In 2000, the number jumped to 52,619 residents of Hispanic ethnicity, according to numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Bilingual education has had an increasing presence in the Lewisville School District. In 1982, there were 40 students in the ESL program. Today, there are 3,000 students in both the ESL program and in bilingual education. Students who are the most successful in ESL are those who have a strong foundation in their native language.
Bilingual education differs because it has two purposes.
One objective is to retain and improve the speaker's native language and learning the foundation of English, Creed said. Bilingual education allows parents to actively participate in their children's education. In 1989, there were two bilingual classes. With the burgeoning Hispanic population in North Texas, school districts face the challenges of recruiting and making more room for new students to learn. There is a big difference between learning social language and learning classroom language.