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West Aurora 129 outlines new multilingual framework, adds three-language TBE at West High
Summary
District officials told the Board of Education that multilingual enrollment has grown to roughly 35% districtwide, prompting a restructure of high‑school multilingual instruction into three literacy levels and required transitional bilingual education (TBE) offerings in Spanish, Arabic and Swahili where thresholds are met.
The West Aurora School District 129 Board of Education heard an update Wednesday on changes to high‑school multilingual programming as administrators described a rapid rise in multilingual students and a move to restructure English literacy instruction at West High.
District staff said the share of students designated multilingual has risen sharply and that the district now provides services in 46 home languages. "We firmly believe that multilingualism is an asset," Lisa Rausch, executive director of student supports, told the board, adding that Spanish accounts for roughly 88% of multilingual homes and that the district must now provide transitional bilingual education when at least 20 students at a single site speak the same non‑English language.
The change matters because, staff said, all high‑school multilingual students attend a single building and program, concentrating demand and forcing the district to deliver more targeted high‑school literacy instruction. "When we have at least 20 students at a specific site that speak another…
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