The Culver City (Calif.) Schools' Spanish Immersion Program (SIP) offers an innovative and highly successful approach to the development of proficiency in a foreign language in the elementary grades. This approach differs from most bilingual programs in that for the first two years the students are completely immersed in Spanish. When the students reach second grade, an hour a day of English instruction is added to the program. Additional instruction in English is added each year until, by sixth grade, instruction time in the two languages will be approximately equal. Begun in 1971, the program is aimed primarily at the native English-speaking child, although a few Spanish-speaking children are also involved. The program has been inexpensive to operate because no extra staff has been required. The regular elementary program is taught by teachers who are themselves bilingual. They just happen to be teaching in Spanish, enabling the students to absorb the language in a way that is natural, almost casual. Test scores indicate that students also do as well as or better than the students in the regular English-speaking classrooms in their mastery of basic skills. (Author)