By Theresa Harrington, EdSource
Native Spanish speakers who have been teaching in English-only classrooms are the focus of specialized training in many districts across California to meet the increased demand for bilingual teachers.
“We have a lot of teachers who at one point were bilingual who are now teachers of English-only classes,” said Maria Maldonado, Fresno Unified’s assistant superintendent for English learner services. “Our bilingual teachers need a lot of support. Many are native speakers of Spanish, so their Spanish is quite causal. We want high-level academic language.”
Read the complete story at EdSource.
For more information on bilingual education in California, read the San Francisco Public Press Special Report “Bilingual Schools.”
