Dive Brief:
- Bilingual, special education teachers are currently in high demand in Chicago Public Schools.
- Around 17% of the district's students are English Language Learners, there is also growing demand for SPED teachers who are bilingual.
- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics teaching jobs will increase by 10% between 2012-2022.
Dive Insight:
Chicago may not be alone in its demand for bilingual educators. There is growing emphasis on the need for bilingual education across the nation, indicating that teachers with these skills are and will be sought after. Researchers at York University in Toronto recently reported that learning two languages actually strengthens the brain's functions and improves attention. And essays like the one by Yale University linguistic professor Claire Bowern argues that bilingual education is beneficial for all students, not just the affluent. Bowern's piece was posted on Valerie Strauss' Washington Post column, the Answer Sheet, and cites two studies: one zeroing in on children of Spanish-speaking immigrants and the other on aboriginal teens. Both groups were economically disadvantaged, both had bilingual opportunities, and both scored higher on standardized assessments. Her essay was spurred by recent discussions on bilingual education in California, where the state's legislators sent a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown that gives 2016 voters the opportunity to annul Proposition 227, a 1998 bill banning bilingual education by requiring most schools to only teach in English.