Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/686175
English learners, DI pro- grams have f louri sh ed . ( T h e E d . G . E . In i t i a t iv e would repeal Prop. 227.) At Magathan Elemen- t a r y S c h o o l , m a n y D I enrollees are from Mex- ic o and L atin Am erica , says Ruby Sandoval, who teaches Ja'Patrick's fifth- and sixth-grade combination class. "For English learners living in a country where English is the main language, a dual immersion program is a way of preserving students' language and culture," says the Adelanto District Teachers Association member. Adrian Ruiz, a sixth-grader who has been in the pro- gram since kindergarten, enjoys being able to converse with his grandparents in Spanish. " They don't speak English, so without this class, I would not be able to communicate with them," he says. R E S U LT S A R E N OT I M M E D I AT E A Stanford Graduate School of Education study in 2014 echoes findings of earlier studies: Students in English- only classrooms perform better in the short term, but over the long term, DI students catch up to their coun- terparts and eventually surpass them academically and linguistically. e Stanford study finds that by middle school, students in DI programs score substantially higher than students enrolled in English-only programs. Research shows other benefits: Bilingualism improves students' reasoning skills, a tt e n t i o n c o n t r o l , p r o b - lem-solving skills, and when they 're older, the delay of dementia. "Learning a second lan- g u a ge h e l p s t o st i m u l a t e students' brains," says San- doval. "In a dual immersion program, students exercise their brains more, so everything comes easier to them. Even students with learning disabilities do better aca- demically when they learn a second language." In th e r ural c ommunity of Chic o, Ro sed al e El e - m ent ar y S cho ol 's Sp ani sh D I program has h elp ed create a more inclusive environment, say teachers who work there. "Typically at schools you have a group of students on one side of the playground and another group from another culture on the other side of the playground," observes Don Kinslow, a fifth-grade teacher and mem- ber of the Chico Unified Teachers Association. "But in an immersion program, the students are so intertwined, there aren't factions. ere's just one big community." First-grade teacher Lourdes Cassetta agrees. "It expands children's understanding and acceptance of others," she says. "And it gives them a perspective of what it's like to be in a different culture without them having to leave the country to see what another culture looks like." But in the beginning, she admits, it can be difficult. Chiu-Yen Jen, fifth-grade Mandarin teacher at Azevada Elementary in Fremont, with students Nathan Massoth and Hayden Harrison. She says her students excel not only in Chinese, but in math and English. 26 cta.org