An examination of the academic effects of Two-WayDual Immersion bilingual programs on elementary native English language students

Committee members: Janet Powell (Chair), Rong-Ji Chen, Annette DaoudThere has been a long-standing debate over the best way to educate students who\ud come to school speaking a language other than English. Many programs have been\ud used to meet these students' needs and one of them, Two-Way/Dual Immersion\ud (TW/DI), is the focus of this study. Opponents disagree that it is the best way to\ud educate English Language Learners (ELLs), saying that bilingual education is too\ud slow, scores are lower, and students fall too far behind their Anglo counterparts.\ud Proponents ofTW/DI, however, claim that it has several benefits: ELLs have the\ud opportunity to learn content in their primary language, while acquiring English, so that\ud they don't fall behind academically; they are more motivated; and their scores are as\ud good as, and usually better in the long-run, than ELLs in English Immersion. But\ud what about the Native English Language (NEL) students in the program? How does it\ud affect them? Although they benefit from a multicultural experience and learning a\ud second language, does it have an effect on their academics? By comparing and\ud analyzing state and national test scores over a four-year period, this study focused on\ud the academic effects of NELs in TW /D I and found that they do just as well as, and\ud many times better than, NELs not in TW/DI. Though mean differences in test scores\ud were not statistically significant, the trends were positive and warrant additional\ud research into a program that can benefit both ELLs and NELs equally.\ud \ud Key Words: bilingual education, Two-Way, Dual Immersion, English Language\ud Learners, Native English Language, academic effects, Proposition 22