I live in Bellevue, one of the wealthiest cities in Washington State, with my wife and two kids, ages 2 and 4. The eldest will be going to kindergarden next year. We can't afford private school, and are big believers in the public school system. But, unlike many families, we have a choice as to what public school the kids will attend.
Bellevue has a public Spanish Immersion School, the only one in the state. It is a really great program with demonstrated benifits (beyond Spanish fluency). On the other hand, there are real risks and drawbacks too. Meanwhile our default public school is only a few blocks away and is still one of the best schools in the state.
if you know anything about Spanish Immersion, or have had dilemmas chosing schools, please keep reading below the fold, and offer what advice you can...
The Spanish Immersion School has more applicants than available slots, so you have to enter a lottery to get into it. The kids are taught completely in Spanish for K-2, midway through second grade they start with English lessons (English spelling, reading, grammar). The rest of the way through 12th grade they are taught most subjects in Spanish, but have English class as well. The goal is for kids to be as fluent as a native Spanish speaker by 4th grade. They also catch up to their peers in non-immersion schools with regards to English skills around that time. The test scores are significantly better than other schools in Bellevue, which in turn are better than state averages. The teachers are an elite group who have to work hard to get a job there, and the kids who go there have parents who obviously care a lot in order to jump thorugh all the hoops to get in and stay in. And of course, becomming fluent in Spanish or any second language is a huge value, not only because you can communicate with more people, but because it gives you a new way to think, stretches your brain in all directions, and also gives you perspective into other cultures.
On the other hand, going to Spanish Immersion would mean having the kids on the bus more than 2 hours a day, and since it is much further from our home than our default public school, would undoubtedly mean we wouldn't be able to be as involved in the school. Also, since neither my wife and I are 100% established in our career paths, we don't know if we will want to be tied to Bellevue forever, and it is apparently a really bad idea to pull your kid out of an immersion school and put them somewhere else, especially before 4th grade. So we'd essentially be making a seven year commitment to stay in the district.
Meanwhile, as mentioned, our neighborhood school, which would be the default is only about a half mile away. Bellevue school district has won nationwide awards. The difference in test scores between Spanish Immersion might be attributed to the fact 1) The wider bellevue public school system has a lot of ESL students, who, while they are learning English, will of course have lower standardized test scores, and 2) since the Spanish Immersion School draws from a motivated, education-interested set of families, the kids in it are by nature likely to do better. Its also hard to see from the test scores whether an advanced child would do much better in one system verses the others. If a kid might get 1000 on her SATs from going to my neighborhood schools could get 1250 if she went to Spanish immersion, that's a big payoff. On the other hand, if a kid who got 1450 on the SATs would only go to 1500 by going Spanish immersion, that's less of an advantage. But this kind of data is not available, so we're left guessing.
Anyway, at the moment we are leaning away from Spanish Immersion, mostly because we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we would have to pull them out and possibly negatively effect the rest of their education. Everyone we know is telling us we're crazy not to take the opportunity, but they ignore the negatives. Its a tough choice-- even if its a real blessing to have this choice at all. I'm sure most families would love to be presented with this dilemma. Some might have to chose between moving to a district where the housing costs require them to get a second job, and a school were drugs and gangs are a problem. Others have simply no choice at all.
So, if you have had a kid in Spanish Immersion, have taught there, have seen kids pulled out of a Spanish Immersion program midway and put in reg'lar school and know the effects, or have other thoughts, please comment.
Or, if you want to talk about the unfareness of localized school funding, so that my kid gets a choice between two great schools and the kid in the inner city or rural town has only a mediocre or terrible school, and no choice.