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Published in the Beloit Daily News, March 22, 2012 (Wisconsin) Next fall kindergarten students will be able to take advantage of a new program aimed to help students become fluent in both English and Spanish. 
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Published in the Dallas News, February 26, 2012 (Texas)
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Published in the Houston Chronicle, January 30, 2012 (Texas) The classroom walls explode with vibrant posters and banners welcoming students to class (Bienvenidos), illustrating the cuisine of Spanish-speaking countries (Paella, Salsa de Mole, Cuy Picante), and giving translations for common classroom objects such as pencil sharpeners (el sacapuntas). In this class, taught by Ana Snyder at Woodcreek Middle School in Humble ISD, and in the growing number of such classes throughout the Houston area, the goal is not only to strengthen native language skills, but also to instill cultural pride in bilingual students. The classes - often referred to as heritage speaker classes - are designed for students raised in homes where another language is spoken, but who have been educated primarily in English. While most of the classes in this area are in Spanish, heritage speaker courses are also offered in a wide range of languages, including Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic. Heritage speaker classes first started appearing in high schools and colleges across the country more than a decade ago, but the number of programs and languages offered has exploded as the U.S. population has grown more diverse. Today, educators, backed by a body of research, recognize the cognitive, academic and career benefits of bilingualism and of preserving heritage language fluency.
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Published by CNN, January 25, 2012 “Immersion is a program that is about bilingualism, bi -literacy and multi-literacy." Researchers have seen a growth in immersion education across the country. The Center for Applied Linguistics estimated there are about 1200 programs in schools across the nation. Most are Spanish and English programs, but a growing number include Mandarin Chinese, Korean and French. The instruction can be about improving English skills for the 21% of school-age children in the country who speak a language other than English at home, but also about encouraging bilingual skills for English speakers as well. Utah, one of the most consistently conservative states in the nation, spearheaded two-way immersion programs over the past few years under Republican governor and former GOP presidential nominee hopeful Jon Huntsman. Utah’s language instruction focuses on immersion learning. In Utah, students learn 50% of their subjects in English and 50% in a second language. Two-way immersion means some students speak English as their native languages at home, and some might not. For the 2011-2012 school year, there are 57 immersion programs in Utah— 31 in Spanish, 17 in Mandarin Chinese and nine in French. Next year, the state expects to have 76 programs, said Gregg Roberts, world languages and dual immersion specialist for Utah’s Department of Education. All of the instruction starts in kindergarten or first grade, and the overarching plan for these programs was developed and supported at a state level. .
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Published in the Huffington Post, October 25, 2011 This article comes to us courtesy of The Hechinger Report.
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Published in the Lemon Grove Patch, October 12, 2011 (California) Dual language immersion, sometimes called two-way immersion, was introduced in Canada more than 40 years ago and is widespread in the U.S. with at least 224 programs in California alone, according to the state Department of Education. Spanish is the most popular second language statewide but other partner languages in California include Korean and Mandarin. In San Diego County, nine districts offer a two-way program in one or more schools; Chula Vista has a particularly active program.
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Broadcast on Southern California Public Radio, June 15, 2011 For years, middle- and upper-middle-class parents in parts of Los Angeles Unified have sent their children to private schools, charter schools and schools outside the district. However, a nascent dual-language program is attracting some of them back to neighborhood schools. District administrators voted Tuesday to protect hundreds of dual-language teachers from being let go in the hope that the trickle of returning parents will develop into a stream.
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Published by Educational Justice, December 13, 2006 The San Francisco Unified School District hopes to offer every student the opportunity to graduate from SFUSD fluent in English and at least one other language. On December 12, 2006, San Francisco Unified School District Board members voted unanimously for a resolution that will set up a task force to guide SFUSD in preparing students for success in a multilingual and multicultural world.
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Published in the Daily Breeze News, March 3,2012 (California) Dual-immersion instruction has existed in the United States for decades, starting with the 1963 opening of a school in Florida for Cuban refugees who'd fled the Castro regime. It didn't really start to catch on in California until after the 1998 passage of Proposition 227. The number of schools in California with a dual-immersion component doubled from 1994 to 1998 to almost 100. By 2008, the latest year for which data is available at the California Department of Education, the number had more than doubled again, to 224.
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Published in the Houston Chronicle, January 31, 2012 Heritage speaker classes first started appearing in high schools and colleges across the country more than a decade ago, but the number of programs and languages offered has exploded as the U.S. population has grown more diverse. About one in five people speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A change in approach The growth in heritage speaker classes also reflects a change in approach to teaching speakers of other languages. In the past, students growing up in non-English-speaking homes were encouraged to stop speaking their heritage language. Today, educators, backed by a body of research, recognize the cognitive, academic and career benefits of bilingualism and of preserving heritage language fluency.
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Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, January 23, 2012 In little over a decade, the number of dual-language programs in San Diego County has skyrocketed. This is one of the few areas in public education that is experiencing unprecedented growth amid California’s relentless fiscal crisis.
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Published in the Orlando Sentinel, January 6, 2012 Educators say children who know Spanish and English perform better academically
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Broadcast on National Public Radio, October 25, 2011 At Coral Way, the children of political refugees fleeing Cuba in the 1960s were not only expected to learn English, but also expected to remain fluent in Spanish and hold on to their culture. Today's students can read, speak and write in both languages.
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Published in The Day Connecticut, June 27, 2011 In the fall, St. Mary will become the first Catholic school in the state to teach classes in English and Spanish. A five-year Dual-Language Initiative, which will start with the kindergarten class in the fall, is being developed over the summer. "By the time students are in middle school, they will be bilingual and bi-literate,'' said school principal Anne Totora. "Our biggest strength is our cultural diversity. It is a huge benefit to receive instruction in two languages."
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Published in the Latin American Herald Tribune (Miami, Florida) For the first time in U.S. history, bilingualism is an alternative pushed by the economy and by the bounties of such a diverse culture” like the Hispanic one.
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Published by New America Media, September 25, 2010 Editor’s Note: To date, 30 states have passed English-only laws, and many American are skeptical of bilingual education because they want their children to learn in English, not Chinese or Spanish. "Speaking in Tongues," the latest documentary by Bay Area filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider, sheds light on the cognitive and developmental value of learning in two languages at a young age. The film follows four diverse children as they become bilingual in San Francisco public schools. Speaking in Tongues, subtitled in Chinese or Spanish, can be streamed on the PBS website till October 15. Jarmel spoke with NAM Education Reporter Rupa Dev.
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