MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr Carver Educational Services Center 850 Hungerford Drive, Room 122 Rockville, MD 20850

Dear Dr. Starr:

February 29, 2012

If youd like to meet a group of satisfied Montgomery County citizens, visit with parents of children in a language immersion program within Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). These students learn the countys rigorous curriculum in a foreign languageChinese, French, or Spanishand county data show that they do as well as or outperform their peers on standardized tests. We are writing to you, Dr. Starr, to solidify your support for this dynamic and groundbreaking feature of our school system. MCPS has been a leader in immersion education since it launched the countrys first French Immersion program in 1974. Language immersion in Montgomery County is a model for school districts in several statesincluding Utah and Minnesotathat are expanding immersion learning. It embraces the fact that we are part of a global community and our children must be prepared to interact with people from other parts of the worldin business, politics, and cultural exchanges. Language immersion has strong parent support (See attachment, support-immersion-programs-in-montgomery-county-021410.pdf) and enjoys more public demand than it can meet. Students enter through a lottery system. MCPS does no active marketing of the programs, yet each year, for each program, growing demand exceeds the limited supply. As of December 2011 at Rolling Terrace Elementarys Spanish Immersion Program, 140 children are on the kindergarten waitlist, and 44 on the first grade waitlist. In 2011, Sligo Creek Elementarys French Immersion program had 210 applicants for 30 kindergarten slots. Spanish Immersion is offered at Rock Creek Forest Elementary, Rolling Terrace Elementary, Burnt Mills Elementary, plus Silver Spring International Middle School and Westland Middle School. French Immersion is offered at Maryvale Elementary, Sligo Creek Elementary, Gaithersburg Middle School, and Silver Spring International Middle School.

Students gain skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking in both Chinese Immersion is offered at College English and the second language and their academic achievements are Gardens Elementary, Potomac high: Elementary, and Hoover Middle School. o Children who transition from French Immersion at SCES to French Immersion at Silver Spring International Some of these schools offer full Middle School (SSIMS) bring academic strength to that immersion; others offer partial. They school. In 2008, most of the 65 students who share core characteristics and teaching transitioned to SSIMS scored in the advanced category principles while meeting their for both Math and Reading on the Maryland School communities needs. Assessment (MSA). Math: 35 advanced, 18 proficient, 2 basic; Reading: 56 advanced, 8 proficient, 1 basic. o In 2011, 37 College Gardens Chinese immersion 3rd and 4th graders took the MSA; 31 scored advanced and 6 scored proficient in math. In reading, 21 proficient, 15 advanced, 1 basic score. o In 2011, 62 students at SSIMS took the National Spanish Exam and 85 took the Grand Concours French Exam. Both groups competed in the category for bilingual or near-bilingual (native speaker) category against secondary students nationwide in both middle and high school courses. 35 (41%) of the French students and 11 (18%) of the Spanish students were ranked as outstanding (top 10%) of those taking the exam. o From 2005 MCPS Foreign Language report: In 2003, Grade 2 MCPS immersion students performed as well as or better than their nonimmersion counterparts within their own schools and across the county in virtually all categories

on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS). In the same year, more than 80 percent of 3rd grade immersion students performed at the proficient or advanced level in mathematics on the MSA. Grade 8 immersion middle school students outperformed school averages for the MSA in 2003 and 2004 in reading and math. A growing body of research suggests that bilingualism enhances aspects of executive control and leads to better performance on a range of cognitive tasks for children and young adults. More recently, this advantage has been shown to extend into older age: bilinguals experience slower cognitive decline with healthy aging.

