Dr. Jennifer Fuqua is the former executive director of La Esperanza, the current director of community partnerships at the Delaware Community Foundation and a member of the Delaware Public Education Funding Commission.
As many are aware, Delaware lags far behind in educational outcomes, ranking 45th out of the 50 states in national assessment scores. The Delaware Public Education Funding Commission was formed to address the fact that our school-funding formula dates back to the 1940s and no longer serves our diverse student population. More recent attempts to adjust this formula have failed to change outcomes for a variety of reasons. I was asked to join the commission because of my work at Georgetown’s La Esperanza, where I assisted Hispanic and immigrant families and, more specifically, worked to advance initiatives to engage parents of multilingual learner students.
Delaware has close to 19,000 MLL students, or 13% of the total learning population. While there are 100 native languages spoken by these kids, 73% speak Spanish. Delaware has seen a 53% increase in such pupils since 2016, making them our fastest-growing group of students and important contributors to our state’s future. Students designated MLL have additional needs that require more resources, similar to the rest of the student population, with 28% living in low-income households and 18% identified as having special education needs, according to the Delaware Department of Education and Rodel.
At La Esperanza, we worked extensively with parents of multilingual learners, as they struggled to navigate the education system in southern Delaware. Overwhelmingly, these parents want what all parents want: to see their children engaged and learning. As with other high-need students, these families face a host of challenges — literacy and language barriers, transportation issues, transient housing and more. Over and over, parents have expressed to me that they do not understand why an MLL resource or an MLL teacher is present in one school but not another, where clearly there are multilingual kids who need support.
In dialogue with others who understand this situation, it becomes clearer. These children have a broad spectrum of needs when it comes to English literacy. MLL resources for students who attend school in Delaware from kindergarten on increase considerably for a high school newcomer with low or no literacy in their home language or in English. A school with 30 multilingual learners, more than the average class size, cannot afford one MLL teacher. The current allocation through Opportunity Funds is inadequate to serve these students. There are best practices already laid out in the Department of Education’s Multilingual Learners Strategic Plan and in the Delaware Design for High-Quality Multilingual Learner Education. They suggest that the resources required are 60% plus weighted for MLLs, on top of a base spending per pupil. Today, Delaware only provides a 3% funding weight.
As we enter into the next phase of the commission’s work, it is essential that we follow through on the series of actions that we approved as part of a hybrid education-funding model. Specifically, (1.) establish continual review of the formula by a standing body of parents, community leaders, educators and district administrators to assess its impact on student outcomes; and (2.) engage the public in meaningful ways through open, transparent and accessible dialogue.
We need enough teachers, enough training (for general classroom teachers, as well) and enough translation to achieve not just adequacy but excellence for multilingual students in Delaware.
Please take a look at the latest multilingual learner fact sheets — in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole — published by Rodel, the Delaware Hispanic Commission and the Arsht Cannon Fund at the Delaware Community Foundation. Statewide data shows how far we have to go to support better outcomes for our MLL students.
Let’s make a difference now and honor our neighbors and friends, while we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
