New Bedford to offer Portuguese language classes at the elementary and middle school levels

Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Alfred J. Gomes Elementary School was offering Portuguese classes this fall.

NEW BEDFORD – In the upcoming school year, more students in New Bedford Public Schools will have the opportunity to begin studying Portuguese as the language will now be taught at the elementary and middle school levels.

According to Dr. Mia Correia, the new Curriculum, Data, Assessment Manager for World Languages at New Bedford Public Schools, Portuguese World Language classes will be offered at one elementary school and all three middle schools.

“I started in August of 2023 in this new position. Before that, there was nobody really overseeing the World Language program in the district,” Dr. Correia said. “When I saw that Spanish was being offered, I said ‘Hey, what about Portuguese?’ We need to keep them both alive – that’s our biggest populations around here.”

Starting this fall, Portuguese classes will be offered at James B. Congdon Elementary School to K-5 students.

The Congdon School currently offers Spanish World Language classes to its 320 students.

“The Congdon School decided to change it over to Portuguese because we’re adding Portuguese into the middle schools,” explained Dr. Correia. “All three middle schools have been offering Spanish for the last, I want to say, two to three years. So, we’re implementing Portuguese along with Spanish.”

There are currently 424 students taking Portuguese at New Bedford High School, and seven Portuguese World Language teachers.

“We offer Spanish and Portuguese at New Bedford High School, and the program is almost 50/50” Dr. Correia said. “As a district, we want to be able to keep going with both Spanish and Portuguese programs as the elementary and the middle schools feed into the high school. We want to be able to keep both Spanish and Portuguese programs alive.”

She said the New Bedford school district is in the processing of hiring four additional Portuguese World Language teachers.

“We have one Portuguese position at the elementary level, and all three middle schools in the district are looking for a Portuguese teacher,” she said.

At the middle school level, students will learn Portuguese once every three days, and each class will last about 45-50 minutes. Elementary school students will learn Portuguese once a week for about 45 minutes.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s a start,” Dr. Correia said. “The hope in the future is to have full blown programs where they have it more than once a week or more than once every three days.”

Elementary schools offering world language classes are scarce

Dr. Correia said there are many benefits to offering world language classes in elementary schools because this period in the student’s life is very effective for learning another language.

But according to a 2017 report, only 20 percent of elementary schools in the United States offer world language education.

“Something I bring up a lot is that in the SouthCoast, we don’t have many [world language] programs that start in the middle schools or elementary schools,” Dr. Correia said. “I know that Dartmouth has their middle school program, but there’s not many districts around here that offer it. And I don’t know any elementary school programs around here. Unfortunately, the involvement of World Language in the SouthCoast is not very strong. Western Mass., Central Mass. and the Boston area have stronger programs.”

Dr. Correia, who completed her doctorate in Education Leadership at Northeastern University last year, has dedicated her research to creating fair opportunities for students to excel in world languages through interdisciplinary projects, often drawing on her personal experience as a World Language teacher and diverse Brazilian, Portuguese, and Japanese heritage.

“I was a Portuguese teacher for seven years,” said the former Global Learning Charter Public School teacher. “I was born in Brazil. I’ve always been involved in the Portuguese community. I want to not only keep my culture alive but help second and third generation kids continue with their language and culture.”

A native of Marília, São Paulo, Brazil, she came to New Bedford as a baby. Her father and mother were born in Brazil to families from mainland Portugal and Japan, respectively.

“I didn’t speak English until I went to school,” she recalled. “Every time I walk into the Gomes School is such a nostalgic moment. This is where I learned English.”

In addition to playing a part in expanding the world language program in her former school district, she was a review panelist for the Massachusetts World Language Curriculum Frameworks and is a Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MAFLA) board member.

“When I was on the Frameworks team, there were about 100 of us involved in that and I was the only SouthCoast World Language person,” she said. “This was my biggest push when applying for the grant we received. I wanted to connect the SouthCoast districts and empower them all to continue strengthening their [World Language] programs.”

New Bedford receives $149,000 grant to support World Language program

New Bedford Public Schools were recently selected as a recipient of the Proficiency-based Outcomes in Languages Other than English (LOTE) Grant awarded through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Through this program, New Bedford Public Schools will receive $149,000 to support World Language programs.

“In the state, New Bedford got the most,” Dr. Correia said. “I think all of the other cities and towns got nowhere near close to $100,000.”

The DESE grant has essentially two goals: collect and analyze data pertaining to proficiency in languages other than English, and support world language partnerships (such as schools/districts in geographical proximity to one another). These partnerships will be aimed at supporting district-level world languages leadership, facilitating professional collaboration around the 2021 World Languages Curriculum Framework, and addressing the insufficient world language teacher pipeline.

“One of the pieces was to be able to test kids for the Seal of Biliteracy, but also provide the testing that leads up to that,” Dr. Correia said. “Whether it’s placement testing or testing the year before their senior year to see where they’re at to help them improve.”

The State Seal of Biliteracy (SoBl) is an award provided by state approved districts that recognizes high school graduates who attain high functional and academic levels of proficiency in English and a world language in recognition of having studied and attained proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation. The seal will appear on the transcript or diploma of the graduating students and is a statement of accomplishment for future employers and college admissions.

This year, more than 40 New Bedford Public School students have qualified to receive Seals of Biliteracy.

“There were 44 SoBl earned by 41 different students,” Dr. Correia said. “Four of these are the SoBl with distinction. Thirteen of those SoBls are for Portuguese.”

In addition, the New Bedford Public School system is using the grant to collaborate with other districts or schools to build a World Languages curriculum that aligns with the 2021 World Languages Framework, and to take steps to address the shortage of world language teachers in vocational settings.

The new framework stresses the importance of creating learning experiences where students apply the language they’re studying to real-world situations, thus transforming classrooms from passive to active learning environments.

“We have a team of about 30 teachers from New Bedford Public Schools, Fall River Public Schools, Taunton Public Schools and the Discovery Language Academy and Global Learning Charter Public School,” concluded Dr. Correia.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: New Bedford to offer Portuguese classes to elementary and middle schoolers