Demographics
I am a multilingual learner (MLL) teacher at The John Dickinson School, a 6-12 grade public school located in the suburbs surrounding the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Our school is in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, the largest school district in the state of Delaware which serves the second largest population of MLL students. Within my district, MLL students account for about 15% of the student population. The district’s population of MLL students has grown about four percent since 2016, a statistic that is reflective of the overall trend that MLL students are the fastest growing population of students in Delaware schools1. Similarly, my school’s population of MLL students is steadily growing; our number of MLL students was reported at 22.4% in the 2024-25 school year2, more than double the state average of 10%3. While the majority of MLL students in my school are native Spanish-speakers, their families come from a wide range of Spanish-speaking countries in central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. Additionally, my MLL students represent a wide range of previous educational experiences and English proficiencies.
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