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04/30/04 - Spanish- and English-speakers in Krista McAtee's first-grade class are trading a lot more than giggles and juice boxes - they're swapping languages.

During a recent math activity, groups of students counted blocks and worked on puzzles while McAtee facilitated the activity in Spanish. Though they spend almost all of their day in Spanish at this grade, in between games the children talked to each other in both Spanish and English. The conversations flowed freely - almost seamlessly - from one language to the other. Out on the playground, proud parent volunteers pointed to the lack of cultural divisions among dual-immersion kids, who jumped rope together, kicked soccer balls and whispered secrets in ears attuned to both languages.

This is the ultimate goal of dual-immersion language instruction - to create completely bilingual students who have achieved fluency and academic proficiency in two languages, as well as to foster cross-cultural understanding. Flowery Elementary school offers dual immersion or two-way instruction (TWI) from kindergarten to fifth grade, and the program will soon be moving on to Adele Harrison Middle School with Flowery's original class of dual-immersion students.

Started in 1998, Flowery's TWI program has been expanding quickly. Its success relies on a 50-50 balance of both English-learners and English-speakers in every classroom.

In kindergarten and first grade, the curriculum is taught in 90 percent Spanish and 10 percent English. In second grade, the ratio changes to 80 percent Spanish and 20 percent English. In the third grade, the ratio shifts to 70 percent Spanish and 30 percent English; and from fourth grade on through the remainder of high school, the goal is to maintain a 50/50 ratio - half of the curriculum taught in English and half taught in Spanish. Flowery teachers and parents claim there is a definite demand for the program. Dual-immersion enrollment is growing, and there is even talk of turning the school into a full dual-immersion school.

"For Spanish speakers, they became literate - rounding out their native tongue with writing and ready skills. For English speakers, children receive the gift of understanding a different culture and learning a foreign language to a significant level of fluency that will benefit them in business, academic, travel and social settings throughout their lives," said Aimee Murray, a dual-immersion parent.

Despite a statewide push in recent years toward English-only language curriculums, dual-immersion programs are emerging in greater numbers across California classes, schools and districts. As the number of English-language learner (ELL) students in California increases dramatically, educators wage debates over the best method to get students proficient in English.

Because TWI concentrates heavily on Spanish instruction in the early grades and gradually splits its focus on both Spanish and English acquisition, student test scores in English proficiency are lower in their elementary years. In a time when increased state and federal accountability can apply harsh sanctions to schools for not meeting their benchmark state test scores, dual immersion is considered by many to be a controversial approach.

But proponents point to recent dual-immersion research; the 2002 Collier-Thomas study shows a latent but promising rise in English-learners' test scores. They reach proficiency at the middle school level and then quickly exceed the scores of their peers.

Because of this belated bloom, many TWI parents and teachers attest that the local program is being criticized prematurely, when its oldest class isn't even to middle school yet and it hasn't had a chance to prove itself.

It goes deeper than that. For TWI advocates, the purpose and value of the program cannot be contained in a test score or chart.

"We know it's important to have students succeed in English," said McAtee. "But valuing their natural language (is critical) in supporting the whole child - not just the English part of the child."

McAtee taught at Altimira four years earlier and was disheartened by the high number of Latino and ELL students failing - not from lack of studying but from a negative perception of themselves.

"Their culture and who they are as a whole is not valued. And after so many years of this, they don't feel they belong."

Besides binding two cultures, many dual-immersion advocates point out that it nurtures family relationships as well.

Children develop and maintain their Spanish and can continue to communicate with their Spanish-speaking parents.

Parent Gloria Sanchez feels more involved in her three children's education now that they are enrolled in Flowery's dual immersion.

"That is very important. A lot of times (in regular English classes) parents don't understand the homework that kids bring home because families speak only Spanish at home and can't help with homework. Dual immersion helps the parents support their children," she said through a translator.

Salvador Marroquin, program director for La Luz Center, said that among the local Latino community, a lot of differing opinions were being voiced - both for and against the dual-immersion program.

Flowery fifth-grade TWI teacher Dorris Estudillo is teaching dual-immersion children for the first time this year. She has spent the past seven years working primarily with English-language learners. These formative years are a critical time when stereotypes are formed, she said.

"With all the fights going at the high school level, something is wrong. Something is wrong with our state. Gangs are growing in Sonoma," Estudillo said.

She added that these behaviors form because youth need to feel like they belong somewhere.

"Dual immersion is only one part of the puzzle (to prevent this) but it's an important one."

Estudillo said her students are ready for middle school next year, and that her ELL students are doing well if not better than those in previous years who were not instructed in dual immersion.

Parent Paula Parez has her daughter enrolled in Sassarini Elementary school's bilingual program, similar to dual immersion in that it teaches concepts in Spanish before transferring that knowledge into English.

The program has been recently discontinued by the school district. Parez feels her daughter has benefited from the bilingual program and is seriously considering enrolling her future kindergartner in a dual-immersion program.

"I know many mothers with kindergartners and they want bilingual programs," she said. "The district should publicize these programs more. Many parents don't know they exist."

Some dual-immersion advocates feel the TWI program is not only going unpublicized, but is not being supported by the district.

District Superintendent Kim Jamieson refuted this perception.

"The district supports the dual-immersion program, and it has supported it for several years since its inception. If (the district) wasn't supportive, it probably wouldn't be there," he said.

"It's no secret that the district is not satisfied with effectiveness of our English-language development program," he said. Low test scores are afflicting all English-language learner programs and to tackle the problem, district staff recently put all their curriculums "under scrutiny and analysis," he said.

Such critical eyeballing was part of a districtwide overhaul to find ways to improve the English-language development program, not dismantle it.

Ann Taylor-Dang, coordinator of state and federal programs, points out that while dual immersion may immensely benefit native English-speakers in acquiring a second language, English-learners depend on English proficiency for their livelihood in an English-speaking country.

"It's very easy to celebrate the success of English-speakers with Spanish," Taylor-Dang said, adding that she was unsure two-way programs paid enough attention to the needs of English-learners in achieving English proficiency.

Taylor-Dang is not alone in her concerns. While 2003-04 results of the annual California English Development Test show that 43 percent - or 9 percent more of California's 1.4 million ELL students - have become proficient in English compared to last year, the gap in overall achievement between English-language learners and native-English speakers is still staggering.

Taylor-Dang also questioned the study showing that dual-immersion students reach grade-level proficiency around middle school and then quickly soar beyond their peers with high school test scores.

The study "doesn't show us how they get there," she said, or where students should be at what grade. Taylor-Dang said a goal of the TWI program was to "work backwards" on this continuum and set achievement benchmarks for TWI students.

Flowery principal Joyce Schipper said that this was one of the projects staff would be working on this summer in preparation for fall.

La Luz program director Marroquin said that whatever happened down the road with dual immersion, he hoped that children's needs would be put first. "The final people (impacted most) are the kids and families," he said.

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