Texas Bilingual
Education Facts
- Texas has 700,000 students considered Limited English Proficient,
nearly 16 percent of the 4.4 million enrolled in the state's public
schools.
- By 2010, the number of LEP students could reach 1 million
and make up 31 percent of the total enrollment according to the Texas
Coalition for Bilingual Education.
- The achievement gap for LEP children
lags behind other children by 34 to 50 points, especially in the
upper grades. In fact, LEP children tend to score lower with each
successive grade after leaving bilingual programs for English-only
classes.
- The attrition rate for ninth-graders in 2001-02 was 36 percent,
which means more than 137,000 students dropped out or could not be
accounted for when their class graduated from high school last spring,
according to Intercultural Development Research Association in San
Antonio.
- In Texas, about 90 percent of LEP students are Spanish speakers,
with the other coming from homes where any of more than 60 languages
are spoken.
Hispanic Reading Difficulties
Go Untreated
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| SMU’s Patricia Mathes is studying
struggling readers in predominantly Hispanic schools. |
A perfect storm is forming in American schools.
- Hispanic children are the fastest growing population in the schools.
- 72 percent do not speak English before they come to school.
- Few methods exist to treat their learning disabilities.
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health is trying to spot
and treat struggling Hispanic readers. Specially trained teachers work
with small groups of children each day. The instruction matches the
language spoken in the classroom. In the beginning the children scored
extremely low on measures of language and reading. By the end of 1st
grade, the scores rose to normal levels or higher.
“We attribute this success to early intervention,” says
Patricia Mathes, director of the IRR. The students
will be followed through the 3rd grade in order to examine the long-term
effects of the intervention.
More resources online:
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