More than a dozen parents on Thursday asked the Cobb County Board of Education to keep its dual language immersion program intact.
The program allows students as young as kindergartners to spend half their day learning in English and half learning in a foreign language. Some families recently received emails from their schools that the program would no longer be offered to new students.
Of the 11 elementary schools that offered the program last year, only five will continue accepting new students in the upcoming school year. The program will be added to an additional middle school.
“How is canceling this program of benefit to our students?” asked the parent of a kindergarten student. He values the program for his daughter “not only for the opportunity to learn a second language but, more importantly, to learn in another language.”
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the change was needed “so we can continue the focus on teaching and learning for all of our students.” He said it’s also been increasingly difficult to staff the bilingual teaching positions.
“When data is present that indicates students are not attaining higher levels of academic success — or even worse, performing at lower levels than students not in the specific program — modifications must be made,” he said.
Ragsdale did not provide data about the achievement of students in the program, but said there would be a presentation on the topic at a future board meeting. He added that ensuring elementary students can read on grade level is the district’s highest priority.
The dual language immersion program began in 2015 in Cobb. Nearby districts such as Gwinnett County Public Schools and Marietta City Schools offer similar programs.
Ragsdale said five elementary schools will continue to accept incoming kindergartners: Dowell, Mableton, Nickajack, Russell and Smyrna. The remaining schools will not accept new students but will continue to offer the program to currently enrolled students.
Campbell Middle is the only middle school that currently offers the program. Floyd Middle will add it. Families currently in the program who believed it would be expanded to more middle schools will have a chance to opt into the existing programs as space allows.
JoAnne Miranda told the board the program has been a great experience for her two children.
“My children speak Spanish with pride,” she said.
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