Hispanic Individuals in Their Communities: An Untapped Resource for Increasing the Bilingual Teacher Population

The shortage of teachers in pre-K-12 schools includes a serious shortage of bilingual teachers. Based on the findings of several research studies, the authors suggest that Hispanic bilingual adults in communities with populations of pre-K-12 students who are English-language learners are an untapped resource. The authors offer suggestions for designing programs that recruit and retain Hispanic individuals from their communities to become fully credentialed bilingual teachers.