On day one the author sets up the expectation that her kindergarten Spanish language immersion classroom will be a 100% target language environment. To accomplish this, the author implements several structures, routines, and expectations to maintain the immersion environment. Getting to know the students, modeling appropriate behavior, promoting…

The Federated States of Micronesia National Department of Education (FSM NDOE) requested support from the Region 18 Comprehensive Center (R18CC) to build National and State-level knowledge of effective practices in bilingual and multilingual education. This scan offers an overview of evidence-based practices for implementing and evaluating the…

This article describes the practical application of an innovative bilingual preschool program that involves two-way immersion of both English and Chinese in classrooms. This has not been written about extensively, especially in the context of early childhood classrooms in Asian countries. The primary goal of the two-way immersion kindergarten is…

This essay offers a candid overview of the past one hundred years of preK-fifth grade Spanish language teaching and learning in the United States. Among the topics addressed are numbers of programs, program models, and factors that impact the success of learners and programs.

These maps provide an overview of existing dual language programs in the district for the 2012-2013 school year and the distribution of Spanish-speaking English language learners.

Kindergarten in Victoria, Australia is the preschool year, attended by children who are four going on five, and who will go onto primary school the following year. These are part-time programs, run over a small number of sessions per week, typically for 3-5 hours per session for 10-12 hours per week. North West Brunswick Kindergarten, in the…

This article describes the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (PVCICS), a regional public charter school in western Massachusetts, which opened in 2007 and the only Chinese immersion school in New England. The school draws students from over twenty-five towns and cities in a predominantly rural area of Massachusetts that includes the…

Six years ago Project Starship MIR, the Russian language "shuttle," launched at Turnagain Elementary, one of the Anchorage School District's 65 elementary schools. The MIR "peace" mission originated with encouragement from the local business community to prepare students for Alaska's future economic, social and political ties…

The Dearborn Public Schools, with 18,300 students, is located in the Detroit urban area with the largest concentration of Arabic-speaking people in the United States. In order to prepare the students for the 21st century skills and global awareness and in response to parents' requests, the author in collaboration with the school principal and…

School-wide character education is difficult and ongoing work, even without the added complication of having diverse programs and students. Despite these obstacles, King George School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada chose to engage in character education. Initially, the reasons were pragmatic. Character education seemed the only hope for any sort of…

This article features the Foreign Language Assistance Program, also known as FLAP, which holds the distinction as the only federally funded program that exclusively targets foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools. Funded under Title V of No Child Left Behind, FLAP provides 3-year grants to states and local school districts…

In dual language programs, children who speak a majority language are grouped with children who speak a minority language, and instruction is delivered in both languages. This focus on structural rather than instructional design can lead to a recipe approach to design: add the ingredients (native-speaking children, content language instruction) in…