Emergent bilingual learners have the right to excellent schools that support English mastery and develop and honor students’ home languages and cultures.
Strong programs for emergent bilingual students are well-funded, have high-quality teachers, and accurately track students’ progress and needs.
Learn more about IDRA’s work to ensure excellent and equitable educational opportunities for emergent bilingual students below.
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Emergent bilingual students are a significant – and growing – portion of the student population in school districts across the country. These students have so much to offer their schools and communities – they have the capacity to be bilingual and biliterate and to share their languages and cultures with their fellow students. Yet, they are often in underfunded school programs that do not support their academic achievement, with under-qualified teachers who are ill-equipped to track their progress.
IDRA works to ensure emergent bilingual students are treated as the powerful individuals and community assets they are. We support the leadership of emergent bilingual students and their families in schools. We advocate policies that increase funding for language programs for emergent bilingual students, provide high-quality teachers and instructional materials, and accurately and fairly track student progress and learning needs.
For historical resources sampled from IDRA’s over five decades of work for emergent bilingual students, visit our Emergent Bilingual Student Education site.
