Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

An interesting article from western Massachusetts, where the school superintendent of the Amherst-Pelham School District is concerned that a Spanish immersion program at a district school is a school within a school which creates “a troubling level of segregation based on language proficiency” as the local newspaper put it.

It’s interesting because the program they’re talking about offers Spanish immersion, which in my experience districts are not typically as worried about. Spanish immersion programs tend to attract larger numbers of Latino students, which contributes to diversity. Mandarin immersion programs can be more problematic because they are tend to have higher percentages of white students (in areas where there aren’t a lot of Asian families) and can be attacked as elitist.

And as I tend to say ad nauseam, language immersion programs are often (though not always) put in a public school to do two things: provide important language support for immigrant families and to attract families to a school that is either under-enrolled or struggling. They’re a win-win for districts because they can fill and invigorate schools that were under-enrolled or even on closure lists (see Starr King Elementary in San Francisco, Woodstock Elementary in Portland, Broadway Elementary in Los Angeles.)

Note that several of the parents interviewed in the article said the Spanish immersion program was what attracted them to the district. In a time when districts are facing dropping enrollment, that’s a win.

But when the programs get very popular, they bring new issues. The English-language program can feel pushed out, the composition of the school changes and the new families can be attacked as destroying the very school they were originally pulled in to save (see Starr King Elementary in San Francisco, Woodstock Elementary in Portland, Broadway Elementary in Los Angeles.)

What’s fascinating here is that Superintendent Herman suggests a school that’s 100% Spanish immersion (she calls this a “full-school” program) might be better. But many districts reject such whole-school programs because they don’t support struggling schools.

Note that this area is also home to the thriving Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School, a charter school that has so many students it keeps trying to expand, though they haven’t been allowed to. The program could have been in a regular public school….

I’d welcome comments from parents in districts where these issues are coming up. What are the concerns of your district? How are they being addressed and how are parents responding? Feel free to email me if you’d prefer not to post.

Amherst parents worry about dual language program’s future at Fort River

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette

October 21, 2024

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AMHERST — Families with children enrolled in Caminantes, the dual language program at Fort River School, are raising concerns about whether Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman will support its continuation, after she identified a series of issues with what she is calling a “school within a school.”

With comments from parents and members of the Caminantes Advisory Council provided to both the superintendent and the Amherst School Committee, Herman told committee members at Tuesday’s meeting that she is not considering eliminating the program but wants to grasp its pros and cons.

She said the program has provided better family engagement, cultural competency and academic growth, but also deals with staffing shortages, funding gaps and schedule conflicts. The superintendent also pointed to what she sees as a troubling level of segregation based on language proficiency.

Please read more here.