UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Union County Public Schools is growing its language immersion program with the goal to give every student in every location zone a chance to learn in another language. 

North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction officials said the state has been a leader in language immersion for 30 years with dozens of programs in several languages statewide.

What You Need To Know

  •  Union County has more than 2,000 students in language immersion at more than a dozen schools

  •  The state of North Carolina says 51 districts or charter schools offer language immersion across eight languages

  •  Union County expanded its program for the second year in a row

More than 2,200 UCPS students are in the county’s language immersion programs of Spanish or Mandarin. Depending on the school and area, anything from 50% to 90% of the school day is in another language, starting as early as kindergarten.

UCPS director of college readiness and language immersion program director Jessica Garner said parents have nothing to fear, despite such early learning beginning in another language. 

“When we compare our data from our dual-language immersion students to the traditional students in those same schools, we see that our dual language immersion students are performing as well as, or better than, our traditional students. Pretty much in every grade level and every content area,” Garner said.

Garner said the data shows English end-of-year scores are not affected either.

“We don’t see any drop in their English end-of-grade scores,” Garner explained. “When they get to middle schools, students transition into essentially one class that helps them continue to develop their literacy skills. And then, when they get to high school, they just fold right into our world language program.” 

But, even that is expanding.
This year, UCPS is offering eligible Spanish-focused high school students a dual enrollment opportunity with South Piedmont Community College, according to Garner. 

Long before high school, students in the immersion programs are introduced to Spanish or Mandarin as early as kindergarten. 

Argentina native and kindergarten teacher Antonella Ruggiero said almost the entire day is conducted in Spanish for the 5-year-olds in her immersion classroom. 

“Ninety percent of the time the instruction is in Spanish, the only thing they have in English is specials. So it will be full immersion,” Ruggiero detailed. 

Ruggiero teaches at Kensington Elementary, which offers Spanish and Mandarin immersion. It can be a challenge for students learning a new language while also being in a formal school setting for the first time. 

“The beginning is hard, because of course it is a new language. They will look at you like what are you talking, what are you saying? But, eventually, they will understand everything,” Ruggiero added.

When Spectrum News 1 visited Ruggiero’s classroom earlier this school year, the students were using a mix of English and Spanish to speak with each other while completing assignments, while Ruggiero led the room with instruction completely in Spanish.

Outside the classroom, Ruggiero also guides parents and caretakers on how it works, and how to understand, sending home plenty of recordings, presentations and work sheets to guide at-home help. Ruggiero said it requires a strong partnership with parents, sometimes sending instructions home in English, so they know how to help their students. But, she said that hard work pays off when parents, and students, begin embracing the language and surprising themselves and their families with what they’ve learned. 

“They say, ‘I can’t believe what you’re doing, I can’t believe that they’re writing and reading in Spanish and naming all the things they see in Spanish, and I don’t understand what they’re saying.’ But, that ... I think it’s what brings me a lot of joy,” Ruggiero said about feedback from parents.

For an experienced teacher from Argentina, it’s a great way to share her knowledge and love of language with young people.

“The energy they have, how amazing it is, the way they absorb the language is great. And that fills me with a lot of emotions, and it makes me feel proud at the end, I will say,” Ruggiero added.

UCPS added two more elementary schools to the program this year with two more adding Spanish programs last year. Language immersion is featured in 17 of UCPS’ 30 elementary schools. Mandarin is phasing out of some of the schools, with Spanish phasing in, like at Kensington. Spanish is offered at 16 of the elementary schools with Mandarin offered at two. Seven middle schools and six high schools also participate in the program and pathway.

Parents apply to start their kindergarteners in the program through a lottery at each home school that offers the program.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction says 51 districts or charter schools in the state have similar programs, offering students learning in eight foreign languages. Those languages include Cherokee, Mandarin, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Spanish and Urdu.