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Leading Change and Growth in Los Angeles

Catholic School Dual Language Immersion

LEAD

Kevin Baxter, Ed.D. Susan Abelein, Ph.D. Patricia Harty, M.Ed.

Photos by Jenn Phatiphong Photography

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What is dual language immersion? Historically, in the United States we have not taught second languages effectively. Other parts of the world are much more successful at teaching young students to speak, at minimum, one additional language. In our mod-ern world, there are clear benefits of individuals being both bilingual and biliterate, so the focus on utilizing dual language immersion as an instructional model in Catholic schools is both rele-vant and attractive to potential families.

Dual language immersion (DLI) is a broad term for school models that teach academic content in two sepa-rate languages over the course of the day. DLI programs include the 90-10 model that begin teaching the partner language (e.g., Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean) for 90 percent of the day as early as preschool. Each year the percentage of English increases by 10 percent, eventually reaching a 50-50 model in 3rd or 4th grade and remain-ing this way through middle and, in some cases, high school. In a 50-50 model, half the day’s instruction is in the partner language and the other half is in English.

Our DLI model recognizes that all children come to school with language and, though they may not have expo-sure to English yet, that does not mean they start with a deficit. Research by the National Literacy Panel and the Center for Research on Education, Diversity

and Excellence, indicates that these students simply need to fully develop their native language and have the op-portunity to build strong literacy skills so that they can then more successfully acquire their second language.

The goals of dual language immer-sion are bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism. In other words, by the time students graduate they will be able to listen to, speak, read, write and learn academic content in both languages. They will equally learn to embrace diversity, because this model celebrates both language and culture. DLI schools bring together two populations of students, fluent English speakers and English language learners, who might otherwise be relegated to separate class-rooms or schools.

Current DLI Research Long-term research shows that in-structing students in two languages not only better prepares them for our increasingly globalized world, but ensures higher cognitive and academic outcomes throughout their school experience. Patricia Gándara, profes-sor in the field of bilingual education at UCLA, finds that bilingual education for native Spanish speakers increases the likelihood that they graduate from high school and go to college. She also finds that these students are less likely to experience dissonance between their home and school life; therefore, they experience fewer behavioral problems at school. Ellen Bialystok, a research psychologist at York University in Toronto, finds that learning two lan-guages increases the brain’s executive function and therefore could improve students’ ability to problem solve, while also increasing memory and attention. In a study published by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Mandarin immersion

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students in fourth grade outperformed their high school peers in AP Manda-rin courses.

Bilingual education can take many forms, but in a groundbreaking study, Thomas and Collier compared multiple language learning program models, which included English as a second lan-guage (ESL), developmental bilingual education (DBE), and two-way bilin-gual immersion (TWI). The program that showed a significant difference in the academic achievement of English language learners was the TWI model. While the achievement gains for the English language learners were high, native English language students were also observed making significant gains.

DLI in Catholic SchoolsCatholic schools in the United States have historically served immigrant com-munities who come to the United States to pursue a better life. In fact, those im-migrant communities from decades ago – such as Irish, Italian, Polish, German – have now reached the pinnacle of American society, and Catholic schools have played a large role in ensuring that outcome. The sense of community that is present in Catholic schools en-sures that students understand the com-mitment that the adults in their lives have to see them succeed. That sense of community is also manifested in how Catholic schools integrate all learners

into a rigorous learning environment. Implementing a DLI model in Catholic schools fits perfectly with our mission and sense of community. DLI addresses students from immigrant families, while educating native English language students to be bilingual and biliterate, which is a key asset for the 21st cen-tury. In addition, the focus on cultural awareness ensures that students are prepared for the diverse and exciting world that awaits them as adults.

DLI in the ADLAIn 2010, All Souls School closed in the city of Alhambra. It was a traditional K-8 school that closed for all of the rea-sons other Catholic schools have closed across the country: low enrollment, tight finances and lukewarm parish sup-port. While this was tragically sad news, it also came with a ray of hope, as there was a dream to implement a DLI model Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (ADLA). There were many successful public and charter DLI schools at that time and the belief was that having a high-quality language pro-gram in a Catholic school environment would be appealing to families.

A two-year-long process began to reopen a new DLI Catholic school at All Souls. A board was formed at the site and we began to research effec-tive DLI models. It was an extremely difficult task to convince parents to

send their five-year-olds to a school that had no history, and one that was implementing a model that was new for Catholic schools in the ADLA. The initial thought was to offer Mandarin as the partner language (we were attempt-ing to start another Catholic DLI school at the same time that was going to have Spanish as the partner language). But the board and community were inter-ested in having both languages offered as options for families. Thus, All Souls became the only Catholic, two-track DLI school in the United States.

All Souls reopened in 2012 with 20 students enrolled. The majority were in kindergarten, but there were some first-graders, as well. It has continued to add one grade per year and, for the 2016-17 school year, we expect to have more than 200 students in grades TK-4. Full enrollment (300+ students) is expected when we have an 8th-grade class in five years. The school has a waiting list for kindergarten and has had requests from parents inquiring as to when they can enroll their toddlers at the school.

The DLI model was implemented at St. Sebastian School in 2015, and we have seen very similar initial results. St. Matthias School will start with the mod-el during the 2016-17 school year. The school has had significant enrollment challenges the past few years, but they are experiencing tremendous interest in the early DLI grades for the coming year. Across various socioeconomic sec-tors, we are seeing tremendous interest expressed from prospective parents about enrolling their children in a Catholic DLI school.

Forming a Catholic DLI Network in the ADLAInfluenced by the design and practices of the Cristo Rey Network and thought partners from the Two-Way Immersion Network – Catholic Schools (TWIN-CS) at Boston College, the Department of Catholic Schools in the ADLA has

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begun to develop the Dual Language Immersion Network in order to support the work of administra-tors, teachers and staff at our Catholic DLI schools. In addition, the established network will ensure the operational vitality of all our future DLI schools.

Thus far, administrators and teachers from the three existing DLI schools have come together for two days of professional development on lesson design and dual language methodologies. Four more training days, as well as other academic events, have been calendared over the course of the year to build community and meet the needs of educators on an ongoing basis.

The established three schools represent a start to our vision that expects to have 15 to 20 Catholic DLI

elementary schools in the ADLA over the next five to six years. Across the three counties that comprise the ADLA, not only are we growing the number of Catholic schools that respond to our linguistically and culturally diverse population, we are creating a network that will support them for present and future generations.

As the DLI Network is developed further over the coming year, we will engage board development and marketing consultants, increase our central office team and engage several schools in feasibility studies in order to solidly manage our growth as a network. The ultimate goal is to identify how many DLI el-ementary schools we can effectively establish and then ensure that we implement enough schools to meet the demand.

ConclusionThe current Catholic school context of struggle and closure demands that we are vigilant about ensuring that our schools maintain the central focus on Catho-lic identity, while also being innovative and academi-cally exceptional. Our experience in the ADLA with implementing DLI schools indicates that, when those core principles are present, growth is the clear outcome.

kcbaxter@la-archdiocese.org

drsabelein@la-archdiocese.org

pharty@la-archdiocese.org

The goals of dual language immersion are bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism.