West Contra Costa schools to receive $1 million federal grant for English learners, immigrant students

ESSA Interactive Map

The West Contra Costa Unified School District is expecting to receive more than $1 million to assist English-as-a-second-language instruction for this current school year. The state grant is part of a federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which allows each state to decide how to utilize federal funding to improve the quality…

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Richmond schools adapt to growing need for bilingual teachers

Jose Luis Gomez teaches a transitional bilingual second grade class at Bayview Elementary in San Pablo. He's one of the teachers recruited from Mexico and Spain.

Richmond and surrounding cities have not escaped the teacher shortage facing the rest of California, but the problem here is different than in many other school districts: a shortage of bilingual teachers. In order to fill vacancies for bilingual teachers this school year, the district turned to a state-run visitor-exchange program.

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