The CT Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/tag/bilingual-education/)
Frustrated that hundreds of teaching positions go unfilled each year because school districts can’t find qualified candidates, the state education department is planning to propose changes in how someone earns a teaching certificate – a move that is sure to rile those at the state’s teacher-preparation colleges and officials of teachers unions. Continue Reading →
One in 14 Connecticut students understand so little English, they are considered English learners, and the state has the largest gap in achievement in the country between its English learners and its English-speaking peers. As part of its recent exploration of issues surrounding English-language learners, the Mirror wanted to hear what these students feel is helping them. Here is what some of them had to say. Continue Reading →
A number of weaknesses in the approach the state and school districts across Connecticut have taken to educating the rapidly increasing number of English learners has produced distressing outcomes on nearly every benchmark – including academic achievement gaps between English learners and their peers that are among the worst in the nation. Second of three stories. Continue Reading →
Connecticut has largely failed to embrace the one model for English learners that research consistently shows works best by far. It’s being adopted and expanded elsewhere. First of three stories. Continue Reading →
We need to embrace the fact that speaking more than one language is a 21st-century skill that all American students should have, yet our state is lagging behind others in its adoption of bilingual education programs. So, people of Connecticut, its time that we demand that our state takes the lead on providing quality bilingual education for all children, K-12. Continue Reading →
Bilingual education is an issue of social justice. Across Connecticut, bilingual education (English and Spanish) is now offered to all students elementary through high school in affluent communities, but the communities that serve the largest populations of native Spanish speaking students, like Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, and New Britain, do not offer comprehensive bilingual education to all students. Continue Reading →
Connecticut has the nation’s largest achievement gap between English Language Learners and their peers who are English fluent. it is the interest of everyone in the state that we fix this shameful situation by embracing educational models that have been proven to produce good results. Continue Reading →