct groups that may speak a dialectical variant of standard English. An additional 5.8 million students come from homes in which the primary language is not English (McLeod, 1994).

Texas and California each have more than 1 million LEP students. While immigration contributes to the number of LEP children in public schools, only 6 percent of the students in the United States are immigrants; three-quarters of all LEP students under the age of 15 were born in the United States (McLeod, 1994).

There were 46.6 million students enrolled in school in the United States in 1993-94 (Henke, 1996). Of this number, about 89 percent (41.6 million) were enrolled in public schools. Minority students accounted for 32 percent of elementary and secondary school students; African American students comprised 16 percent, Hispanic students comprised 12 percent, Asian and Pacific Islander students comprised 3 percent, and Native American students comprised 1 percent. Students with limited English proficiency comprised 5 percent (2.1 million) of the public school population (Henke, 1996). Statistics show that minority students and those from low-income families are considered more at risk of poor school outcomes, yet they are becoming an increasing share of the population (NCES, 1997).

By 2005, the school-age population of White students will likely have declined by 3 percent, while an increase will be experienced by African American students (8 percent), Hispanic students (30 percent), Asian and Pacific Islander students (39 percent) and Native American students (6 percent) (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 1997).

Bilingual Education and LEP Students
Almost 30 years ago, Texas senator, Ralph Yarborough, and others saw the need for action to be taken to ensure equitable opportunity and educational success of LEP students in public schools, particularly in the Southwest. As a result, the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was enacted through which Congress provided supplemental funding to school districts in order to establish programs for low-income students with limited English proficiency.

Later, the Bilingual Education Act of 1974 removed the stipulation that the children served must come from low-income families. It more explicitly defined bilingual education as instruction in English and the child's native language to the extent necessary for the child to make effective progress.

The logic behind bilingual education is to develop literacy in the child's primary language, building knowledge upon the foundation that the child brings to school. Those skills and competencies may then be more contextually applied to the child's acquisition of the English language.

Bilingual education involves more than simply translating words from one language to another or giving students a "sink or swim" course in the English language. IDRA has stated before:

A good bilingual education program…enhances the learning of English and subject matter. Bilingual education teaches English to children and gives them a chance to practice it while they also learn subjects like math and science (IDRA, 1996).
The purpose of bilingual education is to promote literacy and success in school for students whose first language is not English. The practicality of good bilingual education programs is that they encourage schools to adjust to the student - that his or her primary language and cultural knowledge are incorporated into content instruction - rather than forcing the student to adjust to the demands of a standardized curriculum.
Kenneth Johnson elaborates:

The curriculum assumes that every child who enters school has a middle-class orientation and a middle-class background of experiences. Since the culturally [different learner] has neither, the standard curriculum operates against him from the first day he enters school. To make matters worse, many classroom teachers often demand that the culturally [different learner] adhere to the expectations of the curriculum. If the child doesn't, he is made to feel that something is wrong with him. The problem is: change the child, or change the curriculum (1970).
Bilingual education has long been debated in some circles. Much of the debate stems from a lack of understanding of the purpose and methodology of bilingual education. Despite the fact that bilingual education programs are offered in numerous schools across the country, they have not been given the proper attention necessary to be effective. As a result, LEP students are more likely to drop out of school than are their counterparts whose first language is English. They drop out not because English is not their first language but because LEP students are not being served appropriately by schools.

Too many LEP students are not given enough grounding in their primary language to succeed in an all-English environment. Left unarmed with basic knowledge and skills in their first language and inept in English, many of these students find themselves alienated in public schools.

Statistics show that of the 9.5 million 15- through 24-year-olds enrolled in school in 1994, 500,000 left without successfully completing high school (McMillen, 1997). While African American and Hispanic students drop out of school at higher rates than do their White counterparts, Hispanic students have the highest dropout rate among all ethnic groups (30 percent).

Only about one-quarter of Hispanic LEP youths received some ESL instruction in school, but 57 percent of these youths dropped out. And, 72 percent of Hispanic LEP youths who received no ESL instruction dropped out (NCES, 1997).

For many youths, success in school can be facilitated by improving their access to quality bilingual education programs. However, bilingual education programs face numerous challenges that impede their progress and effectiveness. Aside from the various myths and misunderstandings that exist about bilingual education, the challenge that most affects the survival of bilingual education and the children who benefit from it is the corps - or lack thereof - of certified, well-trained bilingual education teachers.

See also Bilingual Education 365 1 - 9