More than a quarter of Newark public school students are expected to be English language learners this school year, up from last year and signaling a greater need for more teachers and services.
District leaders expect the number of English language learners to grow this year, and in February announced they would launch a new bilingual program in the city's South Ward to address the growing need. More than 100 bilingual students are set to start classes this fall at Malcolm X. Shabazz High School, where enrollment has exceeded expectations.
The number of students learning English has increased in the district since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, a trend that is in line with schools across the nation. There are 11,072 English learners enrolled in Newark Public Schools this year, 822 more than last year.
More than 39,000 students are scheduled to return to classes in Newark on Sept. 3.
Despite the growing number of English language learners in the district, school officials are struggling with a shortage of bilingual teachers who can communicate in different languages. District officials said they are working to fill hard-to-fill positions, such as bilingual and special education teachers, across all schools.
The district's English learners are a mix of native-born and international-born students. Most speak Spanish or Portuguese, but some also speak Arabic, French, Haitian Creole and other languages. By 2025, one in four children in classrooms nationwide will be an English learner, according to the National Education Association.
Bilingual program “over capacity”
Last year, the district had 10,250 English language learners enrolled, according to state fall enrollment data for the 2023-24 school year. The district's English language learners have increased 7% since the 2020-21 school year, to 24.2% from 17.1% last year, according to the 2023-24 New Jersey School Performance Report. District leaders have allocated an additional $4.2 million in this year's budget to support the expansion of bilingual programs throughout the school.
Shabazz High School will implement a bilingual program this fall to give ninth and 10th graders who are learning English the option to receive services closer to home. The district had planned to enroll 48 students in the bilingual program combined, including ninth and 10th graders, but as of Aug. 20, 92 ninth graders and 35 10th graders were enrolled, Leon said Tuesday. Four teachers will teach bilingual education at the high school, according to Paul Brubaker, the district's communications director.
“We know we are over capacity at this point, but the actual number of bilingual students that we had planned for is much higher when you consider the bilingual student situation across the district,” Superintendent Roger Leon said of Shabazz's bilingual program during Tuesday's school board business meeting.
Board members also expressed concerns about new students and cultural integration at Shabazz.
During Tuesday's meeting, board member Dawn Haynes asked if there was a plan in place to integrate new students into Shabazz and ensure resources are available to all students, both new and returning students. Specifically, Haynes asked how the board would incorporate the recommendations of a Creed Strategies report that reviewed the cultural dynamics of the Newark School of Global Studies. The report also included recommendations for assessing the impact of anti-Blackness at the school.
Leon said Marisol Diaz, the district's director of bilingual education, is spearheading the effort and has met with the principal and Shabazz's administrative team to “discuss some very important cultural differences” as students begin school next month. Expectations for all students will be set during student orientation next week, Leon added.
Relocation Request
Leon also said Tuesday that 11th- and 12th-grade students in bilingual programs at Ballinger and Eastside high schools have requested to transfer “so they can live closer to home.”
“We have students who have to ride multiple buses to get to school, and bilingual students in South Ward no longer have to do that,” Leon said during Tuesday's meeting.
In Newark's North Ward, 14 elementary schools and two high schools offer bilingual education programs, the highest rate of any district, according to district data. Five elementary schools in the South Ward offered bilingual programs last school year.
Eastside and Barringer high schools had the highest bilingual student enrollment last school year, and Barringer “had the most bilingual and ESL teacher vacancies,” Board member Velery Santana said at a January school board meeting. At that meeting, Velery also said Shabazz's new program would alleviate some of the staffing shortages at Barringer and Eastside high schools, both in the North Ward.
Bilingual students like Angie, a Spanish-speaking third-grader at Dr. William H. Houghton School in Northward, said she enjoys learning in two languages. She said she used a translation app on her phone to communicate with her homeroom teacher last year, whom she called Mrs. F. because she couldn't pronounce her name.
“She talks to the phone and the phone says something in Spanish,” Angie said in Spanish Thursday at the district's back-to-school event at Hawkins Street Elementary School.
Angie's mother, Imelda Garcia, said her daughter is learning English quickly and is proud of the progress she's made so far. On Thursday, she and Angie waited outside Hawkins Street School for a ride home after receiving free school supplies, including notebooks and pencils, for the new school year.