Burke County Public Schools reports nearly 1,500 English learners and expands dual-language programming

Lanny Simpson, who identified themself as working with English learners and dual-language programs for Burke County Public Schools, presented an overview of district EL and dual-language services and numbers.

Simpson said the district has nearly 1,500 English learners (ELs), representing a little over 13% of the district’s student population. Spanish is the primary home language for about 79% of students who speak a language other than English at home; the district also serves Hmong speakers (about 67 students) and more than 20 other languages, including Vietnamese and Khmer. Simpson said the total multilingual population is larger than the EL count because it includes students who have exited EL services or are already bilingual.

Simpson described dual-language immersion as a two-way model in which roughly half the students are native Spanish speakers and half are native English speakers; Spanish is the target language. At Mountain View Elementary, the oldest district dual-language program (started in 02/2018), students spend mornings with a bilingual teacher (Spanish instruction for language arts, science and math) and afternoons with an English-language teacher (English language arts and social studies); Mountain View’s Global Immersion Academy is fully articulated K–5 with two homerooms per grade and about 240 students participating, Simpson said.

The district recruits international teachers through Participate Learning and currently employs teachers from Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Honduras and Jamaica in dual-language roles. Hillcrest Elementary has a dual-language pre-K that alternates English and Spanish days; Forest Hill Elementary will add a self-contained dual-language kindergarten next year; and Walter Johnson middle school has a sixth-grade dual-language cohort where students take social studies and science in Spanish and English language arts and math in English, Simpson said. Middle-school students will also have the option to earn high-school credits in world-language electives and pursue a seal of biliteracy, Simpson added.

Simpson explained how EL services scale down as students develop English proficiency, described staffing (24 teachers, two teacher assistants, one lead teacher/instructional coach) and said average caseloads for EL teachers are roughly 60 students. On assessments, Simpson said North Carolina requires instruction and assessment in English except for designated world-language or dual-language classes; EL students are tested in English on state assessments (for example, EOGs), and dual-language programming is intended to close achievement gaps.

Simpson offered to answer board questions and described district supports including staffing, recruitment and program rollout plans.