Why Dual Language Immersion?

One of the best ways to provide students the 21st-century skills they need to be college and career-ready is to give them the gift of languages. Students in dual language immersion programs develop as bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural learners who thrive academically. Knowing other languages and understanding other cultures give students the ability to maintain their sense of wonder and curiosity, to cultivate their emotional intelligence, and helps to prepare them to participate as productive citizens in a global society.

Why Immersion?

More than 40 years of research consistently documents the power of dual immersion programs to help students attain high levels of second language proficiency. This type of instruction is research based and has proven success. Young children especially thrive in this type of instructional environment and studies show that young developing brains acquire language more easily than older hard-wired brains.

Advantages of Bilingualism

Spanish Dual Language Immersion

There are more than 450 million native speakers of Spanish, making it second only to Chinese in terms of the most spoken languages in the world. More than 43 million Americans speak the Spanish language, making it the second most spoken language in the United States.

The Spanish Dual Language Immersion programs are housed at two McKinley Elementary School and Jefferson Middle School.

Mandarin Dual Language Immersion

Numbers vary widely — Of the world's total population, roughly 917 million are native Mandarin speakers— there’s no doubt Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world! If students wish to learn a language that one-in-six people in the world speaks, Mandarin is the language to choose.

The Mandarin Dual Language Immersion program is housed at Wilson Elementary School.