Школы Лас-Вегаса расширяют программу двуязычного погружения для повышения успеваемости учеников

Las Vegas elementary schools expand Spanish-English immersion to boost student success Monday, Aug. 24, 2026 | 2 a.m. Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español. A group of Robert E. Lake Elementary School kindergartners were practicing vowel sounds using words beyond the basic “cat” or “hat.” The children called out “escalera,” “elefante,” “elote” and “escoba” — or, in English, ladder, elephant, corn, broom. They weren’t learning vocabulary words in Spanish just for novelty’s sake. They’re students in an opt-in, dual-language immersion program that educators hope will make them not just bilingual but biliterate by the time they advance to middle school — making them competitive in a global economy and enriching their academic achievement in English. Bianca Contreras, whose first-grader, Penelope, is in the program, said their family has a shared goal now. “It’s really motivated us as a family to learn and grow together and be biliterate,” she said. Contreras, who is of Mexican and Chilean background, says she grew up speaking only English. Now, she says she wishes she had also learned Spanish. Her grandmother, who turns 95 this month, speaks limited English. Her daughter can now speak short Spanish phrases to her elder, like “te amo” or “mi amor.” And as her daughter’s language skills advance, she can open more doors in her life, said Contreras, who is also a counselor at Lake. The school, which serves a student population that is about 70% Hispanic, is situated in the central-east valley northwest of Eastern Avenue and Desert Inn Road. As Penelope learns, she’s building a bridge. She even demonstrates an affirmation she learned at school: “I have an English hand. I have a Spanish hand. I connect them with the bridge,” she said, locking her fingers together and raising her clasped hands. “I put the bridge in my head. When I know English, I know Spanish. When I know Spanish, I know English.” Translated into Spanish: “Tengo una mano inglesa. Tengo una mano española. Las conecto con el puente. Me pongo el puente en la cabeza. Cuando sé Inglés, sé Español. Cuando sé Español, sé Inglés.” The Clark County School District started offering Spanish-English immersion at another eastside grade school, C.C. Ronnow Elementary, about four years ago, then expanded it to Lake three years ago. That’s given CCSD enough data to show how the format has assisted students. Erick Casallas, the assistant superintendent of the English Language Learner division, said district standardized tests show that dual-language students outperform their peers who only learn in English, because of the rich linguistic experience. He said bilingualism uses two languages, but “dual-language” is more intentional. In the immersion program, students alternate languages, spending a full day learning language arts, math and other content solely in Spanish. The next day, they will learn all day in English, and so on. With this kind of depth and reinforcement, students become biliterate, or able to confidently speak, listen, read and write in both languages, with a strong understanding of culture. In a familiar system of learning a second language, the high school world language class, exposure is limited to one period every day or two. Language acquisition is much slower to take root and pales in comparison to visiting Mexico, France or wherever else a chosen language is used. “It’s when you actually travel to that country posthigh school that it actually sinks in, and you actually do something with it,” Casallas said. Here, students don’t need to leave their elementary school for the language to become necessary. Casallas said it can take five to seven years to truly learn a new language. A student who starts in kindergarten, though, can be conversational by second grade and fluent by fifth grade. Some of the children in the program also speak Spanish at home. Others speak only English. Native and heritage speakers will help their classmates who are new to the language, Casallas said. “It’s a great community-building aspect of it, especially in the earlier grades,” Casallas said. Lake Principal Paola Zepher said she wanted to bring the program to her school after attending an education conference and learning about dual-language instruction and bilingualism. As she’d done for much of her life, she introduced herself to other conference attendees as Paula, an Anglicized version of her given name that she said she’d adopted because so many people find “Paola” difficult to pronounce. The conference was full of other Latinas and Latinos who reminded her that her name is, in fact, Paola. It was an emotional light-bulb moment. Zepher said that when she spoke to her staff about launching a dual-language track, teachers who spoke Spanish as their first language also felt seen and valued. She wants to highlight the asset that she said children have when they come from Spanish-speaking homes. “I want my kids to have that voice, and to know that they’re accepted and that their language is important,” Zepher said.