Although several studies highlight the benefit of short-term immersion programs abroad among social work students, few studies have examined their transformative nature. In response, this study aimed to describe the transformative change experienced by MSW students from the Southwest USA who participated in a short-term, immersion program in…

Five cohorts of students (N = 322) who completed a K-5 Spanish Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program in an urban school district were followed longitudinally through middle and high school completion. Academic and language achievement data included English Language Arts and Mathematics scores on the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test…

While America is becoming increasingly diverse, educational stakeholders seek programs that address varied language and cultural needs, which is reflected by the growing popularity of dual language immersion (DLI) programs in recent decades. The problem is an extensively persistent academic achievement gap between students with native English and…

While educational language policies have been shown to have a stronger influence on school-aged children's multilingual outcomes than Family Language Policy, California provides an example of how parental motivation and activism can also have a profound impact on educational language policies. This paper has two goals: first, it provides an…

This dissertation was an investigation of how students in two-way bilingual immersion (TWBI) programs construct their bilingual identities inside and outside the school setting, highlighting the unique and multifaceted nature of their language development and cultural identity formation. TWBI programs aim to cultivate bilingualism and biliteracy,…

Teachers working in middle and high school Dual Immersion (DI) programs (Spanish-English) face unique sets of challenges: linguistic equity between the two languages of instruction, attrition due to high linguistic and academic expectations, and preparing DI students for standardized tests in English. In this article, we reflect on our current…

Seven cohorts of students (N = 258) who completed a K-5 Spanish Immersion (SI) program in a suburban California school district were followed longitudinally through middle and high school to understand their academic, language, and social emotional outcomes. Academic and language outcomes included Spanish classes and grades, standardized Math and…

Purpose: The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to identify and describe the leadership strategies that exemplary elementary dual immersion principals in Orange and San Diego counties in Southern California use to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness using Kennedy's (2008) five leadership qualities of…

This case study explored Spanish-speaking educators' perceptions and experiences of dual-language immersion (DLI) professional learning (PL). The study aimed to understand how PL offerings could best support and meet the needs of DLI Spanish teachers' best practices in the target language. The perceptions and experiences of seven Spanish DLI…

This study concerns integration in a two-way dual language immersion (DLI) context. Specifically, the present study examines parents of students in Korean-English DLI programs with the intent to understand the extent of their satisfaction with their child's ability to get along with children of different cultures and languages. This study also…

In recent years, the United States has seen an increased interest in Dual Language Education (DLE) Programs. These programs prepare students to compete in a global economy by providing an opportunity to develop high levels of bilingualism, biliteracy, and socio-cultural competence. Despite abundant research on DLE programs (Howard et al., 2018),…

Dual language immersion programs are growing in popularity across America. This article examines the explanations middle-class parents of various racial/ethnic backgrounds give for enrolling their children in Mandarin Immersion Programs. The author addresses the following questions: Why do American parents enroll their children in Mandarin…

Drawing upon Darvin and Norton's framework of investment, this article explores the multiple factors underlying parents' commitment to bilingual education. I use open-ended responses on a survey to report on the motivations and experiences of parents who have enrolled their child in a French-English dual language immersion program. Findings…

Purpose: There is limited research on the writing of young Spanish-English bilinguals and their writing in both languages. In the current study, we addressed whether written syntax features differed by language (English and Spanish) and varied as a function of grade level, English learner status, and instructional program (dual or English…

Purpose: There is limited research on the writing of young Spanish-English bilinguals and their writing in both languages. In the current study, we addressed whether written syntax features differed by language (English and Spanish) and varied as a function of grade level, English learner status, and instructional program (dual or English…