On Wednesday, July 6, the Victoria ISD Multilingual Department held a virtual signing to welcome approximately ten professors from the Escuela Normal Superior de Jalisco (ENSJ) at Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, to teach in the bilingual program at VISD schools.
The Programa de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje para la Educación Bilingüe en VISD is the academic collaboration program between Victoria ISD and ENSJ. The District is inviting professors from the ENSJ to come and observe how VISD teaches bilingual elementary classes. VISD and schools where ENSJ alumni teach will learn from each other's cultures and teaching methods.
Professors will also collaborate with VISD staff to create a training course for ENSJ alumni in Mexico. The training course will be four to six months long. Once ENSJ alumni complete the training course, they can participate in interviews with VISD for potential bilingual positions.
Currently, there are state and national shortages of bilingual teachers; Texas has struggled to fill bilingual teacher positions since 1990. Foreign language and bilingual/ESL are consistently among the subject areas with the highest percentage of substitute teachers, according to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Human Resources (HR) Services.
"By inviting the professors from the ENSJ to visit VISD and observe how we teach bilingual classes in elementary, we will provide an opportunity for our students and staff to learn from each other's cultures and teaching methods," said Multilingual Director Roberto Rosas. "The goal for the District is to also have multiple pipelines for VISD to hire highly qualified teachers to ensure student success."
VISD aims to build an academic collaboration that benefits VISD students and teachers in Mexico who can gain the knowledge and expertise in how we teach.
VISD anticipates the ten professors to arrive during the Spring semester and will be qualified to work in the District for one to three years.