K12 Spanish language immersion program.

THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOL District of Lawrence Township, Indianapolis, Ind., is using native teachers in three of its magnet schools to teach a core curriculum in Spanish to native English students. A lottery determines which students will be in the program, which begins with kindergarten.

In grades K2, students are taught completely in Spanish; at grade three a 30-minute daily language arts class taught in English is introduced. In grades 4 and 5, students are taught in Spanish 50 percent of the time, and in middle school three of seven periods are taught in Spanish. High school immersion students can earn an immersion diploma by taking a minimum of 13 credit hours with an immersion course in grades 9 and 10 and Advanced Placement Spanish courses in grades 11 and 12. The district provides international experiences, which may include a homestay, as well as summer course work.

Planning requires extra materials, including library books, software, classroom visuals and sets of books, music, CDs, DVDs, and videos in the target language. Each elementary classroom has a bilingual instructional assistant.

Students accepted to the program are transported from throughout the district by direct-route busing. Preferential consideration is given to siblings, so families attend the same school.

What seems to have been somewhat of a risk at first has delivered highly qualified students. These students initially fall short on standardized tests, but by fifth grade they meet, and many surpass, the achievements of their counterparts. Immersion program students at or exceeding state standards in English language arts went from 86.5 percent in third grade to 98 percent in fifth, and in mathematics from 83.5 percent in third to 89 percent in fifth grade.

"The MSDLT is very proud of both our history and positive results with our K12 Spanish Immersion Program," says Superintendent Michael Copper.

district.ltschools.org