What is Two-way Immersion and how does it work?
A Two-Way immersion program brings together native speakers of a minority “target” language, in this case Spanish, with native speakers of the majority language, in this case English, in the same classroom. Both groups of students develop fluency and literacy in both languages. The early grades are taught mostly in Spanish. The amount of English-language instruction increases as the children progress through the grades. English-language instruction typically reaches 50 percent by fourth or fifth grade. Parents do not need to be bilingual for their children to succeed in a dual-immersion program, and enrollment in such a program is always voluntary. In Palo Alto, the program is oversubscribed, and students are selected by lottery.
