LONG BEACH, Ca — July 11, 2017 – A new report released by Californians Together shows that many school districts across the state are currently facing a growing bilingual teacher shortage, and that in the near term, there is a pool of at least 7,000 bilingual teachers who are well positioned to begin to address this shortage, and need to be supported with professional development. [Read more…] about Bilingual Teacher Shortage Requires Immediate Action: Study Shows That Bilingual Teachers Exist, But They Require Professional Development
Teachers
La Opinión: La educación bilingüe va en aumento, pero hace falta capacitar a los maestros
Los años noventa en California fueron marcados por un sentimiento antiinmigrante. En ese entonces, Pete Wilson—prominente partidario de deportaciones—era gobernador. Con su respaldo, los votantes aprobaron la Propuesta 187en 1994, la cual hubiera negado educación y servicios de salud a gente indocumentada, de no haber sido declarada anticonstitucional por la Corte Suprema.
Asimismo, los votantes aprobaron la Propuesta 227 en 1998, cuya meta era eliminar los programas bilingües en las escuelas públicas y que se mantuvo en vigor hasta el año pasado cuando 73% de los votantes de California aprobaron la Propuesta 58. Esta medida derogó el requisito de “solo inglés” en las escuelas públicas establecido por la Propuesta 227.
Hoy día los programas de educación bilingüe van en aumento a lo largo del estado y las escuelas públicas están en busca de maestros capacitados para ayudar a los alumnos a desarrollar dos idiomas.
El Distrito Unificado Escolar de Los Ángeles (LAUSD, por sus siglas en inglés) está encabezando estos esfuerzos con la apertura de 16 nuevos programas de educación bilingüe este año escolar, con lo que el número total asciende a 101.
En la mayoría de los programas bilingües de las escuelas públicas, el segundo idioma suele ser el español, pero también se ofrecen programas en armenio, chino mandarín, coreano, francés y ruso, entre otros.
Sin embargo, por haber crecido durante esa época antiinmigrante, muchas de las personas que ahora son maestros suelen batallar para comunicarse en su lengua materna, ya que hablar el idioma en casa no sustituye la oportunidad de estudiarlo formalmente en la escuela.
Por ello, algunos maestros han regresado a las aulas, con fin de afinar su destreza en su lengua materna en universidades como Cal State Domínguez Hills.
En entrevista con la radioemisora KPCC, Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, defensora de la educación bilingüe y directora ejecutiva de Californians Together, informó que la actual escasez de maestros bilingües está por redoblarse. Para afrontarla, Spiegel-Coleman consiguió fondos del gobierno estatal para proporcionar becas a maestros que busquen capacitarse en un segundo idioma.
“Necesitamos pensar en crear [un sistema educativo que genere personas bilingües]”, dijo Spiegel-Coleman, el cual debe incluir a los que están por graduarse de las preparatorias con sellos de bilingüismo en sus diplomas.
CHECK THIS ONE
Your help is needed in moving our sponsored bill, AB 952 (Reyes), which addresses the shortage of bilingual teachers by establishing the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program off the Suspense File of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. AB 952 would establish the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program which provides professional development to two categories of credentialed teachers interested in teaching in bilingual classrooms/programs: 1) teachers who have a bilingual authorization but have taught only in English only classrooms and 2) teachers who are fluent in another language in addition to English. AB 952 (Reyes) addresses the shortage of bilingual teachers by proposing an approach that will expeditiously create a cadre of bilingual teachers. Please click on this link to send the letter to the members of Assembly Appropriations Committee who will be hearing this bill.
WHAT’s this
Your help is needed in obtaining funding for professional development to two categories of credential teachers interested in teaching in bilingual classrooms/programs: 1) teachers who have a bilingual authorization but are teaching in English only classrooms and 2) teachers who are fluent in another language in addition to English but do not have a bilingual authorization. Professional development for these teachers is an approach that will expeditiously create a cadre of bilingual teachers. Funding for professional development for these teachers is critical! Please click here to send a letter to the members of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 2: Education Finance.
Take Action to Support Addressing Bilingual Teacher Shortage – AB 952
Letters needed to help solve the Bilingual Teacher Shortage
Currently there is a significant shortage of bilingual teachers and these numbers will only grow as districts begin to implement new and expanded dual and other bilingual programs encouraged by the passage of Proposition 58, The Education for a Global Economy Act. The proposition passed with 73.5% of the electorate voting yes and this new support for multilingual education can only be implemented if there are bilingual teachers prepared to work in dual and other bilingual programs.
Assembly Member Eloise Gomez Reyes is authoring AB 952 (hot link), The Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program. This legislation would establish consortiums to provide professional development for current bilingual teachers who have been teaching for five years or more in English only programs and for teachers who are native speakers of other languages and who wish to possess a bilingual certification.
In addition, the proposed legislation would encourage recruitment of the state Seal of Biliteracy awardees to enter into the teacher preparation programs and the creation of alternative support programs to increase the pipeline of bilingual teachers.
We need to send a letter (hot link) to Assembly Member Reyes thanking her for authoring this important bill and demonstrating the support she has for moving forward with this initiative.
Click on the link below to send your letter to Assembly Member Reyes. She needs to hear from all of us.
Use the “Forward to a Friend” link below to encourage your colleagues, family and friends to also send a letter.
Send you letter today!
Call on the Budget Conference Committee to ensure funds for ELD and Bilingual Teacher Shortage are included