ELT World North America

Texas: When Jessi Wong attended elementary school, it was against the rules to speak Spanish. Now, she is the coordinator of bilingual, ESL and migrant education for New Braunfels ISD. Wong has seen the old attitudes about using Spanish in classrooms change as the demand and need for bilingual education rises.
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Texas: The Dallas News notes how a federal judge has turned up the heat on the Legislature to develop a new language program for the estimated 140,000 limited-English middle and high school students in Texas. U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice rejected the state’s request to postpone his order for limited-English students, saying they have [...]

Texas: Teachers at the Gadsden Independent School District learned new strategies to work with predominantly Spanish-speaking students. Susan Yturralde, director for the Bilingual and Multicultural Programs Department, said 23 teachers participated in a three-day course that prepared them to handle the individual and diverse needs of children who are learning English as a second language.
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Texas: About 50 women became the first wave of what the Austin Independent School District calls “ePromotoras.” The women have been learning a new curriculum that shows them how to teach their toddlers several essential skills before they even enter pre-kindergarten. Martha Garcia with Bilingual Education for AISD said it’s an effort by the school [...]

Texas: Humble Independent School District is truly a diverse community, as evidenced by an annual report on the English as a Second Language program, or ESL. The program has increased from 1226 students in 2001 to 2923 in 2008. Overall, Humble ISD spends approximately $3.56 million for the ESL program for the education of slightly [...]

Texas: Cleburne Independent School District believes it’s headed in the right direction with Dual Language Enrichment Education curriculum of professors Leo and Richard Gomez. The district will find out for sure with state-mandated TAKS tests in two years. The Gomez & Gomez program is about more than TAKS testing. It’s about young Spanish-speaking and English-speaking [...]

Local organizers of this year’s Texas Association for Bilingual Education state conference hope having the event in Arlington will draw attention to the growing number of students who are learning English while attending North Texas schools.
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