A school classroom in Holyoke. (Photo by Sarah Betancourt)

EVERY SPRING, Massachusetts celebrates bilingualism, at least in theory. In May each year, the state proudly awards thousands of graduating high school students the Seal of Biliteracy, recognizing proficiency in two or more languages.

But look closely at who earns those seals. In many cases, it isn’t because schools taught students a second language particularly well — or at all. More often, it is because families did.

Across Massachusetts, many of the students receiving the seal speak another language at home and learned it from their parents or grandparents. The state celebrates the outcome while failing to build the dual language programs that would make bilingualism truly accessible to far more students.

Research is clear: High-quality dual-language immersion is not only the most effective educational model for English learners, it is one of the best models for all students. Two-way dual-language programs are “additive,” developing two languages simultaneously. Students in dual-language programs outperform peers in English-only programs on literacy and long-term academic achievement, while also showing benefits in problem-solving, attention, and memory.

Communities often resist dual-language programs out of fear that children won’t learn English, or that monolingual students will be excluded. But the research shows the opposite. Two-way immersion programs consistently produce strong outcomes for all students, fostering bilingualism, cognitive flexibility, cultural understanding, and empathy. What some still see as a “deficit”–children speaking another language at home is, in fact, one of the greatest educational assets a district can have.

If Massachusetts truly values bilingualism, it needs to do better at investing in dual-language programs.

In 1990, I was in first grade at my neighborhood school in Framingham, part of the district’s first dual-language class (it was called the two-way bilingual program back then). Half the day was taught in English, half in Spanish, with native speakers of both languages learning side by side.

By the time we left elementary school, we could read, write, and speak in two languages, and when we graduated in 2002, we were academically bilingual. That experience shaped my life, and now my own children are enrolled in the dual-language program in Worcester.

My community exemplifies both the challenge and the opportunity. About 30 percent of students districtwide in Worcester are English learners, but at the elementary level that number is 39 percent. Roughly three in five students speak a language other than, or in addition to, English at home. Yet the district only has five kindergarten dual-language classrooms. That is just 6 percent of all kindergarteners enrolled in the school system.

The biggest barrier is staffing. Dual-language teachers must not only hold a teaching license but also earn a bilingual endorsement. In Massachusetts, only six colleges currently offer that endorsement — and all are more than an hour away from Worcester.

Massachusetts’s current accountability system also undermines dual-language programs. Schools are primarily judged on English-language standardized tests, which measure short-term proficiency rather than long-term biliteracy or academic growth in both languages. That creates pressure to deprioritize dual-language instruction, push students into English-only classrooms, or narrow curricula to improve test scores, all of which erode the very programs proven to deliver the best outcomes for English learners and for all students.

We need state leadership to step up. The state education commissioner, Pedro Martinez, has spoken about the importance of multilingualism and said dual language education would be an area of focus. But Massachusetts needs more than statements of support. We are decades behind where we should be, and we need a coordinated strategy to expand dual-language programs. That means funding new programs, incentivizing teacher preparation programs to offer bilingual endorsements, and partnering with universities in multilingual communities to build local pipelines.

Thirty-six years ago, I was a first grader in a dual-language classroom. Now I am a parent of dual-language students, and I watch as the state continues to treat these programs as an afterthought.

For decades, research and experience have shown their value, yet Massachusetts still has not embraced this model in any serious way. I am tired of hearing the governor say that Massachusetts has the best schools in the country, when gaps between rich and poor students continue to grow by the year. Best schools for whom?

The state’s multilingual student population is not a disadvantage to overcome; it is one of Massachusetts’s greatest educational strengths. If Massachusetts truly values bilingualism, it should stop celebrating it symbolically and start building schools that make it possible.

Aislinn Doyle is the parent of two Worcester Public Schools students and the author of WPS in Brief, a substack about the district’s governance. She serves in multiple parent leadership roles, including with the Worcester Elementary School Library Coalition, the school site council, PTO of her children’s school, and Worcester’s dual language parent advisory council.