Delmarva Now – Jon Bleiweis
“Spanish or Chinese could be the prominent language in a Cape Henlopen elementary school classroom in the near future, as the school district contemplates adding a dual language immersion program. It could happen as soon as 2017, according to district assistant superintendent Kathy Petitgout. It’s part of Gov. Jack Markell’s 10-year world language expansion initiative, which started in 2011. The goal is to have 20 immersion programs in the state and 10,000 students be part of them…Lynn Fulton-Archer, an education specialist for world language immersion with the state Department of Education, said the increase can be attributed to potential economic and academic benefits. Not only does it give students another marketable skill in a global workplace, but decades of research has shown that students who have an earlier start in language learning in an immersion education typically perform as well or better than their monolingual peers on standardized test, she said. It also has the potential to close the achievement gap across minority populations that are enrolled in the programs, she said.”(more)