In addition to early command of a second language,immersion education also offers many other advantages.

Boosts Academic Achievement Overall
Three decades of research and experience show that bilingual students outperform peers on standardized verbal and math tests administered in English.

Enhances English Learning
Research and testing confirm that immersion linguistic study actually enhances a student's English language development. Though experts note that some students may temporarily lag in English reading and spelling during the K-1 grades when instruction is principally in Spanish, our experience is that children from homes rich in literacy typically experience little or no lag in their English skills.

Other Cognitive Benefits
Researchers agree that the immersion learning process fosters students with: greater creativity and adaptability

more honed listening, analytical and multi-tasking skills

higher-level critical thinking skills

In addition to being the best method for teaching children a foreign language, research also demonstrates that immersion programs boost student achievement in other academic areas. For example:
Research from 1987, repeated in 2000, indicates that immersion students achieve as well as, or better, than non-immersion peers on standardized measures of verbal and mathematics skills administered in English. Cloud, N., Genesee, F., & Hamayan, E. (2000). Dual Language Instruction: A handbook for enriched education. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

A 2005 article by an education researcher found that foreign language study introduced to students in elementary school is associated with "increased cognitive skills, higher achievement in other academic areas, and higher standardized test scores." Stewart, J.H., "Foreign language study in elementary schools: Benefits and implications for achievement in reading and math" Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(1), at 11-16 (2005).

A January 2007 article from New Jersey noted that school district data compiled over the last five years shows that the district's elementary immersion students have consistently outperformed their mainstream peers in both reading and math. Hsu, E., "Englewood program creates bilingual kids," The Record (January 15, 2007).

A 2006 study in England found that "[b]ilingual children are far more likely to get top-grade passes in exams in all subjects." Garner, R., "Bilingual pupils do better in exams, report finds," The Independent (Oct. 31, 2006)

A Summer 2000 Report published in the Bilingual Research Journal reported that students in two immersion programs in Texas performed as well as or better than non-immersion students at their grade level on the Texas statewide Assessment of Academic Skills test (TAAS), administered in English, which measures student achievement in reading, math, and writing. Alanis, I., "A Texas Two-Way Bilingual Program: Its Effects on Linguistic and Academic Achievement," Bilingual Research Journal, Vol. 24:3 (Summer 2000).

In its 1992 report, College Bound Seniors: The 1992 Profile of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, the College Entrance Examination Board reported that students who averaged four or more years of foreign language study scored higher on the verbal section of the SAT test than those who had studied four or more years in any other subject area.

Immersion Education Growth

Immersion classes are the fastest growing and most effective language-teaching programs in the nation. Capitalizing on research showing that a young child's maturing brain is hard-wired to learn language, immersion study teaches a second language when children are best able to learn it. The technique essentially replicates the way infants learn to speak, but in a structured classroom setting. Studies show that immersion students become far more proficient in the second language than students in traditional programs, and develop more native-like pronunciation. In addition to the obvious benefits of early fluency, research confirms that children who master multiple languages score statistically higher on standardized tests and academically surpass their single-language peers.

The number of foreign language immersion programs in the United States has literally exploded in the last 30 years. While just a handful existed in the 1970s, there are now more than 500 nationwide, both public and private, according to data compiled by the Center for Applied Linguistics. This dramatic growth is based on research demonstrating that immersion programs are the most effective method for learning foreign languages. As the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota has found, students in immersion programs achieve higher levels of language proficiency than students in any other school-based language program. Moreover, linguistic studies show that children who begin studying foreign languages prior to adolescence exhibit more native-like pronunciation and are more likely to become fluent speakers.

Popularity of Immersion Programs
Immersion programs both public and private are incredibly popular across the nation. For example, a January 2007 article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, where there are several public immersion programs, noted that one resident even "remembers waiting overnight in the District Service Center parking lot to guarantee her twin daughters, now first-graders, had spots in the [Spanish immersion] program." A February 2007 article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that seven more immersion programs plan to open in the metropolitan area in the fall of 2007.

Nationwide, applicants for immersion programs consistently outnumber spots, making lotteries necessary to determine which children are allowed to enroll. News stories from Massachusetts to Minnesota, New Jersey to Pennsylvania discuss how school districts are forced to hold lotteries to determine who gets admitted into the popular immersion programs. A November 2006 article from Seattle, for example, notes that the city's immersion language program, started six years ago, is one of the most popular elementary schools in the city, with one of the longest wait-lists for admission: "The approach has been so successful that district officials unveiled an ambitious plan Thursday to expand the program elsewhere in the city - with the goal of creating eight more language-immersion programs in the next five years." For Denver International School, a private elementary immersion school in Colorado, high demand for the program means that the school must enforce an admission policy that includes an application, a recommendation from preschool, and a letter from parents explaining why they would like to enroll their child at the school. Similarly, for the private French immersion school Lycee Francais de Chicago, the school selects and admits a limited number of students, and only as preschoolers, After a review of the applications submitted by parents. In other words, once a student has reached kindergarten age or older, they are already ineligible for the immersion school, given the demand for the program.