The California Department of Education will soon announce the winners of a set of grants to local education agencies including schools, school districts, county offices of education and charter schools expanding or establishing dual language immersion programs.

As these programs increase in popularity, in California and nationally, education leaders, teacher education programs, communities and advocates must ensure English learners are prioritized and adequately served through these programs.

But we still have a lot of work to do to get there because:

  • Teachers often lack the training and background to effectively identify and address inequities between groups of students.
  • Many families that would benefit most from these programs do not access them because of misconceptions rooted in previous experiences.

The good news is that, with professional learning and support for bilingual teachers coupled with family partnerships and engagement, these challenges can be overcome.

Teachers are highly influential in creating inclusive bilingual classrooms, so it’s critical they understand how their own beliefs and practices affect their students. But, too often, educators lack the professional support, resources and structures to be as effective as possible. By learning how to recognize the dominant beliefs held about their English learner students, they can better identify the harmful mindsets we are all deeply immersed in and that are still alive today. Bilingual teachers need “ideological clarity” — a concept from researchers Cristina Alfaro and Lilia Bartolomé — to surface deficit-based perspectives of English learners and help them teach in culturally responsive ways that allow all students to thrive.

Read the full article about bilingual programs for students by Anya Hurwitz at EdSource.