Rutherford County sees increased need for ESL resources in schools

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — As more families move to Rutherford County, area schools are seeing an increased need for English as a Second Language (ESL) resources.

Each year, area schools make room for more than 1,000 new students. Data from Rutherford County Schools (RCS) and Murfreesboro City Schools (MCS) showed a rise in students migrating from other countries and students who speak a language other than English at home.

RCS Board of Education Vice Chair Frances Rosales told News 2 that meeting the needs of these students is a cause close to her heart as she moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico as a child.

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"Education is the key to that success and I believe it and I experienced it," Rosales said.

According to numbers shared at the RCS Board of Education work session on September 30, of the 11,600 students added in the last decade, half have been ESL students. Between August 7 and Sept. 30, the district added more than 350 student newcomers, or students who had moved to the country within the past two months.

Murfreesboro City Schools added 259 students who had immigrated to the area between May 2023 and Oct. 2024, which presents a 36% increase.

"We are about education and teaching all of our kids that walk through the doors, but we want to serve them where they're at and not minimize their education," Rosales added.

The need for more ESL teachers is being felt across the state, according to JC Bowman, Executive Director & CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee . At the end of September, RCS identified the need to add 21 additional ESL positions on top of the 25 positions added last year.

Rosales would like to one day see general education teachers also be trained in ESL. In addition, she said that she thought the district could benefit from translators for parents and more federal funding for ESL resources.

"[We need to make sure] teachers who have a — quite significant — number of students who speak a second language, that they are qualified and certified to have the tools that are needed to teach them," Rosales added. "The way the model is set up today for kids that are receiving these services — they are still integrated in the classroom and they still have to be taught the same standards, just like everyone else."

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Bowman added that he thought the state should incentivize teachers interested in going into the ESL specialty by offering scholarships to pay for their schooling.

"If we're going to have a child that enrolls in public school, we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that they're fully educated so they can become productive citizens in our country, and that's the bottom line," Bowman said. "But if we don't have the teachers to do it, that's going to be a problem in our state."

Rosales said one challenge she sees, in particular, is older ESL students moving to the district. Late high schoolers, for example, may not able to get as much help as students who started receiving ESL services earlier on.