The Effect of Dual Language Immersion Programs on Student Outcomes
Abstract
Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs are schools or classrooms within schools that educate students in two languages: English and a target language. DLI programs in Georgia have proliferated in recent years to include 66 programs that reach across 14 school districts as of school year (SY) 2018-19. We partner with two metro-Atlanta school districts to study the impact of access to early-grade DLI programs using data from five cohorts of DLI admission lotteries across 10 DLI programs. This is the largest rigorous analysis of the academic impacts of access to DLIs in Georgia. On average, we find that students with access to DLI programs via enrollment lotteries have higher reading and math test scores by approximately 0.1 standard deviations compared to students who applied but did not gain access. Our results on the impact of DLI access on test scores are comparable in magnitude to the effect of having an experienced teacher.