Language Immersion Implemented for Success in an Urban Setting

Term

Summer 8-8-2014

Capstone

Thesis

Degree Name

MAEd

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Le Roy Chappell

Secondary Advisor/Reader One

Gaelle Berg

Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two

Nathan Lee

Abstract

The research question addressed in this project was: how would urban immersion education experts describe factors that make their immersion program successful? It documents interviews with three school leaders of immersion programs in urban areas whose schools are serving a majority of students of color and who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and whose students outperform their local peers on state standardized testing in English Reading and Math. It connects school leader responses to two bodies of literature: successful implementation of immersion programs (primarily taken from Cloud, Genesee & Hamayan 2000) and meta-research into achievement gapclosing classroom strategies (as organized and analyzed by Boykin and Noguera 2011). Analysis of interviews reveal that all three school leaders cite adult collaborations, classroom-based factors (including, but not limited to careful development of bi-literacy and bilingualism), and the immersion model as reasons for their success.

Keywords

At-risk Students, Foreign Language

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