Why Should We Advocate For Our Students?

Of the 270,000 students in North Carolina who speak a language other than English at home, roughly half have limited English proficiency, making them multilingual learners by state standards. These students face personal, interpersonal, and systemic barriers to success. Multilingual learners are more likely to come from immigrant or refugee backgrounds, educators tend to view them through deficit mindsets, and they face social stigma from other students. Many schools are not properly equipped to give multilingual learners a sound basic education, so they receive unengaging instruction and insufficient accommodations. These challenges make it difficult for multilingual learners to thrive in K-12 schools, and if they do graduate and pursue postsecondary education, they’re likely to experience additional obstacles. For example, undocumented students are ineligible for federally-funded loans and grants. Our students deserve better. 

Carolina TESOL advocates for multilingual learners through public outreach, professional development and training, and campaigns to influence state and federal legislators. On this page, you can find tools for contacting your representatives, links to organizations doing student and immigrant advocacy work, and a variety of resources for multilingual learners.

All public schools in North Carolina follow the same State Board of Education-approved framework for teaching multilingual learners. A parent guide to understanding the course of study breaks it down and offers supplemental online resources. The Department of Public Instruction also manages a Canvas hub with more resources for ML families and stakeholders. 

School districts across the country must serve their ML students in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015), which requires states to assess MLs’ English proficiency every year, provide reasonable accommodations, and develop long-term accountability systems. Implementation of those standards is left up to the states, and in North Carolina, the basic precedent of providing a sound basic education for all was set by the NC Supreme Court case Leandro v. State, which was originally tried in the 1990s and reaffirmed in 2022. The state must now expand public school funding to adequately serve all students, and multilingual learners specifically need access to effective evidence-based programs. 

Carolina TESOL follows bills affecting multilingual learners as they move through the NC legislature. Currently, few relevant policies are pending debate, but we will continue tracking new developments. One bill to look out for is SB 683, which would expand in-state tuition to some undocumented students. SB 683 was referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations in April 2023, and it currently sits in that office. 

You can contact your representatives at any time to urge them to support or oppose a bill. Simply use this tool to determine which legislators represent your area, and click on their names to find their contact information. TESOL International’s Advocacy Action Center also makes it easy to communicate your support for initiatives on behalf of multilingual learners. 

North Carolina Organizations

National Organizations