Teacher Resources in Bilingual Education: A National Survey

The National Center for Education Statistics surveyed public school teachers in 1976–77 to determine to what extent they have the backgrounds, experience, education and skills needed for teaching in bilingual education programs. This paper examines the characteristics of the 42,000 teachers who reported that they were teaching through a non-English language in 1976–77. These teachers were among 120,000 who had identified at least one limited-English- proficiency child in their classrooms and were teaching through a non-English language, teaching English as a second language or doing both. The findings show that teachers using a non-English language appear to have been assigned on the basis of language skills alone. Fewer than half had had even one course in bilingual education and only 14 percent had taken the crucial preparation in 1) teaching the language arts of a non-English language, 2) teaching other subject areas through it, 3) studies related to the cultural background associated with the language and 4) teaching ESL. Although teachers appear to have been assigned on the basis of their language skills, only 42 percent were native speakers of a language other than English. Among all public school teachers in 1976–77, 130,000 had had some training in bilingual education and 14,000 had taken courses in the four basic areas. One hundred and ten thousand of the former and as many as 8,000 of the latter were not using their training in 1976–77.