Jefferson and King elementary schools are in their third year of a dual immersion program.
The program immerses English-speaking students into Spanish and serves as a bilingual model for Spanish-speaking students.
The program gives students the opportunity to read, write and communicate naturally in two languages.
By the time they are in sixth grade, students will be fluent in both languages.
Kindergarten students receive 90 percent of their instruction in Spanish and 10 percent in English.
In first grade the core subjects are taught in Spanish for 80 percent of the day and English language development is taught the remaining 20 percent.
The ratio changes 10 percent a year until a 50-50 ratio is reached in the fifth grade.
Esther Fuentes, whose daughter attends one of the classes, supports the program.
“She is taught everything in Spanish still she comes home picks up a book and reads it in English without ever being taught to read in English,” Fuestes said.
Luz Martinez, a kindergarten teacher at King Elementary School, said if children are taught the foundation of basic skills and sounds they transfer those skills on their own.
Like many other parents, Fuentes was skeptical of enrolling her child in the program.
Most parents think that this type of instruction might keep students be behind those students who have English only instruction.
But results from the statewide Stanford 9 Tests show the opposite. The exam shows how the students in the program outscore their peers on all subjects.
Jefferson Elementary has 160 students in its program with eight teachers. Half of the students speak English only when they enter the program.
King has 160 students in two cycles with 16 instructors and 30 percent of their students who speak English only.
Currently there are no programs at the intermediate school level, but staff members hope this will change by the time their current fourth-graders reach the sixth grade.
“We would like to expand the program to other schools in the district and develop a magnet school where the entire school is dual immersion and it’s not just a program,” said Howard Bryan, the district’s director of bilingual education.
The program started with the schools receiving a Title 7 federal grant for three years. The grant goes to programs that offer an academic curriculum that integrates second language acquisition and second language instruction.
The program has existed in other school districts for more than 20 years.
“If we want our children to be successful in the future they have to be at least bilingual or trilingual. It’s the best system the city has,” said Assemblyman Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana.
Correa has a son in the program at Jefferson Elementary School.
“I was struggling to teach him Spanish. Now he has improved tremendously,” Correa said.
Teachers at both schools say their students are committed and are eager to learn a third language.
“It is important to speak other languages to understand people who don’t know English or Spanish. The more languages you know, the more people you can talk to and play with,” said upcoming second-grader Nicole Iwaki of Jefferson Elementary.
Iwaki is now fluent in English and Spanish and is learning Japanese from her grandmother and French from her aunt.
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