Bilingualism Is Our Strength: Supporting Our Children, Educators, and Communities
by
Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
October 25, 2026
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Throughout my career, I have advocated for educational approaches that build upon, rather than subtract from, the linguistic and cultural resources children bring to school. Indeed, this concern lies at the heart of my 1999 book, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring (State University of New York Press).
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I am equally committed to supporting the next generation of bilingual educators, including the students who are future bilingual educators involved in BESO (Bilingual Education Student Organization) at the University of Texas at Austin and various other universities across our state.
These aspiring educators represent a vital part of our educational future. Their commitment to bilingualism, biliteracy, cultural understanding, and educational justice deserves our recognition, encouragement, and institutional investment.
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Our universities have an indispensable role to play in preparing bilingual and dual-language teachers, supporting rigorous research, and strengthening the partnerships with schools, families, and communities that make successful bilingual education possible. At a time when Texas educates more than 1.3 million emergent bilingual students, we should be expanding—not diminishing—our capacity to prepare the educators these children need.
Equally important, our families and communities deserve meaningful opportunities to access high-quality bilingual and dual-language instruction.
For example, see this TABE flyer on parents knowing their civil rights also provides advice on how parents and community can advocate for bilingual education.
Such opportunities should not depend upon a family's ZIP code, financial circumstances, or whether a school district has chosen to prioritize linguistic diversity. Nor should bilingualism be reserved for privileged students whose families can afford private enrichment or specialized language instruction. The opportunity to become bilingual and biliterate should be widely available to all children, including English-speaking children who can benefit tremendously from learning another language.
Bilingual education is not simply a matter of language instruction. It is about educational equity, cultural continuity, belonging, and the kind of democratic and inclusive society we aspire to build. It is also about recognizing that our multilingual communities are not a problem to be solved but a tremendous public resource. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, the ability to communicate across languages and cultures should be regarded as an educational achievement and a public good.
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Our goal should never be merely to help children learn English at the expense of the languages they already know. Our goal should be to open doors, expand opportunities, and empower them to become fully bilingual, biliterate, and academically successful without sacrificing the identities and relationships that sustain them.
Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations and appreciation to Dr. Karina Zuno-Chapa and the entire TABE board for their extraordinary leadership and commitment to advancing bilingual education across our state. Their work is helping to fuel not only the growth of bilingual and dual-language education in Texas but also the broader public understanding, appreciation, and support that these programs so richly deserve.
Of course, TABE is part of a larger movement that includes longtime champions such as the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), alongside dedicated educators, researchers, university students, families, and community advocates who have worked tirelessly for generations to defend and expand bilingual education. What makes this collective effort so powerful is its insistence that bilingualism is not a deficit to overcome but a tremendous intellectual, cultural, and societal asset to cultivate.
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Particularly in these times when public education is under attack, thank you, Dr. Zuno-Chapa, the TABE board, and all of our educators who are helping to make bilingualism and biliteracy a reality for more Texas children. Your leadership is strengthening our schools, empowering our communities, and helping build a future in which every child has the opportunity to learn, thrive, and take pride in their linguistic and cultural heritage.
¡Adelante con la educación bilingüe!
Links to flyers: https://tabe.org/index.php (English) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bG0VeVy51W2XND4U4OWIb2h0jnD0zdPd/view (Spanish)
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Adapted from two educational resources developed by the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE): "Myths & Facts About Bilingual Education" and "Empowering Families of Emergent Bilingual Students in Texas."
Texas is one of the most linguistically diverse states in the country. More than 1.3 million Texas public school students are identified as emergent bilinguals—children who are developing English while bringing the knowledge and resources of another language into their classrooms.
For these students, bilingual education is not about correcting a deficiency. It is about building upon an existing strength.
Research demonstrates that children can develop bilingualism, biliteracy, and academic proficiency simultaneously. High-quality bilingual and dual-language programs help make this possible by treating students' languages as educational resources rather than obstacles.
Texas Bilingual Education by the Numbers
According to figures highlighted by TABE and reflected in Texas Education Agency data from the 2024–2025 school year:
1.3 million+ emergent bilingual students attend Texas public schools.
24% of Texas public school students are identified as emergent bilinguals—nearly one in four.
120+ languages are spoken in Texas public schools.
85.7% of emergent bilingual students speak Spanish as their primary language.
95%+ of Texas public school districts and charter school systems serve emergent bilingual students.
