American Councils 2021 Canvass of Dual Language Immersion Programs in US Public Schools
American Councils Research Center (ARC) is pleased to announce the results of a systematic national canvass of Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs in the U.S. DLI is a type of educational program that uses instruction in both a native and secondary language to expand learning opportunities for inclusive student populations. Co-Director of ARC, Dr. Robert Slater, said about the study, “The canvass of DLI programs is a vital first step in understanding the reach of these programs across the educational spectrum. Now that we know more about the number of programs we need to move forward with additional information on enrollments and program models.” With more than a decade since efforts to canvass the growth of DLI programs in the United States have been undertaken, this study represents an important initiative in understanding these essential educational programs. Effective with the fall 2021-22 school year, data was collected that identifies the number of DLI programs in each of the 50 states. Respondents were asked to identify all programs regardless of type (e.g., one-way immersion programs that serve one linguistic student group or two-way programs that serve students from two different linguistic groups). Each school that housed a program, whether a DLI elementary school or a middle school, were counted separately.
The results, highlighted in the map below, indicate that there are more than 3,600
DLI programs across the United States. 44 states report producing DLI programs, and
California, Texas, New York, Utah, and North Carolina account for almost 60% of all
programs. Spanish programs account for about 80% of all DLI programs followed by Chinese
(8.6%) and French (5.0%). Commenting on the importance of DLI programs to raise student
achievement, the Director of Dual Language Studies at ARC, Mr. Gregg Roberts, who
oversaw this study, wrote, “The geographical distribution of DLI is encouraging. These
programs are a cost effect approach to elevate equity and access with accountability
in U.S.
language education.”
2021 CANVASS OF DUAL LANGUAGE AND IMMERSION (DLI) PROGRAMS IN US PUBLIC SCHOOLS
| Table 1 Number of DLI Programs in US Public Schools by Language Date |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Number of DLI Programs | Language | Number of DLI Programs |
| Spanish | 2396 | Polish |
5 |
| Chinese | 312 | Haitian Creole |
3 |
| French | 182 | Urdu |
2 |
| Japanese | 37 | Yup'ik |
2 |
| German | 31 | Greek |
2 |
| Portuguese | 27 | Lakȟóta |
2 |
| Hawaiian | 27 | Lushootseed |
2 |
| Korean | 23 | Makah |
2 |
| Russian | 17 | Diné |
2 |
| Italian | 7 | ASL |
1 |
| Hmong | 7 | Bengali |
1 |
| Vietnamese | 6 | Cherokee |
1 |
| Armenian | 6 | Yiddish |
1 |
| Arabic | 5 |
|
|
