Reading aloud a novel to a class of fifth-graders, dark-rimmed glasses perched on the tip of her nose, Darby Drafts had fallen into a common teacher trap. Put simply, she was doing more work than the kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was, however, a lesson plan driven by necessity. Reading the novel aloud enabled everybody to be on the same page, regardless of skill. And that was important for Drafts\u2019s class of 23, which, by this mid-February morning, included 18 students whose primary language was not English \u2014 eight of whom were newcomers learning English for the very first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drafts, a Chelsea teacher with 17 years of experience, had never seen such a need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had kids coming all year,\u201d she said matter-of-factly. \u201cI got two in the last month.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across Massachusetts, a growing number of educators are finding themselves in similar positions. The state\u2019s population of English learners has grown 25 percent since 2019, a dramatic uptick fueled by the large number of migrants arriving here in the last several years. Fleeing violence and economic desolation in their home countries, families have landed in the Bay State, hoping to give their children a high-quality education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bringing those hopes to bear will require the state to rapidly improve its instruction, educators and advocates said. Achievement data underscore their concerns: Some two dozen other states, including high-poverty ones like Kentucky, do a better job than Massachusetts at educating English learners, national test data show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results are partly, experts said, an enduring repercussion of the state\u2019s long-held and now-revoked\u00a0\u201cEnglish only\u201d education policy, which prohibited teaching in any language other than English from 2003 to 2017. But the numbers also cast doubt on whether the state,\u00a0now eight years removed\u00a0from the ban, is moving aggressively enough to expand research-backed English learner instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMassachusetts is still one of the most welcoming states\u201d for migrants, said Jorge Fanjul, executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit\u00a0Latinos for Education, Massachusetts region. \u201cWith taking on that charge, having that mantle comes an additional responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the\u00a0research-backed\u00a0approaches advocates like Fanjul want to see the state bolster is dual language instruction in which students spend half the day learning in their native language and the other half learning in English, often with the support of a specialized teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research\u00a0shows that dual language instruction benefits all students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
English-learner students in such programs achieve more in reading and math by adolescence than their peers in English-centric programs. They tend to be\u00a0bullied less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some studies\u00a0point to bilingual students \u2014 including native English speakers \u2014 having stronger executive functioning, such as better concentration or the ability to switch between tasks. And students from both sides of the language divide leave school better prepared to succeed professionally, their skills attractive attributes on job resumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s more, dual language instruction enables students to develop the language \u201cof their home and heart\u201d while still learning English, said Lisa Lineweaver, principal of Drafts\u2019s school, Kelly Elementary in Chelsea, a fully dual language school since 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Kelly, instruction is split between Spanish and English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, that February day, Drafts wasn\u2019t alone as she read aloud\u00a0the novel about a girl growing up in war-torn Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multilingual educator Sarah Ross stood across the room, her tall frame and lively facial expressions in a constant choreography, conveying the plot in Spanish. To demonstrate a character felt grateful, she held her palms together as if in prayer, quietly saying \u201cagradecida\u201d as Drafts continued to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout their lessons, the teaching duo regularly use pictures to aid their students\u2019 understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t know the language, repeating stuff \u2014 it\u2019s not going to help,\u201d Ross said. \u201cYou\u00a0need to see something. You need to act it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, down the hall in Waldo G\u00f3mez\u2019s classroom, fourth-grade students were immersed in a novel study of their own. But there, they spoke, read, and wrote in Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As G\u00f3mez peppered his class with questions about their book \u2014 a\u00a0Spanish-language novel about a dyslexic student\u2019s struggles\u00a0\u2014 kids in every corner tilted their torsos forward, arms outstretched, hoping to be called upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Kelly, Spanish instruction happens in math and science, too, giving students the opportunity to feel proud of themselves during a long school day, Lineweaver said. Without that chance to show off what they know, students can grow easily frustrated and act out, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lesson like G\u00f3mez\u2019s wouldn\u2019t have been legal during the 15 years of Massachusetts\u2019 English-only policy, approved through a 2002 voter referendum. The policy would come under federal scrutiny and face harsh criticism from researchers, educators, and advocates before lawmakers in 2017 revoked the ban with the\u00a0Language Opportunities for Our Kids (LOOK) Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new law gave schools explicit permission to create dual language programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many districts took advantage. From 2018 to 2020, 16 dual language programs sprung up across the state, according to the\u00a0Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast. Then, the pandemic hit, stymying progress, with just six new dual language programs opening over the following two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things started to improve in 2023, when five new programs emerged, and, according to the state education department, more are in the works today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Fanjul, the advocate, worries about a loss of momentum, especially at a time educators are grappling with an increased arrival of newcomers, students who arrived in the US in the last three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time of the LOOK Act\u2019s passage, the state reported that 97,000 English learners were enrolled in Massachusetts schools. Today, there are nearly 128,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, most Massachusetts school districts have seen their English learner populations grow by more than half since 2017-18. As of this school year, just 21 districts of the state\u2019s nearly 400 have no English learners, and in 177 districts, they now account for more than 5 percent of the population, the Globe found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Largely, these\u00a0mostly Spanish-speaking\u00a0newcomers are not getting a bilingual education, data show. In all, just 4 percent of Massachusetts\u2019 English learners are enrolled in dual language programs, according to education department data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrankly, I think it\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to bring back attention to,\u201d Fanjul said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the state level, recent focus on English learners has revolved around the Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0threats of deportation\u00a0to migrants in the country without legal authorization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While President Trump is working to gut the federal education department,\u00a0including its English learner office, Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler acknowledged the state\u2019s academic responsibility to newcomer students and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incumbent upon us as educators and school leaders to meet the moment and address the unmet needs of our most vulnerable students,\u201d Tutwiler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the LOOK Act came with no funding, the state has since granted over $11.8 million to districts to expand bilingual programming, according to the education department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, finding people who are bilingual and effective teachers remains a top challenge. During the English-only ban, colleges shuttered their bilingual teacher training programs. Today, many programs have reopened, but the pipeline remains stubbornly dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a needle in a haystack,\u201d said Meg Burns, director of professional learning for the bilingual education association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state\u2019s teacher certification requirements, which, in 2018, were revised to include a\u00a0bilingual endorsement, don\u2019t always help, said Christine Leider, president of the Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages, or\u00a0MATSOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Massachusetts\u2019 high certification standards make it difficult to recruit bilingual educators from other states, and immigrant adults who were teachers in their home countries must provide detailed documentation of their training. Moreover, bilingual teacher applicants must pass certification tests written in English, regardless of the content area they plan to teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back at Kelly Elementary, Drafts and Ross continue their carefully orchestrated lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advancing through the Afghanistan novel, students one day in March met in small, mixed-level groups to read and summarize a chapter. One newcomer student, a boy whose haircut resembled Sonic the Hedgehog, froze when it came to his turn to read aloud. Without hesitation, his classmate, a girl with oversized glasses, picked up her pencil. She tapped its stubby eraser to each word, reading slowly enough for the boy to repeat the English words after her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week-and-a-half later, this time seated alongside his newcomer peers at a table with Ross, the boy pleaded to read aloud as one of the novel\u2019s main characters, a girl whose own schooling was interrupted by factors beyond her control. Ross discreetly helped the boy read his part, then offered him a fist bump to celebrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after, Drafts and Ross received a message from the administration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another newcomer student would join their class, starting Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mandy McLaren<\/strong> and Christopher Huffaker <\/strong>wrote this article for the\u00a0Boston Globe. New England dual language educators preserve Title III funding <\/strong>was published on The Public News Service and is republished with permission. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Featured Photo:<\/strong> Nearly 22% of U.S. children speak a non-English language at home, and over 15% of U.S. children speak Spanish, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. (Adobe Stock)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reading aloud a novel to a class of fifth-graders, dark-rimmed glasses perched on the tip of her nose, Darby Drafts had fallen into a common teacher trap. 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