Nearly one in four emergent bilingual students in the United States is educated in Texas.
These numbers tell an important story: Linguistic diversity is not marginal to Texas public education. It is central to who we are as a state and to the future of our public schools.
Eight Common Myths About Bilingual Education—and What the Evidence Tells Us
Myth 1: Children will learn English faster if they stop speaking their home language.
Fact: Maintaining and developing a child's home language supports additional language learning, including English. Strong literacy skills developed in one language can support learning in another. Children do not need to abandon Spanish or another home language to become proficient in English.
Myth 2: Speaking two languages confuses children.
Fact: Children are fully capable of learning multiple languages. Moving between languages or mixing words is often a normal part of bilingual language development, not evidence of confusion.
Myth 3: Students should leave bilingual programs as quickly as possible.
Fact: Sustained participation in well-designed bilingual and dual-language programs can produce important long-term benefits, including stronger biliteracy and academic achievement. Quickly transitioning students into English-only instruction may interrupt opportunities to develop advanced proficiency in both languages.
Myth 4: Bilingual education is only for students who struggle academically.
Fact: Bilingual education is not remedial education. High-quality programs offer academically rigorous instruction while developing proficiency in two languages. Students can learn challenging academic content and become bilingual and biliterate at the same time.
Myth 5: Speaking Spanish or another language at home will hurt a child's English development.
Fact: Families should continue speaking the languages they know best. Conversations, storytelling, reading, songs, and shared cultural experiences help children develop language, literacy, knowledge, and family connections. These experiences are resources for academic learning.
Myth 6: Dual-language programs are only for Spanish-speaking students.
Fact: Dual-language programs can serve both English-speaking students and students who speak a partner language, including Spanish. Two-way dual-language programs deliberately bring these learners together so that students develop bilingualism, biliteracy, and intercultural understanding.
Myth 7: Being bilingual is useful only for language-related careers.
Fact: Bilingualism is valuable across many professions, including healthcare, law, engineering, business, education, technology, public service, and government. It also strengthens communication across communities and expands opportunities for participation in an increasingly interconnected world.
Myth 8: Losing one's home language is a natural process that does not matter.
Fact: Home-language loss can have serious personal, cultural, and intergenerational consequences. It can weaken communication with family members, diminish access to cultural knowledge, and affect children's sense of identity and belonging. Schools and families can work together to preserve and develop children's linguistic resources.
Why Bilingualism Matters Beyond the Classroom
The benefits of bilingual education extend beyond acquiring a second language.
Academic benefits. Well-designed bilingual programs can strengthen literacy and reading comprehension, support learning across languages, and create opportunities for students to meet demanding academic expectations while developing biliteracy.
Cognitive benefits. Learning and using more than one language provides opportunities to practice cognitive flexibility, language awareness, and adaptation to different communicative settings. Specific cognitive advantages vary across individuals and contexts, but bilingualism itself is not a source of intellectual confusion.
Social and cultural benefits. Bilingualism allows students to communicate across generations and communities, maintain family relationships and cultural traditions, and deepen their understanding of different cultural perspectives.
Economic benefits. Bilingual individuals bring valuable linguistic and intercultural skills to an increasingly multilingual workforce. Their knowledge can expand professional opportunities and improve communication in institutions serving diverse populations.
Perhaps most importantly, bilingual education can help children understand that their languages, families, histories, and identities belong in school.
Understanding Bilingual Education Programs in Texas
Not all programs serving emergent bilingual students are the same. Families benefit from understanding the differences.
1. Dual-Language Immersion
These programs seek to develop proficiency and literacy in two languages while supporting academic achievement and intercultural competence.
One-Way Dual Language: Students generally share a common home language other than English and receive instruction designed to develop both that language and English.
Two-Way Dual Language: Students who speak English and students who speak a partner language learn together, developing proficiency and literacy in both languages.
Dual-language programs are particularly important because their goal is not simply English acquisition but additive bilingualism—developing a new language while maintaining and strengthening another.
2. Transitional Bilingual Education
These programs use students' home language and English for instruction, with the goal of transitioning students toward predominantly English instruction.
Early Exit: Students transition to primarily English instruction sooner.
Late Exit: Students receive home-language instructional support for a longer period before transitioning.
Unlike dual-language immersion, transitional programs generally do not aim to sustain biliteracy in both languages throughout students' schooling.
3. English as a Second Language (ESL)
ESL programs focus on developing English proficiency and ensuring access to academic content.
