Summary Report: Confronting the Equity Issues in Dual Language Immersion Programs

Summary

The goal of the Forum was to introduce to dual language education an informed and more systematic dialogue among academics, researchers and practitioners about the relationships between issues of equity and dual language practices. Our hope was to create opportunities for constructive engagement among dual language practitioners (school administrators and teachers) and education equity experts.

This paper summarizes the rationale and organization of the Forum, explains its structure and agenda, provides an overview of each of the five commissioned papers -- including an overview of the field of dual language education and reviewers' critiques of the papers -- and includes substantial highlights of the discussion and results of the survey disseminated online to attendees after the Forum concluded. The paper ends with conclusions and notes on priorities for next steps.