Armenian Pupils Learning English Quadruple : Education: The Burbank district statistics reflect a dramatic growth in the number of minority students.

The number of immigrant Armenian American students who speak only limited English has grown nearly four times since 1989, reflecting a dramatic growth in the number of minority students at area public schools over the past six years.

Although Armenian Americans remain a small minority among the 13,000 students enrolled in the school system, they are the fastest-growing immigrant group learning English and are rapidly gaining on Hispanics.

Within the Burbank Unified School District, a quarter of the students are classified as having limited English skills, according to a recently released district study.

The number of Armenian American students with limited English skills grew 382.7%, from 110 in 1989 to the current tally of 531.

Of those, 137 attend Joaquin Miller Elementary School, which is near the city’s border with Glendale and has a total enrollment of 790. Another 59 Armenian American students at the school are fluent in English.

Officials attribute the growth in the number of Armenian American students to the district’s proximity to Glendale, where a large concentration of Armenians live.

“We’re reflecting what’s happened in Glendale,” Miller Elementary Principal Gail Copeland said Monday. “The Glendale Unified School District has had an increase in the Armenian-speaking population, as we are beginning to see in our own district.”

Teachers at Miller Elementary work in teams of two to four and divide students into groups of limited English speakers and fluent English speakers during language arts lessons, Copeland said.

In recent years, one teacher and three instructional aides who speak Armenian were hired by the district, the principal said. The teacher has since left the school.

Among all immigrant students in the district, 3,352 have limited English skills, up nearly 84% from 1989. Another 2,589 have become fluent in English since enrolling in district schools.