Secondary Schools' Bilingual Gap: Promising Practices and a Path Forward

Nearly 5.6 million students in U.S. public schools are classified as English Learners, and over 2.3 million are enrolled in secondary grades. Yet bilingual programs are heavily concentrated in the elementary grades, leaving many older multilingual students in grades 6 through 12 without access to programs designed to build their language skills while mastering grade-level content and meeting course requirements for graduation. States and districts have considerable autonomy to pursue policies that support the diverse learning needs and academic success of multilingual students. What steps can they take to create, implement, and sustain bilingual programs in secondary schools? This webcast features findings from a report answering that question, based on interviews with bilingual education experts, district leaders, and higher education faculty across California, Illinois, New Mexico, and New York. Speakers unpacked the key obstacles bilingual programs face, shared promising practices from the field, and offered recommendations for state and local policymakers and stakeholders ready to expand access.

Speakers:

• Margarita Machado-Casas, Professor, Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education, San Diego State University; President, National Association for Bilingual Education

• Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, Strategic Advisor, Californians Together

• Lorena Mancilla, Associate Director for K-12 Partnerships and Policy, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, MPI

• Victoria Kim, Associate Policy Analyst, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, MPI

Moderator: Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow for Education Policy, MPI

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