Montgomery ISD Teaches Its Dual-Language Classes in English and Spanish. Its Students Bring 17 Other Languages to School.
By The Magnolia Standard · October 23, 2026
A report to the Montgomery ISD board this week counted the languages its students bring from home. Beyond English and Spanish, there are 17.
About 400 Montgomery ISD students were learning English through the district's emergent bilingual program in the 2025-26 school year, up from 385 the year before. The figures come from a report Chris Summers, the assistant superintendent of academic accountability, gave the board of trustees at its October 20 meeting.
Classes are taught in English and Spanish. The students are not limited to those two. Summers told the board the district is home to 17 other languages.
Three ways in
The program runs three models.
One-way dual language is built for children whose first language is Spanish. They learn in both languages, so their Spanish keeps growing while they pick up English.
Two-way dual language puts native Spanish speakers and native English speakers in the same room, with the aim that both groups read and write in two languages.
English as a second language covers prekindergarten through 12th grade. Instruction is in English, taught by bilingual teachers. It is the route for a student whose home language is one the district does not teach in.
This school year the district counts 130 students in dual language and 244 in ESL.
How they are doing
Every emergent bilingual student in Texas takes TELPAS, the state's yearly test of English listening, speaking, reading and writing. Summers said Montgomery ISD's students have made steady progress on it since last semester.
On the STAAR, he said, reading was their strongest subject. Eighth-grade social studies needs the most work.
Next door
The program is small for the district's size, and so is the share of students in it. In the Texas Education Agency's most recent district report, covering 2024-25, about 4 of every 100 Montgomery ISD students were in bilingual or ESL classes. In Magnolia ISD it was about 19 of every 100, and across Texas about 24.
The state counts enrollment one way and the district counts its program another, so the two sets of numbers do not line up exactly. The gap between the neighbors is plain enough. In Magnolia ISD a bilingual classroom is common. Up the road in Montgomery ISD it is the exception, and the 17 languages show it is not only Spanish.
Sources: Community Impact's October 22, 2026 report on the Montgomery ISD board's October 20 meeting, for the program models, the 400 and 385 enrollment figures, the 17 languages, the 130 and 244 counts for 2026-27, the TELPAS and STAAR results and Summers' title; and the Texas Education Agency's 2024-25 Texas Academic Performance Reports for Montgomery ISD and Magnolia ISD, for the bilingual and ESL shares and the state figure. Corrections to editor@themagnoliastandard.news.