The Evanston Township High School District 202 Board of Education discussed multilingual services and a new student leadership program at ETHS during its Monday night meeting.
Twenty-five percent of the district’s students speak more than one language, Director of Multilingual Services Lindsey Rose announced at the meeting. Additionally, over 10 percent of D202 students are emergent multilingual students, meaning they qualify for English learner services based on their performance on the last Annual Exam of Academic English.
The number of EM students has doubled over the past four years. Rose attributes this increase to newly-arrived students from around the world and more frequent language proficiency screenings at ETHS.
“When new students arrive speaking a different language, their first question is ‘Does anyone else here speak what I do?’” Rose said. “Oftentimes, the answer is no, so providing a support system for (multilingual) students is essential to promote their social and emotional wellbeing.”
While the majority of the district’s EM learners are Spanish speakers, they are racially and linguistically diverse, Rose said.
Illinois law requires school districts to establish a Transitional Bilingual Education program when more than 20 students speak the same non-English language. In response to a growing number of Haitian-Creole speakers, the district has adjusted its French language curriculum, Rose said. She also highlighted the Newcomer Sheltered Instruction program at ETHS, which supports students who have lived in the U.S. for three years or less.
At the same time, Rose criticized the term “long-term English learners,” particularly when applied to students who previously participated in D65’s two-way immersion program.
“Given the investment in their literacy and academic skills in Spanish, it’s not surprising that they enroll in ninth grade and are still developing their English proficiency,” Rose said. “This criteria does not consider students’ bilingual abilities and instead characterizes their skills through a monolingual lens.”
Since the Department of Multilingual Services was established during the 2023-24 school year, the district’s exit rate — the percentage of EM students who reach English proficiency benchmarks in a given year — has increased and is now among the highest in Illinois, Rose said.
She also touted plans for a new dual-language program that will function as a “school within a school” for Spanish speakers at ETHS and emphasized the importance of framing multilingualism as an asset instead of a challenge.
Board member Elizabeth Rolewicz said she was “thrilled” by Rose’s work.
“Growing up, I distinctly remember watching my classmates be forced to assimilate and the total erasure of their culture and language,” Rolewicz said. “Back then, there was an assumption that you would hide those characteristics, and we’ve come so far in a relatively short period of time.”
The board also heard from Theresa Collins, the district’s director of student academic leadership programs, about Evanston Leadership Academy, an application-based program designed to help students develop their “unique leadership identities.”
Set to launch this summer, the program features a specialized curriculum and team-bonding activities. Board member Pat Maunsell praised the program and Collins for her work.
“You’ve developed a very sharp and strategic plan for this program,” Maunsell said. “In my experience, a good plan leads to good learning — not just for the kids, but for the adults, too.”
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