Dual Language Programs in the Era of School Choice: A Case Study of Greater Los Angeles

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Research and Professional Development in Bi-/Multilingual Education: Perspectives and Advocacy for Educational Justice (Table 4)

Abstract

In this three-part, mixed-methods study, I examine the effect of school competition on dual language program planning and emergence across all elementary schools in Los Angeles County between 2000 and 2022, and the impact for linguistic minority students’ access to these programs. To do this, I use publicly available school and neighborhood-level data in combination with 30 in-depth interviews with principals and district leaders (local policy makers). Using the notion of competition as process and the theory of social constructions of target populations, I explore how competition impacts principals and other leaders’ decision to open dual language, how target populations are defined and what this can tell us about linguistic minority population access to these programs.

Author

• Clemence Darriet, University of California - Los Angeles