California Teacher Shortage Hinders Push To Provide Transitional Kindergarten For Bilingual Learners

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It’s uncertain whether California will have enough teachers to meet the state’s ambitious goals to provide transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds, and increase bilingual education for dual-language learners.

Teacher Cintya Valdivia sits with transitional kindergarten students during snack time at the International Community School in Oakland on May 17, 2024.

One student she called her “favorite, rebellious Venezuelan kid,” often avoided talking to her by saying, “I can’t speak English, Miss.” He wound up passing his assessments with flying colors, she said.Los Angeles Needs More Early Education Teachers. How About Parents? “There are enormous numbers of dual-language learners in California, and taking advantage of those children’s languages and helping them develop them fully is going to be a really big lift,” said Conor Williams, a researcher at The Century Foundation who examined the state’s bilingual education policies. “Could the state do more? Absolutely.”In 2010, state lawmakers passed The Kindergarten Readiness Act, which changed the age cutoff for kindergarten.

“Sometimes, we hear, ‘Oh, if they want to learn English, we need to get them in English classrooms,’ but actually, the opposite is true,” said Carolyne Crolotte, who promotes dual-language learner programs for Early Edge California. “If children have a very strong foundation in their home language, they actually learn English more easily.”School districts across the state are promoting the value of bilingualism.

These agencies also had challenges hiring assistant teachers to maintain adult-child ratios, resulting in a 12% vacancy rate for the position at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. That number slightly improved to 8% by the middle of that year.“These positions are some of the most difficult to staff because pay is lower, and often those positions are part-day,” said Hanna Melnick, senior policy advisor at the Learning Policy Institute who analyzed the survey results.

They also point out that women of color and immigrant women form the backbone of the early child care workforce, and by easing their way into the TK classrooms, they could better reflect the diversity of the student body and improve their wages.“When it comes to young children, you come to work with your entire heart and your full emotional self.

 

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