Why dual language programs may be one of our best school attendance levers
By David Young, Gemini, EdNC.org
For addressing absenteeism, David Young looks at a different option, dual language programs. While students miss school for numerous reasons outside of the classroom, he provides evidence that dual language programs can mitigate some attendance issues.
Young’s research focuses on North Carolina, which is fifth in the United States in the number of dual language programs. He cites another researcher, Christopher Kearney, who found that “students who feel genuinely connected to their school attend more regularly — even when their circumstances outside of school are hard”.
The challenge of learning content in two languages creates motivation and engagement. Moreover, in these programs, students whose home language is the alternate language understand that their culture is elevated as central in importance in school. This makes them feel more connected to the school. It also improves the relationship between the families and the school.
Young mentions two other researchers, Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier, whose thirty years of research, “have found that well-implemented programs consistently produce stronger results in reading and math — not despite instruction in two languages, but in part because of what bilingual learning demands of developing minds.” The author corroborates these findings citing research from North Carolina in which math scores of students in dual language programs were 8.6% higher than other students.
Good dual language programs by themselves cannot solve the problem of absenteeism, but they can be an additional avenue in the quest for solutions.
As proponents of Dual Language Immersion programs, Williams and Mingle first address the misunderstandings, issues, and traditional methods for teaching literacy. They counter the arguments about how to teach children to read, noting that learning to read does include phonics, but also background knowledge, vocabulary, and spoken language.