With Maryland’s population of English learners spiking, resources lag behind those of other states

When Mohammed Choudhury came to Maryland as state superintendent a year ago, he brought experience teaching in districts with robust programs for students learning English as a second language. After working in school systems in Los Angeles and San Antonio, he found the multilingual resources here lacking. For instance, Maryland had fewer dual-language immersion schools, where students can take some core classes in a language other than English, such as taking math in Spanish. And while California and Texas graduated multilingual learners at a rate of more than 70%, according to 2015-16 data from the U.S. Department of Education, Maryland’s rate was 47.5%, one of the lowest in the country.