| Two-way immersion programs heterogeneously group English and Spanish speaking students within each classroom, with the goal of bilingualism and biliteracy for all. These programs, considered successful with populations of middle-class students, are becoming increasingly popular in inner cities with populations of students from families of low socio-economic status. The primary interest of this study was to use interview and observational data to give snapshots of inner city, English dominant, elementary students from families of low SES as they engage in a particular two-way immersion program. This study also demonstrates through logistic regression that, although entering kindergarten classes at Ledgewood are generally 21–30% African American, comparatively few of these students are completing the program. Thirteen fourth and fifth grade students from families of low SES were interviewed and observed in their classrooms to assess individual understanding of the content taught in Spanish and content taught in English. Differences in student interactional styles and understanding of content between the two language environments were noted. The results of this study suggest that this two-way immersion program is not meeting the needs of African American children and children of low SES. This two-way immersion program must be critically re-examined to determine why African American children and children of low SES are not attaining adequate levels of Spanish language proficiency needed to access grade level curriculum delivered through the medium of Spanish. These results would suggest a critical examination of the two-way model itself, and of specific methods used within the model. |
