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Latino Population Growth Presents Opportunities for New Partnerships

The Forum welcomes its newest early childhood education Acuerdo partner Ivy Academy of Early Learning from Elgin, Illinois. Ivy Academy for Early Learning is a licensed early care and education provider for children as young as six weeks and up to age 12. The demand for high quality early care and education keeps the center’s wait list full—which is a testament to the critical support Ivy Academy of Early Learning provides working families of Cook and Kane County.

In Elgin, Latinos now comprise 43.6 percent of residents. A quarter of Elgin’s population is foreign-born, and 47 percent of the city’s total population speaks a language other than English at home. With these facts, it is not surprising that school districts in Cook and Kane County enroll the highest number (first and second-highest respectively) of English Learners (EL) in the state.

More than 207,000 Illinois children enrolled in public schools identify as ELs. The majority of ELs are concentrated in the preschool-to-third-grade population with more than 65 percent identified. Shifting student demographics have been occurring across the state for the past decade with ELs present in 85 of 102 counties. ELs are no longer a large urban phenomena or a marginal population. 

This growth underscores the need for the expansion of the bilingual education services to preschool, which was passed into law through the 2010 bilingual preschool mandate. The mandate requires state-funded preschool programs to provide language services for children who require linguistic support. 

The provision of bilingual education services raise workforce implications in school districts and institutions of higher education forcing them to think long and hard about strategies to cultivate, attract and sustain a linguistically and culturally diverse workforce. To learn more about ways the state can invest in the EL growth in Illinois, maximize the asset of multilingualism, the opportunities for expanding workforce policy and educational practice related to linguistically diverse learners visit the Forum’s fact sheet English Learners in Illinois

 

PHOTO/Creative Commons

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