FORT WORTH – School Superintendent Thomas Tocco said last week that restructuring bilingual education would be the next focus of his administration.

“We need to make far more progress,” in bilingual education, Tocco said during his monthly community forum at William James Middle School.

Tocco said he has worked to improve math and reading skills in the Fort Worth district since he became superintendent in 1994 and now would turn his attention to restructuring bilingual education.

“The last major step in bilingual education is to see to it that all students are transitioned into instructional program by the end of the third grade,” he said.

Juanita Silva, assistant director for school operations, said that bilingual and English-as-a-Second-Language would remain in pre-kindergarten through third grades. Restructuring would do away with those programs in the fourth and fifth grades.

State law requires that a school district provide bilingual instruction when 20 or more students in one grade level speak a language other than English. If there are fewer than 20, the students receive ESL instruction.

She said some students do not receive consecutive instruction in one program, but shift from ESL to bilingual education from year to year. The restructuring, Silva said, would ensure that students with limited-English skills receive appropriate instruction from pre-kindergarten through third grades.

“We go into classrooms and a lot of students in the fourth and fifth grades still did not know English,” she said.

Incoming students, new to the district at the fourth and fifth grade level and who require English instruction, would be taught at language centers or through another yet-to-be-named program.

Tocco said he will discuss the details of the program’s goals during a board meeting in January.



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