Board hears update on Congress Park dual language program; staff say program benefits multiple student groups but representation questions remain

District staff and board members spent a substantial portion of the meeting examining the Congress Park dual language program, discussing who participates, staffing limits and whether the program can be used to improve outcomes for underrepresented groups.

A staff member (identified in the meeting as Chris) and other presenters described dual language as beneficial to students across backgrounds because the classroom focuses on language acquisition for all students. The staff member said the district has evidence that dual programs “do show, high academic achievement” for African American students in other districts, but added “I haven't isolated that” for La Grange SD 102 and cautioned that locally the district has not yet achieved the same subgroup results for Black/African American students as it has for Hispanic students.

Enrollment and capacity concerns

Staff noted Congress Park is constrained by building capacity and currently functions as a three‑section school; district speakers said the building “can only hold 3” sections per grade. That constraint limits how many students the dual program can enroll without converting the school into a language‑center model or adding classroom space. Staff described options such as open enrollment, lotteries and permissive transfers to manage capacity.

Special education and representation

Board members asked whether students with individualized education plans (IEPs) disproportionately end up in monolingual tracks when families decline dual language. Staff said that has been a criticism: when monolingual sections are small, they can carry a higher percentage of students with IEPs, and district staff said they would prefer additional sections to allow balancing across classrooms.

Staff also discussed whether the district should be more proactive in recruiting Black/African American students into dual language. The presenter said some districts automatically place Black students into dual programs as a rigorous option and said La Grange SD 102 “could leverage the program” to support populations for whom the district has struggled to close achievement gaps.

Assessment and biliteracy

Board members asked about the Seal of Biliteracy and how students would meet both English and target‑language literacy requirements. Staff said the seal is typically a high‑school certification using an ACT/SAT/advanced placement language assessment alongside the English measure, and that the district is providing foundations but will not be “the final determining factor” for high‑school biliteracy certification. Staff also said a Spanish language assessment pilot and other language assessments will be used to measure students’ Spanish proficiency.

Next steps and data collection

Staff said the district will collect enrollment and demographic data during registration changes being implemented in early March and will bring recommendations back to the board once they have more precise figures and occupancy modeling. No vote or formal board direction was recorded on this item during the meeting.

Ending: Board members asked for more data, including subgroup results and disaggregated testing information, for future follow‑up.