Patricia Brekke got her start in education 25 years ago as a bilingual language arts teacher in Chicago Public Schools. Born and raised in the city as the child of Mexican immigrants, she made it a priority to support biliteracy among her students who came to the classroom with limited English skills. Rather than asking them to leave their first languages behind, she wanted them to see the value in their native language as they gained another.
Brekke’s students, however, often struggled on standardized tests because of their literacy skills. They were being held to the same bar as native English speakers on tests that required language fluency to prove their knowledge. It was clear they needed more literacy instruction, and it needed to happen across subjects...