Preschools are not doing enough to support bilingual kids in America, new study finds

Knowing more than one language is a helpful skill in myriad ways. However, bilingual kids often struggle to adjust to their schools since they do not have a better grip on the English language. According to a study by the University of Oregon, adding a second language to the school curriculum helps kids with their behavior and attention span. A prime exampel of this would be a woman named Karla Medina Gomez and her kids, who reside in the culturally diverse community of New Jersey. 

When her oldest kids, Gianna and Nicholas, started pre-kindergarten, they only spoke Spanish, their first language and the primary language to converse in their home. Gomez was concerned about her kids facing challenges while adjusting to an English-only environment. Gianna and Nicholas received an inclusive and accessible education at Ironbound Early Learning Center, which helped them to become fluent in both English and Spanish within four months.

"All paperwork, all communications, even [items] in the classroom, everything is labeled in three languages," Gomez told Motherly. "Here, specifically in Newark, the support system is great in the preschool setting." Gomez's kids fall in the lot of 1 out of 3 kids in America who are raised in a bilingual family environment where English is not their primary language of communication. Even though these dual language learning kids are expected to get the necessary support from educators to succeed in an environment where multiple languages are used, they don't receive it. Gomez says, "It is a shame."

The mother of four is aware of the problems her kids would have faced if the dedicated and trained staff members of Ironbound weren't by Gianna and Nicholas' side to guide them towards academic success. "How are you going to ask a child to jump two steps, make a circle or build a block if you tell them in English and they don't understand you?" Gomez told the outlet. "How would they know? How could you possibly measure where the child's at?" Gomez suggests that there are things every parent like her can do to help their kids irrespective of the situations in their school. She advises other bilingual parents to teach their kids to read, sing and talk at home, no matter their language. The goal is to learn how to clearly communicate.

"Some parents may be hesitant because they don't speak a second language well or they may not speak at all. Expose them to language. That's what's important right now," Gomez adds. According to an annual report on "State of Preschool" by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), more than half of all 60 public preschool programs across the country fail to report the home language of children and without that information, states can't allocate the proper resources needed to develop and implement effective dual language curriculum and practices. "We are continually striving to close achievement gaps, including those between children who speak a language other than English at home and children who speak only English," Ellen Frede, the institute's senior co-director, said per the report. "We know the earlier we start with high-quality education programs, the better."

"We know that dual language learners are a group that makes the largest gains from attending high-quality preschool," says NIEER's senior co-director Steven Barnett. "At the same time, they're at elevated risk of school failure. For all children, the preschool years are a critical time for language development." The academic performance of a student is also driven by their proficiency in one or multiple languages. It takes dual language students four to seven years to become proficient enough in English to see classroom success, per the reports of the Center for Public Education.

In 2012, the Early Childhood Research Quarterly study found that dual language students who were able to speak English well enough by the end of first grade fared better academically than those who weren't. As of now, only six states—California, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas—mandate that staff have training or qualifications necessary to work with dual language learners and their families, and more than 30 states have some sort of policy set up to help dual language learners, according to the NIEER report. But only one—Maine—has implemented all nine recommended policy requirements. USA Today also shared a video shedding light on the importance of bilingual education being implemented at schools.