Sun Prairie officials present data showing dual-language students’ gains and outline program expansion

Sun Prairie Area School District officials presented data to the school board showing that multilingual learners enrolled in the district’s dual-language immersion program are posting stronger long-term academic indicators and social‑emotional benchmark results than peers in English-only programs.

At a presentation led by Stephanie Leonard, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning and Equity, and Dr. Sarah Chaya Clarity, Director of Secondary and process lead for Multilingual Programming, district staff emphasized English-language proficiency growth, reclassification rates, and outcomes in literacy, numeracy and social‑emotional learning as the primary measures for multilingual student success. "Our multilingual learner English language proficiency growth is a key indicator in ensuring that our multilingual learners are making gains towards being English language proficient," Dr. Chaya Clarity said, noting the district uses the ACCESS assessment required under Title III to track progress.

The presentation cited research by Thomas and Collier showing that students in two‑way dual‑language immersion programs — where instruction occurs in both the home language and English — tend to outperform peers in other program models by middle and high school. "The key takeaway is that our multilingual learners who participate in dual language immersion programs where students learn in both their home language and English outperform their peers, both multilingual learners in other types of programs and native English speakers by middle school and high school," Dr. Chaya Clarity said.

District data presented by Tony Gennaro, multilingual program coordinator, showed year‑to‑year increases in the number of students exiting language‑services after meeting proficiency criteria and an overall growth in the multilingual student population. Staff reported that students with Spanish as a home language make up the district’s largest multilingual group, constituting over 50% of multilingual learners; Hmong and Telugu were identified as the next largest language groups. The presentation also highlighted that Sun Prairie West recorded unusually strong outcomes for comparable schools across the state.

Staff reviewed benchmark comparisons from the current year’s kindergarten and first‑grade cohorts. The slides compared literacy and numeracy benchmarks for multilingual learners in dual‑language immersion with multilingual peers not in dual language and with all students. District presenters said the dual‑language students are performing comparably or better in English literacy and showing promising growth in Spanish literacy and numeracy measures. For social‑emotional learning, staff reported notably higher benchmark attainment among students in dual‑language programming.

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act and Title III requirements, the district tracks an on‑track measure for multilingual learners’ growth toward proficiency; staff said Wisconsin’s state on‑track metric is norm referenced and that the district has seen increases in higher percentiles and reductions in low‑range performers. Reclassification rates — the number of students leaving language services after achieving proficiency — were described as increasing over the past two years, with an additional near‑5 percentage‑point increase noted in reclassification among Spanish‑home‑language students.

Looking ahead, district staff outlined next steps focused on program development: continued expansion of dual‑language immersion, development of newcomer courses for grades 6–12, ongoing curriculum work, regular review of staffing and services to match the changing language landscape, and a districtwide training plan for language acquisition strategies tied to the instructional framework. These items were presented as staff plans rather than formal board actions.

Rick Miller, Elementary Director of Teaching, Learning and Equity, closed the presentation by thanking the community and board and saying, "We look forward to discussing this information with you at the upcoming school board meeting."