Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education: Connecting Research and Practice Across Contexts

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

Not language specific

Two-Way Bilingual Immersion

Pre-K
Elementary (K-5)
Middle School/Junior High
High School
Post-Secondary

How can we ensure principals are prepared to effectively lead DLI programs? This session shares how faculty at a university collaborated with DLI administrators and DLI experts to develop an online Dual Language Immersion Administration Certificate. The session will share the certificate program, the process of development and evaluation plans.

The rapidly increasing Hispanic population in eastern rural North Carolina ranges from 25%-50%. DLI programs are proven to be effective in educating linguistically diverse students. In North Carolina there are 104 DLI programs in schools, but only 6 DLI programs are located in rural eastern North Carolina. There is a need to open more DLI programs in rural areas; yet, administrators are not prepared to do so nor have access to professional development in DLI. This session will share how a study to address this need resulted in the development of new online DLI Administration Certificate.

The presenter collaborated with faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages at East Carolina University to form a learning community to study the linguistic and educational needs of the growing Hispanic student population in rural eastern North Carolina. Members included principals and district coordinator from the Los Puentes DLI program and a principal of a neighboring rural elementary school along with several teachers, community members, and parents both Hispanic and non-Hispanic. The learning community studied research on DLI programs, visited other DLI programs in the state, engaged in professional development with Dr. Lindholm-Leary, and conducted a needs assessment by surveying and interviewing parents, teachers, and administrators. The findings of this study indicated that there was a need to educate stakeholders of the benefits and challenges of DLI programs as well as to train school administrators on how to advocate, implement, maintain, and assess DLI programs.

To address these needs, a new DLI Administration Certificate was developed by a core of expert DLI school leaders. The DLI Administration Certificate courses will be shard along with projects and field experiences incorporated for DLI school administrator professional development.