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The Daily Tar Heel

Carrboro Schools Bring Culture to Kindergarten

Federal grant funds program.

Dual-language kindergarten classes have started in Carrboro Elementary and Glenwood Elementary schools, debuting a new venture for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

Two teachers and two assistants, all fluent in both languages, instruct the classes.

Glenwood has 11 native English-speaking students and 11 students who speak Chinese as their first language.

Carrboro has 11 English-speaking students and 11 students whose first language is Spanish. Six of them do not speak any English.

Josephine Harris, director of special programs for the school system, said the first week of the dual-language immersion program has been productive and was met by a positive response from parents, students and teachers.

"It's really gone well," she said. "We're off to a real smooth start."

Harris said parents have been supportive of the program and are allowed to observe classes and come in to eat lunch with their child.

She said there were 11 or 12 parent sessions from March through May to inform the parents about how the class would be structured, what the curriculum would include and what officials had found in their research on other dual-language programs.

Harris applied for a federal grant to fund the program, which the school system received in October 2001. A 42-person committee was then formed to study and perform research for about a year before the program was implemented.

Officials took trips to Arlington, Va., Washington, D.C., and San Francisco to observe three successful examples of dual-language teaching.

Students were selected for the class based on an application process. Harris said officials factored in issues such as gender and socioeconomic status to decide which children to accept.

"We wanted to make sure we had a very diverse group," Harris said.

Each year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will add a new group of kindergartners to the immersion program.

This first year's group will continue with the dual-language program through the primary schooling years.

Parents also have the option of sending their children to an after-school program that will expand upon their class exercises. It is an extension of the school day from 2:30 p.m. until either 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., but students do not have to attend every day.

Kelli Council-Lattie, the mother of Carrboro Elementary student Jada, said the program seems to be going well.

"So far, so good -- this is her fourth day," she said. "I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of progress being made. She's already learning."

Council-Lattie said Jada has learned words like "boy" and "girl," in addition to greetings.

"I'm looking forward to her using it more in meeting people, like kids outside of school," she said. "I want her to feel comfortable with what she's learned to approach (Spanish-speaking) kids she meets."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.

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