The number of pupils in bilingual classes in School District 59 has almost tripled in the last nine years.
“When I began nine years ago, bilingual [English as a second language] enrollment was about 500 to 600 children,” Supt. Robert Howard said at Monday’s board meeting. “Now, that number is at 1,492.”
Forty languages are spoken in the Arlington Heights-based district. Among children in bilingual classes, two-thirds speak Spanish as their native language. Gujarati is the second-largest group at 10 percent, and Polish ranks third.
Twelve of the 14 district schools offer either English as a second language education for children who have established a strong literacy base in their native languages or transitional bilingual education, which aims to develop a solid foundation in the primary language first while making a transition to English.
