Bilingual education is supposed to be expanding to more languages, such as Vietnamese and Arabic, but many school districts can't find the teachers to handle the two-language classes.
"The teacher shortage that was there for Spanish now translates to other languages," said Shannon Terry, Garland ISD's director of English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education.
Area districts are recruiting for next school year, searching for tough-to-staff areas such as math and science. But bilingual teachers are also in high demand.
The state requires any school district that has at least 20 students in a grade level who speak a non-English language to provide a bilingual program in that language.In 2007, the State Board for Educator Certification expanded the bilingual program to include Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. But that doesn't mean more diverse teachers are lining up for jobs.
"It's not common knowledge," said Terry. "The universities aren't designing programs necessarily yet to support teachers in securing those credentials."
For instance, Garland ISD has had enough Vietnamese-speaking students to require the classes for more than a decade. In 2008-09, the district reported more than 1,085 Vietnamese speakers to the state, up from about 400 a decade ago. But school leaders couldn't find bilingual Vietnamese teachers, so the district filed for exceptions from the state's requirement for the last 13 years.
Next school year, the district will finally be able to start a bilingual Vietnamese pre-kindergarten program.
Terry said the early attention will help the young children, because pre-kindergarten "serves as the springboard for introducing literacy."
It is a start. But Garland schools would need about 45 bilingual Vietnamese teachers to satisfy all the elementary grade levels' needs, Terry estimated.
When bilingual programs aren't possible, school districts put the students in ESL and/or regular classes. Often, ESL classes focus on teaching students English, and may group together students who speak various languages. ESL teachers frequently do not speak their students' native languages, whereas bilingual classes are able to cover subject content, such as math or science, in both languages.
Duong Dang, a 17-year-old ESL student at Sachse High School, emigrated from Vietnam about a year ago. She said she likes the challenge of learning in only English because it forces her to learn quickly. But she's glad Garland is starting a program for young children and would like to see such an option for older students, too.
"When we really don't understand, they can help us," Duong said through a translator.
The state does not require districts to offer bilingual classes to high-schoolers.
Educators say several new languages are now meeting the 20-student threshold.
Ten years ago, the Texas Education Agency collected data on only 10 foreign languages, including Korean, French and German. Today, it tracks 140 languages, from Amharic (Ethiopia's most popular language) to Telugu (spoken in southern India).
Spanish is by far the predominant foreign language among Texas students learning English. After that, it's Vietnamese (more than 15,000 students), Arabic (more than 4,200), and Urdu, the national language of Pakistan (nearly 3,800).
"This is the first year we've had a need to seek an Arabic bilingual teacher," said Lanny Frasier, Mesquite ISD's assistant superintendent over personnel services.
A decade ago, Arabic speakers were nearly unheard of in North Texas school districts, state figures show. But this school year, Dallas ISD reported more than 80, while districts in Plano, Mesquite and Richardson log more than 120 students each. Mesquite advertised for an Arabic teacher last semester, but couldn't find a qualified applicant. So Arabic-speaking students are attending ESL classes.
Bilingual education can be advantageous, Frasier said. In Mesquite, Spanish bilingual students typically learn material in Spanish two days a week and English two days a week. The fifth day is a catch-up day.
"It's a little more in-depth having a teacher who speaks the same language," Frasier said.
Staff writer Holly K. Hacker contributed to this story.