ESL Pull-Out: Students receive targeted English-language instruction, often outside their regular classroom or core instructional setting.
ESL Content-Based: Students receive academic content instruction in English using approaches designed to support English-language development.
Although ESL programs can provide essential support, they differ from bilingual programs that intentionally develop academic proficiency and literacy in both English and students' home languages.
Why Program Quality and Duration Matter
Not all bilingual programs produce the same outcomes. Strong programs need appropriately prepared educators, meaningful home-language instruction, rigorous academic content, sustained support, and opportunities for students to continue developing both languages over time.
TABE also highlights the expansion of two-way dual-language programs in Texas, reporting growth of more than 70% over the preceding decade. This reflects growing recognition of the value of developing two languages rather than replacing one with another.
What Families and Communities Can Do
Parents and caregivers are children's first language teachers. Their participation is vital.
Families can support their children's development by continuing to speak and read in their home languages, encouraging storytelling and intergenerational conversations, learning about available bilingual and dual-language programs, and asking whether those programs provide sustained opportunities for biliteracy.
Community members can advocate for qualified bilingual educators, stronger teacher preparation, sufficient instructional resources, and access to high-quality programs.
School leaders and policymakers can support this work by investing in bilingual educator recruitment and retention, meaningful family engagement, and programs that treat multilingualism as a lasting educational goal.
The larger lesson is clear: Children should never have to choose between academic success and their linguistic and cultural identities.
A quality education should make it possible for them to retain, develop, and celebrate both.
Source: Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE), www.tabe.org. Adapted from its bilingual education myths-and-facts and family advocacy resources. Figures reflect the data presented in the materials; statistics may change over time.
Bilingual Education: Research and Resources
Cashiola, L. (2024, Dec. 16). Bilingualism is a strength Texas is failing to nurture for hundreds of thousands of students. Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University. https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/bilingualism-strength-texas-failing-nurture-students
Fibla, L., Kosie, J. E., Kircher, R., Lew-Williams, C., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2022). Bilingual language development in infancy: What can we do to support bilingual families? Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211069312
García, O., & Kleyn, T. (Eds.). (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Translanguaging-with-Multilingual-Students-Learning-from-Classroom-Mom/Garcia-Kleyn/p/book/9781138906976
Howard, E. R., Lindholm-Leary, K. J., Rogers, D., Olague, N., Medina, J., Kennedy, B., Sugarman, J., & Christian, D. (2018). Guiding principles for dual language education (3rd ed.). Center for Applied Linguistics. https://www.cal.org/publications/guiding-principles-3/
Intercultural Development Research Association. (2026, May 11). Texas policy for serving bilingual students: Texas Must Expand Excellent Education for Emergent Bilingual Students–IDRA 2025 Policy Digest for Texas. https://www.idra.org/education_policy/texas-policy-for-serving-bilingual-students/
King, K., & Fogle, L. (2006). Raising bilingual children: Common parental concerns and current research [CAL Digest]. Center for Applied Linguistics. https://www.cal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RaisingBilingualChildrenEnglishSpanish.pdf
Lehtonen, M., Fyndanis, V., & Jylkkä, J. (2023). The relationship between bilingual language use and executive functions. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2, 360–373. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00178-9
Moncada-Cummings, C. (n.d.). Bilingualism. Ventris Learning. https://www.ventrislearning.com/linguistic-anthropologic-considerations/bilingualism/
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). Promoting the educational success of children and youth learning English: Promising futures. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24677
Office of English Language Acquisition. (2018). English learner family toolkit. U.S. Department of Education. https://ncela.ed.gov/educator-support/toolkits/family-toolkit
Office of English Language Acquisition. (2024). Dual language immersion playbooks. U.S. Department of Education. https://www.ncela.ed.gov/resources/ncela-resources/playbooks/dual-language-immersion-playbook
Piñón, L., Carreón-Sánchez, S., & Bishop, S. (2022). Emergent bilingual learner education—Literature review. Intercultural Development Research Association. https://www.idra.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Emergent-Bilingual-Learner-Education-%E2%80%93-Literature-Review-IDRA.pdf
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Steele, J. L., Slater, R. O., Zamarro, G., Miller, T., Li, J., Burkhauser, S., & Bacon, M. (2017). Effects of dual-language immersion programs on student achievement: Evidence from lottery data. American Educational Research Journal, 54(1_suppl), 282S–306S. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216634463
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