Viewpoint: I studied language barriers in a local school district. Here's what I found.

En este editorial de opinión, yo me enfocaré en el tema de las barreras de lenguajes que existen en la educación. Estas barreras afectan a la educación de — Wait, what?

This sentiment of confusion is nothing new to countless students across the country who are coming from non-native English-speaking households and into our schools. Trust me, I would know: I was one of them.

My hometown, Elkhart, Ind., witnessed a 400 percent increase of foreign languages being spoken at home in the span between 1990-2000, with a majority of these households being Spanish-speaking. Alongside this local statistic, the percentage of non-native English speakers in public schools across the United States increased from 4.2 million to 4.6 million between the years 2004-2014. In 2016, it was estimated that about 22 percent of children in the United States spoke languages other than English.

The growing diversity of languages in our education system has catalyzed the growth of language barriers in schools for these students, including obstacles for parental involvement and graduation rates.

Given the increasing enrollment of non-native English speakers into English-dominated spaces in the U.S., teachers and policymakers should pay more attention to the unique needs that these particular students face. Thankfully, some educators have taken this advice to heart. This past summer I had the opportunity to work on the Bilingual Services Project for Notre Dame’s Center for Civic Innovation, where I investigated language barriers and solutions that exist in the local Elkhart Community School district. So, what did I find?

For starters, the achievement gap. A limited proficiency in English creates a barrier to academic learning and performance in schools that exclusively utilize English in their instruction and assessment. A study conducted in 2020 by the National Center for Education Statistics found that double language learners and English language learners graduated at a rate of 63 percent, which is significantly lower than the national average graduation rate of 82 percent.

It is important to note that these language barrier effects tend to interact with the effects of racial/ethnic barriers, socioeconomic status barriers, and lack of resources. Students whose first language is not English tend to live at home with higher rates of poverty and lower rates of parental education. Because of this, these students are disproportionately concentrated in schools with fewer resources, compared to their native-speaking peers.

Parental involvement in their children’s education is also impacted as a result of these language barriers. During my research tenure at the NDCCI, my team and I surveyed data from over 500 non-native English-speaking parents/households and educators of the ECS district. Surveys were administered in both English and Spanish, and recruitment took place: 1) at local Hispanic/Latinx/e supermarkets; 2) by promotion through the local Spanish-speaking radio (La Raza); and 3) through the Elkhart Community School parent and teacher email listserv.

Survey results revealed that about one in five non-native English-speaking parents did not know who or how to contact the school in the case that they would have to. On top of this, 57.9% of the teachers reported that it had become even more difficult to communicate with non-native English-speaking families since the transition to online schooling following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Language barriers also affect cultural capital. The idea of cultural capital was first introduced in 1986 as an explanation for the unequal academic achievement of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Cultural capital includes linguistic and cultural knowledge that tends to belong to members of the upper class. In our case, linguistic competence is the knowledge that is held by the native speakers.

One study that specifically assessed Spanish-speaking students and parents found that they tend to report negative experiences with the school as a result of not understanding how the school functions, not receiving enough or having information in their native language, feeling left out of school activities, and losing control of educational success.

Given the ongoing rise in bilingualism and multilingualism in our school systems, implementing solutions to these problems is more crucial now than ever. First, increasing diversity, representation and cultural competence in our education system would benefit educators and policymakers in the classroom. Educators who are culturally competent have the opportunity to tailor their classroom practices to the specific needs of students with diverse cultural identities and, in turn, help promote their academic success.

Alongside this solution, schools should begin to fund bilingual education and dual immersion programs, which would also benefit native English-speaking students. Finally, spreading awareness of these educational barriers is essential! When your child’s school invites you to an event, use your voice and ask them “will there be translators at the event?” Be proactive in addressing educational inequality and be the voice for others who have lost their voice in translation.

María Camila León Buitrago is a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame and was an undergraduate research fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: I studied language barriers, solutions in Elkhart Community Schools.