Journal Article

Bilingual Mandate Challenges Chicago's Public Preschools

Zehr, Mary Ann

2010

Overview

Administrators in the Chicago public schools are seeking to strike the right balance between providing guidance and permitting flexibility as they put in place the nation's first state mandate for providing bilingual education to preschoolers. New rules approved by the Illinois state board of education in June flesh out a January 2009 change that essentially extends the same requirements for educating English-language learners in K-12 public schools to 3- and 4-year-olds in public preschool centers. The new rules say that if a public preschool center has at least 20 students who speak the same language, it must offer bilingual education. By July 2014, they also say, all lead preschool teachers with ELLs in their classrooms must have an endorsement in bilingual education or English as a second language. Currently, many Illinois preschools rely on teacher assistants to provide native-language support to youngsters. The rules come at a time when states, such as California and Texas, with large numbers of children from immigrant families are focusing more on how to support the education of pre-K English-learners. But not everyone agrees that Illinois has taken the right path in its quest to extend bilingual services to younger children.

• Publisher: Editorial Projects in Education,Editorial Projects in Education, Inc
• Subject: Applied Linguistics / Bilingual Education / Bilingual Teachers / Bilingualism / California / Chicago (Ill.) / Child development / Childhood / Classrooms / Cultural Education / Early Childhood Education / Early Childhood Teachers / Education, Bilingual / Education, Preschool / Educational change / Elementary Education / Elementary Schools / Elementary Secondary Education / Endorsements / English / English (Second Language) / English as a second language / Government regulation / Illinois / Immigrants / Kindergarten / Language / Language and languages, Study and teaching / Language instruction / Language policy / Laws, regulations and rules / Linguistics / Literacy / Native Language / Native Speakers / Preschool Children / Preschool Education / Preschool Teachers / Public Schools / Reading Instruction / School boards / School districts / School Policy / School systems / Second Language Instruction / Spanish / State Boards of Education / Students / Teacher Certification / Texas / Young Children