School district to expand dual language program
Learning 2 languages proves popular with students and parents
By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer
Matt Murray
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After seven years of providing a special curriculum to help students become proficient in two languages, the Blaine County School District plans to double the size of its Dual Immersion Program beginning next fall.
Matt Murray, school district director of curriculum, said the program has become so popular that more parents and students want to sign up than is possible.
So, instead of 40 students per grade level as is currently the case, next year there will be 80.
The dual immersion concept is rather simple–enroll students starting as kindergartners in a class in which half the instruction is in English and half in Spanish. Keep them in dual language classes through subsequent grade levels and by the time the students reach the fifth grade they’re typically fluent in both languages.
“It’s just around you all day and that’s the best way to learn a language,” said Murray.
The program is available at Wood River Middle School and at elementary schools in Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue, but students must start the program in kindergarten.
Dual immersion classes in the district are typically comprised of half Hispanic and half non-Hispanic students. Those involved make up less than 20 percent of the total student population. For example, there are 40 dual-immersion sixth graders, who were the first ones to participate in the district program, compared to a total sixth-grade population at Wood River Middle School
of about 220.
The program becomes more complex once the students reach middle school, where numerous electives make it more difficult to keep the dual-immersion students together, but Murray said the problem is not insurmountable.
“It’s more difficult, but its just a scheduling thing,” he said. “We’ve just carved up the morning so they’re in dual immersion classes and then we kind of open up the afternoon for electives.”
With each passing year, the district’s Dual Immersion Program advances to a higher grade level, and Murray said the plan is to allow student to stay with the program through high school.
Murray pointed out an interesting aspect of the program. Research has shown that students in dual immersion programs typically lag behind scholastically compared to students in regular curriculums until about the fifth grade. At that point, research shows they typically surpass other students in academic achievement.
Dual language program to be discussed
The Blaine County School District will hold a parent information meeting on Tuesday, April 15, to discuss the district’s Dual Immersion Program, in which students starting in kindergarten can learn to become proficient in two languages. The meeting will be mainly geared toward parents of children who enter kindergarten next fall, but the general public is invited. The meeting is scheduled from 6:30-8 p.m. at the library at Woodside Elementary School in Hailey.
