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…

The article explores bilingual investments of dual-language immersion program alumni through an intersectional narrative analysis. Focusing on the experiences of bilingualism of six alumni, we investigate how they continue to be invested in bilingualism, the factors that shape their self-positionings as bilinguals, and the extent to which race is…

Despite increasingly diverse public school enrollment, students across the U.S. are still segregated by race and poverty, and English learners (ELs) often experience triple segregation by race, poverty, and language. Two-way immersion (TWI) programs may create racially integrated learning environments, by offering a dual language model that…

This article explores how second-grade students in a Spanish/English two-way immersion (TWI) program make sense of becoming bilingual. Drawing upon the expanded model of investment theory, I examine how and why students in this classroom "invest" in their emerging bilingualism, attending to the similarities and differences in the…

Dual language immersion (DLI) programs have emerged in the U.S. as effective ways to bring together language minority and language majority speakers in school settings with the goal of bilingualism and bi-literacy for all. However, the proliferation of these programs has raised concerns regarding issues of inequity and dissimilar power dynamics in…

Measures of 31 Latinx students' attitudes in a Grade 5 Spanish dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program were compared with those of the same students four years prior. Twenty-one mainstream English students comprised a comparison group for the same time period. Some statistically significant changes occurred for students in DLBE related to…

This brief explores the potential of bilingual programs to support access to core content courses for students classified as English Learners (ELs). The most common types of bilingual education programs in Oregon are: (1) dual language: instruction is in English and a partner language, with goals of biliteracy and bilingualism. This is also known…

The number of English learners (ELs) who do not reclassify as English proficient after the first five years of schooling has increased across the state of Texas. ELs are a diverse population of students with varying levels of English proficiency. Many students who begin school as an EL reclassify as English proficient in a timely manner and go on…

This study examined teachers' adherence to the language of instruction in dual language education (DLE) programs among teachers in 19 kindergarten through 3rd grade Spanish-English two-way DLE immersion classrooms (n = 5, 90/10 model; n = 14, 50/50 model). Teachers were observed toward the beginning and end of the school year to determine…

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…

In this article, we leverage in-depth interview to probe a Third Grade teacher's memories of the 2016-2017 School Year in a Spanish/English Dual Language Immersion (DL/I) school serving one of North Carolina's new Latinx communities. As our analysis will demonstrate, Mariana Castillo's interaction with the events of SY 16-17 combined with her…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. The topics for this report on ELs and instructional programs include: (1) Number of States Reporting Bilingual Language Instruction Educational programs: SY 2015-16; (2) Number of States Reporting…

This article reports on a formative experiment involving the implementation of long-term multifaceted vocabulary instruction in second-grade Spanish-English dual-immersion classes. The findings indicate that students in the second year of the project showed accelerated growth in English vocabulary knowledge in comparison to the norming sample of a…

Providing instruction in multiple languages has the potential to simultaneously help both native English speakers and English learners to develop language proficiency. "Dual language programs" can help native English speakers develop proficiency in a second language and English learners develop proficiency in both their native language…

We examined spelling errors patterns, cohesive ties, and syntax features in English and Spanish essays written by Spanish-English emergent bilinguals in Grades 1, 2, and 3 (N = 278; 51% female) enrolled in either English immersion or English-Spanish dual immersion programs. In Study 1, we addressed whether students made consistent spelling errors…