In Arizona, 43 percent of children under the age of 5 are Hispanic. Many of those live in homes where Spanish is the primary language. Yet when they begin to attend school they’re expected to read, write and learn in English, and meet performance goals alongside other children for whom English is the first language.
In recent years, TWI programs — two-way, dual-language immersion — have grown exponentially across the U.S.; some with a mission of equity for language minority students, others with the goal of giving all students an edge in a multilingual, global economy. Language scholars celebrate this expansion, but many worry that programs created under this new logic are failing to meet the needs of language minority students, thereby perpetuating inequities.
In 2012 the Arizona Board of Regents provided a grant for the state universities to collaborate in working with partner school districts to provide professional development for teachers on implementation of the new Arizona College and Career Ready Standards in mathematics. When the project concluded, it was clear that principals and assistant principals also needed training to effectively support teachers in implementing the standards.