Dual-Immersion Program Comes to Bixby Elementary

Kirt Ramirez

Bixby Elementary now offers Spanish Dual Immersion (DI) education.

A popular language, Spanish ranks number three in the world with 661 million speakers, according to World Atlas and other statistics. The European language is spoken in mother country Spain and Latin-American countries.

English is first in the world with 1.39 billion speakers and Mandarin Chinese is second with 1.15 billion speakers worldwide, according to World Atlas and others.

DI proponents say learning Spanish helps students grow intellectually and culturally and helps them later when they enter the job market, as many employers want workers fluent in Spanish.

The DI program came to Bixby because of a strong community interest, Long Beach Unified School District spokesman Chris Eftychiou said through email. He said two Bixby kindergarten DI programs started this year and the school had a waiting list for the classes.

“Enough families applied/expressed interest in DI to fill four kindergarten classes next year,” he added.

“LBUSD’s closest DI program to Bixby received over 350 applications for about 50 kindergarten spaces last year,” Eftychiou said. “A significant number of Bixby residents have been applying to Patrick Henry for years. Bixby is centrally located and the school has the classroom space to expand the program.”

Eftychiou explained the Bixby program will be a 90/10 model, like Henry.

“This means that students learn in the ‘target language’ (Spanish) for 90% of the day,” he said. Instruction in English is provided with a partner teacher for 10% of the day. As the years progress, first grade goes to 80/20, second grade to 70/30, etc., until parity is reached in fourth and fifth grade with 50/50.”

Bixby and Henry have 90:10 models, while Lafayette, Webster, Willard and Keller have the 50:50 model, meaning Spanish is used 50 percent of the time in the program.

Parents who don’t want the program can opt-out.

“Bixby is currently working with the five incoming Bixby resident kindergarten families to enroll them at a school that they feel is a better fit for their family,” he said.

“As the school phases in the program, next year, the entire kindergarten program will be DI (four classes),” he added. “The following year, when the kindergarteners promote to first grade, the entire first grade will be dual immersion. The phase-in process will continue until 2024/2025, when all of next year’s kindergarteners will promote from fifth grade. Students who are currently enrolled in a non-DI class will have the opportunity to continue in a non-DI program all the way through fifth grade (2023/2024).”

He said next year Bixby will have non-DI classes in first through fifth grade. In dual immersion, a percentage of the day is spent learning in English.

“The program’s goal is to build biliteracy (reading, writing) and bilingualism (speaking) in Spanish and English,” he said. “Students in DI classes also learn in English; it’s not an exclusively Spanish program.”

In dual immersion, teachers cannot speak English to the students, but the students can speak English to the teachers. Moreover, if a parent talks to a teacher in English while a child is present, the teacher may not respond in English, but may respond in English after hours when the child is not present, explained a dual immersion teacher at a recent Bixby parent meeting.

“Immersion requires that the ‘homeroom’ teacher speaks to students in Spanish,” Eftychiou explained. “Visual cues (pictures, videos, etc.) and gestures help teachers to provide comprehensible input.

“Research shows that students acquire a language best when this is the model. Conversations with parents are conducted in English outside of the child’s presence so as to preserve this model.”

Research on dual immersion dates back to the 1960s, he said.

“These programs are popular with parents, who recognize that fluency in two languages helps to put students on a path toward rewarding careers,” Eftychiou said.

“An example of the power of these programs is Keller Dual Immersion Middle School (formerly Keller Elementary), where eighth graders have passed the Advanced Placement Spanish exam at a rate of more than 90 percent for the past four years, an extraordinary feat considering that the students are taking and passing a college-level exam, for college credit, while still in middle school,” he said.

He added Keller just won the Distinguished School Award from the California Department of Education.

Penny May, whose son attends Bixby, said she supports the dual immersion program.

“I’m all for it,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing to be bilingual.”

However, her third grade son missed the DI kindergarten opportunity.

“It’s unfortunate for him that he can’t jump on board,” she said. “I’m perturbed.”

Some parents are against making Bixby a dual immersion school.

A concerned parent/grandparent who asked not to be identified, was concerned Spanish would supersede the regular English only program.

“A home school has specific boundaries set up so that students living in the area have a designated school to attend. I believe the district needed room for overflow students interested in the Spanish dual immersion program from Patrick Henry Elementary School,” the resident, who has lived in the Bixby area for 30 years, said through email.

“Bixby just happens to have room. But this change will be disruptive to the school, to the current English-only instruction teachers who will be replaced involuntarily and to the neighborhood … The district has said that our English-only students will be accommodated until 2024,” the parent said.

The parent said new homeowners in the Bixby area desiring an English-only classroom would have to drive to another school.

“I am not against a special program being offered at our school,” the parent said. “I am against taking away the basic English-only instruction, which should be offered at my neighborhood school,” the parent said.

Eftychiou responded, “The program at Bixby is based upon decades of research and high demand among parents and it’s being phased in gradually.

“The school district has demonstrated its ability to implement these programs successfully, with Keller as the latest example to earn the state’s highest honor for schools, the California Distinguished School Award. 

“Award-winning, research-based, highly effective schools contribute immensely to nearby property values and the quality of our neighborhoods.”

kirt@beachcomber.news

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Comments

In 1979 my husband and I purchased a home in the Patrick Henry area. When I registered our children I was happy and excited for our kids that they were going to learn Spanish and be Bilingual. Our son was in Kindergarten and our daughter was in Second grade. Both kids graduated from Patrick Henry and went on to Marshall Jr. High. Neither of them could speak more than a few words of Spanish. The program concentrated on the Spanish kids and not the English speaking kids. By the time they left Patrick Henry they were so sick of everything Spanish that my son was openly upset that they wasted their time in this program. If I had to make this choice again I would not put them through this program as it is not as it was presented to me and my husband. More recently ( about 6 or 7 years ago ) our daughter lived for a while in the Patrick Henry District and her children went to this same school. She and her husband left the children in the program for a few months, but the school was still so lopsided in their teaching of everything Spanish / Mexican ) that they removed the kids from the program and drove them everyday to another school. We are not racist people, but this program is not what it is claimed to be.

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