Taos schools navigate challenges of (and welcome) Spanish-speaking students
‘If students don’t speak English, they can still be successful’
Several New Mexico school districts have experienced a surge in Spanish-speaking students in recent years. Taos County is no stranger to this influx.
Despite a significant number of immigrants in the county, Taos Municipal Schools (TMS) officials say the district is prepared to deal with increases of Spanish-speaking students within its boundaries. In Taos County, more than 45 percent of the population reportedly speaks a language other than English. The district offers several programs in the schools for bilingual students of all grades.
“We know we have a population of immigrants,” said TMS Superintendent Lillian Torrez. “Our public schools take in all students, and we have a lot of dual language-certified teachers to deal with that.”
TMS employs 26 teachers with bilingual endorsements at five schools in the district who are able to teach students in English or Spanish. District officials have said they prefer to employ educational assistants who are able to speak more than one language to help students who may not be fully comfortable speaking only English in the classroom. In addition, the district employs six teachers with “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language” (TESOL) endorsements.
The district implements bilingual programs at each school and allows students of all levels and grades to participate in them. Many of the classes and programs are geared toward teaching English to students who primarily speak Spanish. In doing so, teachers have the ability to instruct their students who may speak a language other than English in various subjects.
“No matter what age level, no matter when a student comes in, we are equipped to immediately work with that student and begin to transition them to English,” said Torrez.
While TMS officials say the district is prepared to instruct students in English and Spanish, they could not give an exact number of their students who are immigrant students or children of immigrants. Torrez said the district does not put forth extra efforts to identify the nationality of students and instead focuses on their learning and progress.
“We have a large amount of people that are undocumented that have children in school now in Taos,” said TMS Board President James Sanborn. “I don’t see why we would handle anybody else who came to Taos any differently.”
More than 700 TMS students participate in bilingual education, and there are nearly 150 English language learner (ELL) students in the district. Programs the students participate in are uniform throughout the state and allow students to learn various subjects in a manner that suits them best.
“If students don’t speak English, they can still be successful,” said Torrez.
Moya can be reached at (575) 546-2611, ext. 2608.
