Equity through Mandarin immersion programs

"Some districts use language immersion as one strategy to close the achievement gap for black students, not just for non-English-speaking students." -  Julia Esparta Brown and Deborah Peterson

Julia Esparta Brown and Deborah Peterson, two assistant professor at Portland State University, have a guest column “Achieving equity in Oregon’s schools: Beyond PB&J sandwiches” in today’s Oregonian. They set out “four steps necessary to educate all Oregon children.” I agree wioth all their points. Yet one sentence in their second step got my attention. From their guest column (here):

Second, we need rigorous programs in all schools. We know that AVID (a college preparation program for first-generation college students), international baccalaureate (IB), advanced placement (AP), dual college enrollment (where students simultaneously earn high school and college credit), and dual language immersion programs (where students learn in English and another language) work for all children and reduce educational disparities. Some districts use language immersion as one strategy to close the achievement gap for black students, not just for non-English-speaking students. Other districts have AP for every student, with supports to ensure that all students succeed. When teachers use rigorous content, it boosts each student's educational attainment, not just that of low-achieving students.

Note the sentence “Some districts use language immersion as one strategy to close the achievement gap for black students, not just for non-English-speaking students.”

I am currently advocating that Portland Public Schools do just in its Jefferson cluster as part of their enrollment balancing process.  In my proposal to “Make the Jefferson cluster a leader in 21^st century foreign language education,” a plea to add Mandarin and Japanese immersion programs in communities with high African-American populations, I write (here):

One study found that children who were from socio-economically underprivileged backgrounds benefited from immersion instruction as much as their more affluent peers. They found that “Bilingual education” helps to level the socio-economic playing field by giving students from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to acquire and excel in another language ... in some cases (they) perform as well as students from more advantaged backgrounds."