Beloit district updates outside audit of dual-language immersion program; final recommendations due in February

Beloit School District staff updated the Teaching, Learning, Equity & People Services Committee on an ongoing audit of the district’s dual‑language immersion (DLI) program, saying researchers are reviewing curriculum, staffing and outcomes and will return to the full board with recommendations in February.

Tony Bosco, who led the update, said the DLI program began in 2012 and has grown to “nearly a 1,000 students enrolled in dual language here in the school district of Beloit.” He told the committee the district asked CESA 2 to conduct a holistic review combining quantitative data and more than 75 stakeholder interviews conducted in the fall.

“We sent all kinds of our curricular resources to them for them to analyze the alignment between not only our English programming but also our Spanish programming to make sure that it’s at a level of rigor that we in the school district expect,” Bosco said. He added that the audit team also reviewed assessments and staffing patterns and will assess whether curriculum and instruction are producing the intended language and academic outcomes.

Bosco described the DLI program as open to any student and noted state reporting rules: when a district has more than 10 students in K–3 or 20 students in grades 4 and above for a given language, the district is statutorily required to provide bilingual services. The district uses the DLI model plus bilingual instructional coaches, bilingual teachers and paraeducators to meet those obligations.

Board members pressed for more detail on growth and other languages represented in the district. Bosco said DLI enrollment has risen as the district’s multilingual learner population has grown, and that students in DLI generally “outperform students on Forward and other metrics.” He said the district’s high school students take a Spanish assessment tied to the Seal of Biliteracy and that Beloit students “are outperforming other school districts” on that national assessment.

When asked about languages beyond Spanish, Bosco told the committee the district serves students speaking roughly 14 to 16 languages, from Arabic to Russian, and that small-population languages (for example, Hmong) are typically supported through contracts with outside providers when internal staffing or materials are not available.

The committee was told the audit team will return to the full board’s Feb. 4 meeting with an executive summary and detailed recommendations to guide planning for the next five to 10 years.