The entrance to Tweed Courthouse, the New York City Department of Education headquarters. (Credit: Jessica Shuran Yu)
Two years into the New York City migrant crisis, public school teachers are struggling to accommodate the influx of English language learners due to a persistent shortage of bilingual and English-as-a-new-language (ENL) teachers.
City officials estimate that about 20,000 new migrant students entered the public school system last year, contributing to a significant rise in the number of English language learners. That population grew to 174,014 students in the 2023-2024 school year, a 16.8% increase from two years earlier.
“ENL teachers are pulled in every direction,” said a high-school math teacher with 12 years of experience, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation. “I wasn’t lucky enough to have one assigned to my math class.”
While Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly voiced concerns about how the migrant crisis is affecting the city’s ability to provide services, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks recently struck a more positive note when he told The New York Times that migrant children have been a “godsend” to schools. “So I don’t hear a major cry from schools,” Banks said.
Educators, however, are painting a different picture. The sharp rise in the number of English language learners has exacerbated the ongoing shortage of ENL and bilingual teachers, leaving current ENL teachers overwhelmed.
“The way in which the [migrant] students were treated or onboarded at my previous school made me leave,” said an ENL teacher with nine years of experience.
At her previous high school in Manhattan, she taught history but was also certified in ENL, which she hoped would help her new migrant students with their English acquisition skills.
“I don’t feel I was able to do that,” she said. “The pace of the class did not accommodate them at all.”
Her new school, an international school in Brooklyn, requires fewer Regents exams, which she hopes will allow the students to prioritize language acquisition instead of test scores.
Many general education teachers told Columbia News Service that they urgently need more ENL support, as the current staffing levels and reliance on translation devices fall short in classrooms where a wide range of languages are spoken. The existing resources simply aren’t enough to meet the diverse linguistic needs of their students.
“It is a reality that bilingual educators and ENL teachers are both shortage fields,” Katie Kurjakovic, an English language learners specialist at the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), said. “The new wave of immigrant students, welcoming these families, made that even more pronounced.” In fact, schools have been so desperate to find ENL and bilingual teachers that they have been assigning teachers without the required state certification to those roles.
“Getting funding to be able to support more staff in this field is important as well,” Kurjakovic added.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat who recently launched her mayoral campaign, echoed this need for additional funding. “The only way to save public schools is to invest in public schools,” she said.
Despite recent education budget cuts, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and UFT launched an initiative last year aimed at addressing the shortage. The program allowed tenured teachers with unused English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or bilingual certifications to switch to teaching under those certifications without harming their tenure. During the 2023-2024 school year, 185 teachers made the switch and received a financial incentive.
This year, an older agreement safeguards a teacher’s existing tenure for a one-year probationary period if they switch roles and do not get tenure as an ENL or bilingual teacher.
“Regardless of their immigration status or language spoken at home, every student deserves access to high-quality schools that meet their unique needs,” said Nicole Brownstein, first deputy press secretary at the DOE, when asked about how the department is addressing the ongoing shortage of ENL and bilingual teachers.
The DOE said all educators are responsible for teaching English to non-English speaking students with the resources provided to them.
Teachers are relying heavily on translation tools such as Pocketalk or Google Translate. A Brooklyn middle-school science teacher, speaking on the condition of anonymity, shared that last year, he had to accommodate students who spoke at least five languages in his classroom. It was his first year of teaching.
“It was hectic,” he said. He was grateful for the iPads provided to help with translation but felt they were insufficient. “Having to translate every little thing that I’m saying, that does eat into the teaching time.”
Last year, a more seasoned teacher, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, had a student who only spoke Fulani, a language from West and Central Africa. Since Pocketalk didn’t support Fulani, another bilingual student had to help with translation. The school had only one ENL teacher who went from classroom to classroom.
“I don’t think it’s enough,” she said.
About the author(s)
Jessica Shuran Yu is a Stabile investigative student at Columbia Journalism School.