The Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program at Desert Sands K-5 brings together native-English speakers, native Spanish speakers, and bilingual speakers together to learn from one another and acquire two languages. Our program follows a 90:10 Model where students receive instruction in Spanish for 90% of the school day in kindergarten and balances instruction to 50% Spanish and 50% English by 4th grade.

Research has shown that this approach is highly successful at teaching grade-level content while developing impressive levels of language proficiency in students. Research from the past 30 years shows that DLI programs can produce important benefits for all students including:

• Enhanced Cognitive Skills Students typically develop greater cognitive flexibility and demonstrate increased attention control, better memory, and superior problem-solving skills.

• Improved Academic Performance Students perform as well as or better than non-immersion students on standardized tests of English and mathematics.

• Minimizing the Achievement Gap Students respond to the cognitive demands of learning content in two different languages. They develop enhanced cognitive skills that benefit them throughout their K-12 academic experience.

• Higher Second Language Proficiency Students achieve higher levels of second language proficiency. They graduate from high school “bilingual” and “bi-literate”.

• Enhanced Global Citizenship Students are better prepared to collaborate, communicate, and problem-solve across linguistic and cultural frontiers. They also exhibit more positive attitudes toward other peoples and other cultures.