Language immersion in elementary and middle school offers strong preparation for an IB education, which is growing in importance within Montgomery County. The number of schools offering IB has expanded dramatically over the past two decades. MCPS operates 14 IB programs, including 8 high school, 5 Middle Years programs, and a Primary Years Program at College Gardens (home to a Chinese immersion program). In the past 10 years, IB enrollment has grown from about 500 to nearly 9,200 students. In 2010, the IB program moved its U.S. headquarters from New York to Bethesda. This big move reflects well on the role of the Montgomery County schools in IB education. Immersion students can also lay claim to gains made in cultural awareness and appreciation for interacting with people who are different from themselves. Many of their teachers are from foreign countriesAlgeria, China, Ethiopia, France, Ivory Coast, Taiwanand Puerto Rico, and they bring so much of their cultures to the classroom. After English, the top languages spoken in business, according to 2011 Bloomberg rankings are, in order: Mandarin Chinese, French, Arabic, and Spanish. Finally, a word on cost: Immersion teachers are paid at the same rate as other MCPS teachers. They do much of their translations on their own. Their classes are at maximum size, even in schools with reduced in K-2 numbers. Most students have access to buses, as do most magnet students. Why immersion teaching? Extract from the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota, 2001. 1. Children of today will need to be bilingual to be successful in the global society and economy of their adulthood. 2. Childhood is the best time to develop an appreciation and understanding of diverse cultures, peoples, and perspectives in the world. 3. The optimal time to learn languages is prior to age twelve. 4. Children learn language by listening and repeating, and don't have any fear of a foreign language. 5. Academic skills are enhanced. 6. Children are guaranteed to be challenged. 7. Parents will be involved. What are we asking for? We are asking for your support for MCPS Language Immersion Programs, to sustain them during these difficult budget times. The budget for the immersion programs has been cut for 4 straight years, and the programs have lost important supports. We are asking you to recognize opportunities to strengthen the programs, which include offering more support to elementary and middle school immersion schools and our dedicated teachers. Every immersion school needs sufficient paraeducator support, the same number of resources in immersion and nonimmersion classrooms or teacher stipends for translation of materials (the teachers appreciate the support received this year from the foreign language office for curriculum 2.0 translations), and transportation so that all children who enroll

in the programs are able to reach their school without undue parent hardship. Finally, we ask you to meet with immersion teachers to learn their needs and their aspirations for their students. There are certain long-standing procedures for staff allotments that make staffing these programs difficult. For example, Silver Spring International Middle School, home to 200 French and Spanish immersion students, is experiencing an increase in enrollment of both programsa sign of the programs success. But because the school gets teacher allotments based on total students in the school, it faces the difficult decision of staffing one program by taking from others. There must be a way to more creatively staff schools with immersion programs, as is done in magnet programs, to meet the needs of all students in the school. Students from College Gardens Elementary who want to continue in immersion matriculate to Hoover Middle School for access to accelerated Chinese (two classes in Chinese were trimmed to one). MCPS does not provide transportation to these students, as it does for other immersion programs. Families that live in Poolesville, Damascus, and Germantown, must drive more than an hour one way. This limits the program to families with one parent at home who is willing to spend several hours in the car. The program is losing children. We ask your office to direct central office and MCPS DOT to work with Hoover administration to find a solution. Montgomery County offers this program, but has put in many hurdlesbudget cuts for staffing, instructional materials, translation needs, and transportation. Combined, these cuts have immersion teachers going above and beyond to provide successful programs. MCPS expects students to perform on the same level as their nonimmersion peers, while providing fewer resources. The fact that these students can outperform is amazing given the lack of resources, and a testament to the strength of immersion teaching. Imagine how much better our immersion students could do with your full support. During this falls Listen and Learn events, you said that other school districts will look to MCPS to learn what the future of education will look like. You said it is up to us to decide what we want to be. We, and many other parents who offered to sign this letter, want MCPS to be a school district that prepares our students to thrive within a global community and provides early, meaningful opportunities to learn a second language and attain all the benefits that come with immersion learning. We look forward to working with you to get us there. Sincerely, Cori Vanchieri, FI parent: Sligo Creek, SSIMS Stuart Kern, FI parent: Sligo Creek Jackie Suzich, FI parent: Maryvale, Gaithersburg Maria de jesus Arias, FI parent: Maryvale Karan Lamb, SI parent: Rolling Terrace Nikole Smith, SI parent: Rolling Terrace, SSIMS Mindy Hofmann, SI parent: Rock Creek Forest, Westland Rachel Haas, SI parent: Rock Creek Forest Diane Berinstein, CI parent: Potomac, Hoover Diana Conway, CI parent: Potomac, Hoover, Churchill Anne C. Madeo, CI parent: College Gardens Gegi Leeger, CI parent: College Gardens

Cc:

Board of Education County Council Judith Klimpl Bronda Mills Donna Hollingshead Christopher Garran

Diantha Swift Nellie Thompson John Haas Elisabeth Caison Caroline Wilkins

Jennifer Connors Bete Yilma Margarita Sol David Chia Rosa Sacks Meredith Valmon

Karen Gregory Claire Zapatka Caryn Nagler Linda Goldberg Michael Herlihy

John Ewald Molly Murray Jennifer Green Daniel Vogelman Alicia Fuentes-Gargallo