Starting in fall, Jasper Co. kindergarteners can take classes in English and Spanish
Jasper County School District is offering a new dual language immersion program this fall, district officials announced last week.
The program will split students’ days in half: In the mornings, they’ll take language arts classes entirely in English with a native English speaker. In the afternoons, they’ll take math, social studies and science classes taught entirely in Spanish by a bilingual teacher who is a native Spanish speaker.
The program will be available to kindergarteners, both native English and Spanish speakers, starting in the 2021-22 school year. Participation will be capped at 24 students.
The district will expand the program to first grade in 2022-23, second grade to 2023-24, and so on, according to a district press release.
“By no means does this push aside their primary language,” said Dawn Thayer, the district’s Title 3 coordinator. “This is a cohesive immersion of both the primary and secondary language to build vocabulary skills for our kindergarteners.”
Parents will receive materials in English and Spanish to help their students complete assignments in their non-native language, she said.
The program will be housed at Hardeeville Elementary School, though students zoned for Ridgeland Elementary School can apply to join the program and move by “choice” into Hardeeville Elementary. To stay enrolled at the school, they will need to stay enrolled in the dual language immersion program.
Nearly 30% of the district’s 2,678 students are English language learners, according to the South Carolina Department of Education’s 2019-2020 school report cards.
Of those students, 28.5% met their targets for English proficiency, compared to the statewide average of 44.4%. In 2018-19, 32.5% of Jasper students met those targets, compared to a statewide average of 49.8%.
This story was originally published May 10, 2021 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Starting in fall, Jasper Co. kindergarteners can take classes in English and Spanish."