Cari Taylor’s classroom at Lewis and Clark Middle School buzzes as students chatter about an online game they’re playing together on their tablets.
Comments in Arabic, Spanish and Thai volley back and forth among desks as students identify headlines, subheads and paragraphs in the game, with the score updated on a screen in the front of the room.
This is a class full of English language learners, where 10 different languages are spoken by students who come from countries like Afghanistan, Guatemala, Somalia and El Salvador.
In schools across Nebraska, like this one in the Omaha Public Schools, the population of English language learners is growing.
They are students whose home language is not English and who need additional help with learning how to speak, read, write and understand English, so that they can succeed in the classroom.
People are also reading…
More than 26,000 — 8% — of Nebraska’s 328,700 public school students last year were English learners, according to the most recent data available. That’s up about 4,000 students in four years. The numbers continue to rise in many schools because of ongoing refugee resettlement and immigration.
In Millard, the number of students who are English learners has nearly doubled in the past six years. In Gretna, one English learner classroom started the year with 10 students and now has 32.
And in OPS, nearly 24% of the district’s enrollment — 11,682 — is in the English learner program. A decade ago, OPS had 7,000 English learners, and they accounted for 14.4% of total enrollment, according to a district analysis.
Omaha is Nebraska’s largest district and one of the most diverse. About 44% of OPS students speak one of 111 languages other than English at home, the district says. A little more than half of those students currently need to be in the English learner program.
Taylor had 15 students when she began teaching her English language development class in August. Now, because of midyear arrivals, she has 27 students.
She said it’s not uncommon for teachers to only receive a few days’ notice before a new English learner student arrives in her classroom.
Students can come from inside or outside the U.S. Those who arrive from out of the country are a combination of refugees, who have settled in the area in recent years to flee conflict in places like Afghanistan, and immigrants, who often enter the U.S. through its southern border.
“If they came from another school in the United States, that’s a little bit of a different path than if they’re brand-new and this is their first time in any U.S. school. We need to ask questions to see if they’re an English learner, because we don’t just assume,” Taylor said.
Last fall’s count of English learners in OPS was up 8.5% from the previous year, said Jaimie Cogua, the district’s coordinator of English learners, dual language, migrant and refugee education. Cogua said there have been many more arrivals since then.
“We’re seeing a difference in the number of students and that’s across all of our schools,” Cogua said. “Schools that have typically received new families continue to receive new families and then some of our schools that maybe haven’t had as many in the past are now also experiencing those new students coming.”
Spanish is the most widely spoken language for English learner students, with many students from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
But refugee resettlement programs have boosted the number of OPS students from Afghanistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal and Kenya.
Statewide, Nebraska’s metro areas have seen a recent rise in refugee family placements, said Matt Martin, assistant vice president of refugee and immigrant programs for Lutheran Family Services, one of the two refugee resettlement agencies in Omaha.
Martin said the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S. had been reduced during former President Donald Trump’s administration, but the numbers went back up under President Joe Biden.
“And now this year, we are actually resettling more people in Omaha than any other time since at least the Obama administration, if not before that,” Martin said.
Whether new English learners are immigrants or refugees, the influx poses some challenges for metro districts that are also dealing with staff shortages.
OPS, for example, is still recruiting for more paraprofessional and teacher positions to meet English learner needs, Cogua said. The district has had roughly 40 open positions for paraprofessionals in the English learner program since the school year began last August, according to its website.
But officials in local districts say they are confident in their ability to serve more students and provide adequate language services to anyone who comes through their doors.
Taylor said she feels enough district support to handle her larger class.
“It’s not all on us, because when we need help, we can reach out to a social worker, or a school support liaison, or we have bilingual liaisons who can help support us,” she said.
OPS is also working on a school board proposal centered on boosting more resources for English learner students, Cogua said, but did not provide details of that proposal.
In the classroom, teachers have to find ways to communicate and instruct without being proficient in the wide array of students’ home languages. Taylor said the only language she knows is English.
Instead, Taylor uses body language to communicate with her students or a translating website if she needs to have a longer conversation. Sometimes students also will use headphones to translate specific activities. But most of the time, they have to use English in their lessons.
“It’s probably a help that I don’t have another language that I fall back on, because there’s 10 languages in the room,” Taylor said. “So then nine others aren’t hearing their language, you know. So English is our common language.”
Taylor said some of her students will be reserved the first couple of months in school and she’ll try to find a way to get them talking and acclimating to the environment.
Each year, English learner students take a state test that measures their ability to meet the language expectations required by grade-level English language arts, mathematics and science content. About 12% of those tested last year were proficient and may have been able to exit the program.
In Millard, the English learner population has been steadily growing since 2018, when the Millard Public Schools had 411 students who qualified for help. This year it has nearly 800.
“This is something that is happening all over the city, all over the state, all over the country,” said Rebecca Kleeman, spokeswoman for the district.
Millard’s capacity to welcome more English learner students hasn’t been an issue, but administrators have had to make sure there’s enough support available for any student coming into the district who speaks another language, said Heather Phipps, associate superintendent of educational services.
“We appreciate our changing demographics, but we recognize that we need to support our students and have good professional learning for our teachers to know how to support students who may be new to the English language or new to school in general,” Phipps said. “Anytime a student is in a class and they don’t speak English, then you might need to, for example, work with teachers on how to use visual cues for that student.”
Julia Mulligan, an elementary English learner teacher in Gretna, said her large classroom is still manageable with the help of her full-time paraprofessional and other teachers. She began the year with 10 students and now has 32.
The growth has also been seen districtwide — last year, Gretna had roughly 59 English learners and this fall there were 108, according to state data. In the 2018-19 school year, the district had around 20.
“My favorite part is working with the families,” Mulligan said. “We’ve been invited to different homes and had families that reach out and invite us over for special dinners or for birthdays. Our biggest goal is to include them, make them feel welcome. Make them feel like they’re a special piece of our community.”
10 can't miss stories from the Omaha World-Herald
Here are 10 can't miss stories that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald last week.
Eliminating programs and merging campuses are under review for the University of Nebraska as state leaders set a goal of competing nationally in higher education versus "eating everyone else’s dust.”
Meet the 10 athletes named to the Omaha World-Herald's 2024 All-Nebraska basketball teams.
A scaled-back version of Gov. Jim Pillen's property tax plan moved forward Wednesday in the Nebraska Legislature but would fall far short of the governor's goal of cutting property taxes 40%.
Club Omaha owner Shane Harrington said the sign is the culmination of months of frustration after trying to reach deals with local advertising agencies to promote a free car giveaway.
Matt Rhule this spring is like Robert de Niro's character in the movie "Casino" as he enters his second season as Nebraska head football coach. It's all about the details — including counting blueberries.
A substitute teacher with Omaha Public Schools was arrested Saturday after she was found in the backseat of her SUV with a 17-year-old.
Happy CEO, productive program. This week, Matt Rhule shared his pitch to visiting recruits and the coaching setup that makes his life “so much easier.” Sam McKewon has more in his Rewind column.
The tragic death of a 17-year-old boy at a Pillen Family Farm last week is being investigated by OSHA while his family struggles to go on without him.
Millard North senior Pierce Mooberry has averaged 26.4 yards per reception as a tight end. But he's being recruited to Nebraska as an off-the-ball linebacker.
Nebraska lawmakers debated late into the night and advanced a bill Wednesday that would put $10 million a year in public money into scholarship funds for K-12 private and faith-based schools.