Teachers and administrators from 9 DC region school districts enthusiastically took part in our professional development session on “The State and Value of Dual Language Programs in the DC Region” on January 20th 2018.
Attendees were an interesting mix of educators in dual language programs, world language teachers, ESOL teachers, principals planning next year’s implementation of their dual language program and school officials looking at how their counties could start offering dual language programs. They work on or in programs in Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and French.
The group of 36 learned about the programs that exist in the region and the populations these programs serve, issues of racial and socioeconomic equity as they relate to demand and access to these programs. How to make families into their strongest advocates and how to bring awareness about the impact and need for these programs to central offices and state legislators were opportunities to showcase the work of DC Immersion and to learn from our friend Dr. William Rivers of JNCL NCLS, the national leader on language policy.
We look forward to supporting each of these school districts on the path to expanding access to dual language programs.