The Boom in Bilingual Education

Today we know that children exposed to two languages before adolescence will acquire those languages more easily and stretch their minds as well as their understanding of people and cultures.
Several San Diego County schools are answering the growing demand for bilingualism with dual-immersion programs.

What is Dual-Immersion Instruction?
From kindergarten through the third grade, the majority of the dual (or two-way) immersion classroom day is taught in Spanish. By fourth grade, the day is divided evenly between English and Spanish. By fifth grade, participants are bilingual and bi-literate: reading and writing at grade level in both languages. Contemporary bilingual programs provide rigorous academic instruction in two languages, giving native speakers of both languages an added advantage.
In the 1980s, California started the two-way bilingual immersion program with a handful of pilot schools based on Canadian models (with French and English). Now, San Diego has 16 public immersion programs listed with the California Department of Education, many in Chula Vista.
“Since 1998 there has been a steady increase in two-way immersion programs. In the beginning, we asked parents to take a leap of faith. Now there is so much research showing the positive results. The more research we have, the more likely people are to enroll their children,” says Judy A. Lambert, the bilingual education consultant with the California Department of Education.
Educator Magaly McRay-Lawson sees tremendous benefits to the program. Aside from higher test scores (as compared to English-only peers), she witnesses advantages that tests can’t measure. She emphasizes that “a spirit of cross-cultural cooperation emerges,” as children support each other. Often her Spanish-speaking students will translate to the English speakers.
McRay-Lawson, a teacher at Arroyo Vista Elementary, admits that bilingual education requires more work for students, parents and for teachers.
“Our curriculum is the same as the English-only classes, but it’s hard to find quality Spanish materials. I have to make much of my own materials, but my work is so much more rewarding. I see so many of those precious ‘a-ha moments’ in my students,” she says.
How do bilingual students fare on standardized tests? Much of the data shows a dip in test scores of dual-immersion students in the third grade as compared to their English-only peers, primarily because K-2 focuses on Spanish reading skills and teachers have just started teaching English-reading skills. That gap closes; bilingual students surpass their monolingual peers by the fifth grade.
According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, “the most successful two-way immersion programs recognize the importance of support from families and the community at large. Serious efforts are made to ensure that both languages and cultures are valued equally, and that all families are included in school decision-making processes.”