IDOE Announces Record Dual Language Immersion Grant Recipients
Posted
Staff Report-
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) on Thursday announced that a record number of schools statewide will receive grants to establish or expand dual language programs as part of Indiana’s Dual Language Immersion Pilot Program.
The program, first launched in 2015, works to support schools as they help students develop language and cultural competency skills. It provides grants to school corporations or charter schools to establish or expand dual language programs in French, Mandarin, Spanish or other languages approved by IDOE.
The Dual Language Immersion Pilot Program has contributed to an expansion in Indiana’s dual language programs from four schools in 2014 to 42 schools across the state for the upcoming school year, according to the news release from the IDOE.
For the 2022-23 school year, 30 schools in 21 school corporations were awarded a combined $595,000, with state grant dollars supplemented by federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. This includes 28 schools that are expanding their existing programs and two new programs:
Locally, expanding programs include:
* Manchester Community Schools - Manchester Elementary School
* Warsaw Community Schools - Leesburg Elementary School and Eisenhower Elementary School
To qualify for this grant, a school’s dual language immersion program must begin in either kindergarten or first grade and use an instructional model that provides at least 50% of its instruction in a target language and the remaining percentage of instructional time in English.
The dual language instructional model provides a dynamic curriculum in English and a second language that integrates language and academic content. English learners participating in dual language education have been shown to develop higher levels of proficiency in the target language and English, demonstrate positive cultural competency and close academic achievement gaps between English learners and native English-speaking students faster.
