by Gabriela Garcia
Dr. Tracey R. Jones, clinical assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum & Instruction, received the Bilingual ESL Support Award from Region 12 Education Service Center. The award was given to recognize her various contributions and partnerships with Baylor and Region 12 school districts. Jones specializes in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and bilingual education; she teaches the SOE’s ESL (English as a Second Language) certification courses.
Jones said the recognition, which she received on May 12, 2025, came as a total surprise. “They were sneaky,” Jones said with a laugh. “They just said, ‘Why don’t you come to our annual luncheon?’ and then they gave me an award.”
Jones has worked at Baylor since 2009 and has taught in the School of Education for the past three years, after teaching in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. Jones spearheaded partnerships specifically with Waco ISD and La Vega ISD to support their ESL and Bilingual programs. Her work promotes language acquisition and particularly bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.
A group of the 100 students who participated in the Region 12 Spanish Spelling Bee, hosted on the Baylor campus at the Foster Building
Faith Foster, Education Specialist for Region 12 and presenter of the community partner award, praised Jones for making the 3rd annual Region 12 Spanish Spelling Bee possible by securing a venue at Baylor University. “She helped make this amazing partnership between Region 12 and Baylor University, which also afforded our participants a chance to visit the campus with Spanish tour guides! We are so grateful for this partnership,” Foster said.
The Region 12 Spanish Spelling Bee was a notable project Jones facilitated. Baylor hosted over 100 students — from second graders to high school seniors — to compete in the Spanish Spelling Bee. In doing this, Jones made it possible for everyone to celebrate their language skills and also showed them that higher education is accessible to them.
Brenda Salazar, the first teacher to sponsor a Spanish Spelling Bee in Central Texas, said Jones saved the day when the spelling bee outgrew its old venue by finding a new home at Baylor. The Spanish Spelling Bee started in 2023 with only six districts involved and was hosted at Wortham ISD. The next year it grew, attracting more districts to participate, and moved to the Region 12 headquarters. “It has been an awesome event,” Salazar said. “And it is my hope that the Spanish Spelling Bee can make a positive impact not only on native Spanish speaker students but on native English speaker students as well.”
Beyond the Spanish Spelling Bee, Jones has fostered additional opportunities for bilingual engagement through partnerships between Baylor, Waco ISD, and La Vega ISD. As part of a class Jones teaches on Bilingual Language Acquisition and Education, she takes her Baylor education students to La Vega Primary, where they deliver literacy activities in Spanish and in English for students in their Dual Language (DL) program. This promotes a cultural exchange and language development opportunity for all students and partner teachers. Education students also conduct assessments with DL students to evaluate their proficiency in both languages, and those results are shared with the school site. Dr. Jones’ TESOL Methodology classes partner with teachers of English Learners at Bell’s Hill Elementary School every semester.
Jones said the Region 12 award celebrates these ongoing partnerships that strengthen learning across Baylor and partner districts. “It’s an acknowledgment of the continued relationship that we have, and these connections support local schools and classroom teachers while benefiting our students enormously,” she said.
Jones discussed continuing collaborations with La Vega ISD and her Bilingual Language Acquisition and Education course, which she teaches with associate professor of linguistics Dr. Melisa Dracos from the English Department in the College of Arts & Sciences. In this interdisciplinary course, Baylor students learn about how bilingual children acquire and manage two languages linguistically. Then, they go out to the school site to observe Dual Language classrooms, conduct assessments, and work with bilingual students. The course allows for application of course content in a real-world setting. The faculty duo received a Diversity and Belong Teaching Innovations Award for developing this course, and plan to teach it more frequently to explore further empirical research on bilingualism.
The Region 12 award further affirms Jones’s efforts to emphasize practical and hands-on experiences with bi/multilingual students and teachers for Baylor SOE’s future teachers. Jones said she believes students need to have the opportunity to see theory in practice and participate in that as well. She is hopeful that these efforts and partnerships ensure future educators are prepared and fully equipped to support bilingual learners across the state of Texas and beyond.
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