idaho’s language immersion program - · pdf filethe primary audience for the language...

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Idaho’s Language Immersion Program

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¡Me encanta aprender Espanol!我愛學習西班牙語

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary 3

Situation Analysis 4-5

Goals and Objectives 6

Target Audience 7

Positioning 8

Key Messages 9

Challenges 10

Implementation 11-12

Research 13-16

Time Chart/Activities 17

Strategies and Tactics 18-21

Budget 22

Evaluation Plan 23

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Executive Summary Currently the World Language Immersion Program recently stated in Rigby, Idaho schools mixed views. The parents of those children who have participated in the program are extremely pleased with the program and its results. Unfortunately only a small portion of the target audi-ence has experienced the program firsthand and shares a positive outlook. The majority of the audience is divided between being unaware and having a negative outlook on the program. Some negative remarks have come from the idea that the program is a waste of time and even promotes communism. It is the mission of this plan to change those views and bring awareness to the community by increasing awareness and understanding in the community about the language immersion programs in Rigby, increase donations towards the program and retaining student enrollment in the Chinese and Spanish programs.

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Situation Analysis The World Language Immersion Program in Jefferson County, Idaho, is the first of it’s kind in Southeastern Idaho. There are over 250 students currently in the program between kindergar-ten and first grade. The program thus far has been extremely successful with the students that have participated. Their test scores have risen, and they are learning the language just as they should. The reception in the community, however, has been mixed. The parents who have chil-dren in the program, no matter how skeptical they may have been in the beginning, are quickly converted and in some cases have become advocates for the program. The problem lies else-where. The biggest pushback from the community has come from the older families in the com-munity. These would be the grandparents of the students taking part in the immersion pro-grams. They have expressed their fears and disapproval with the Chinese language immersion programs in the form of mumblings, grumblings, and gossip. The main subject of their concerns tends to be communism. The biggest worry is that their negative opinions, even though they are not necessarily organized in any way, could change the minds of some parents that may already be on the fence about enrolling their children in the Language Immersion Programs before they get a chance to enroll their child and see for themselves how great the program is. The program needs a continuous stream of young students to stay alive, and it would be detrimental to the program if these negative attitudes from the older parts of the community spoil the attitudes of the younger parents. Another problem is the fact that the school is not allowed to require that parents pay any extra money for the program. They must work solely off of donations. The only way they will get donations is if their public image remains untainted by the negative opinions of the older gener-ation. The most powerful asset this program has is its students. Seeing the students learn the language first-hand is enough to make a believer out of the most hardened skeptic. The question

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Situation Analysisremains how can they best demonstrate the enormous benefit this program will bring to the students in their futures, and the future of this community as a whole.

Strengths• Over 250 Students in the program• Unique program to Idaho• Program research results are positive• Test scores have risen• Parents of students in the program are involved and support the programWeaknesses• Some community members are uneducated about the program• Proper funding is difficult to provide because students are not required to pay to be in the pro-gram since it is a public schoolOpportunities• Demonstrate benefits of the program to students in their future lives• Help misconceptions of the program to diminish• Provide benefits or acts of thanks to those who invest in the programThreats• Minority groups in the community are skeptical and influence others in their decision to sup-port or have their children participate in the program• Disapproval of the program and concern of cultural influences (namely communism) have been expressed through different media

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Goals and Objectives Increase awareness and understanding in the community about the language immersion programs in Rigby by 10% within 3 months.• Increase donations towards the program by 5% in 3 months• 98% retention of students in language program• 60 Kindergarten students enrolled into the Chinese program a year• 80 Kindergarten students enrolled in the Spanish program

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Target Audience The primary audience for the Language Immersion program is Rigby parents and their children. The secondary demographic of consumers are those whom are likely to donate money to the program. This might include those such as family members and close friends. Children in the elementary school will learn either the Chinese or Spanish language, hav-ing it implemented into their everyday class schedule. This is beneficial for the next generation so they can better communicate with more people, creating a larger variety of job opportunities.

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Positioning The Language Immersion program offers a bright future to the parents who take the time and money to invest in their children’s education. The versatility of these young students will surpass the skills and abilities of their peers in the competitive job market. Language skills offers a competitive edge in the job market and will outweigh an employee of equal skill level. As the success of the Language Immersion program has exploded in Salt Lake City, we plan to have a similar experience here in Idaho.

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Key MessagesOur key messages are • the immersion program is an effective way for children to learn a new language and to be ac-quainted with other cultures. When they leave the program, they will be just as fluent as returned LDS missionaries.• learning a new language is an asset, not a setback. Many employers look for people who know at least one other language, thus the immersion program will allow students more opportunities in the job market.• being acquainted with a culture shows that students can be open-minded to other points of view and allows for critical thinking.

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Challenges The challenges that have been presented in regards to the Dual Immersion Program are:• Becoming informed: issues of students learning the culture of the language and whether that is accepted among all parents and the community.• Lack of information: the community and parents are not as informed about the program as the school district would like.• The cost: it is an average of $200.00 per student per year for the program and this is a barrier for some who wish to participate.• Opposition group: there is a small minority group that outwardly shares their opposing opin-ions about the Dual Immersion Program.• Limit to participation: with the growth of the program there could be a selection process that may take place, which would limit the amount of students that could participate in the program.

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Implementation PlanRadio Ad – A radio ad is an effective way to promote the dual immersion program to the older generation and to eastern Idaho residents. An advertisement would cost about $25 for 30 sec-onds.

News Release – A news release could be submitted to the Standard Journal (Rexburg), the Idaho State Journal (Idaho Falls) or the Post Register (Idaho Falls). The news release would discuss the dual immersion program.

Social Media – Facebook is something that the dual immersion program is already using and should continue to use in order to keep the parents up to date on different events happening with the program. Another way to keep a line of communication with the parents that have kids in the program, or that might potentially have a kid in the program, would be to create a forum where parents, students and teachers could participate in different discussions related to the dual immersion program.

Website – A website is something that the Utah dual immersion programs uses to give a basic overview of what the program is and the languages that are offered. This website could also be a place to post a short video clip of the dual immersion program, share social media links and its progression. Example of website: http://utahimmersion.org this is an example of what the website could look like and information that you could put on it.

Open class day --Choose a day when parents and other community members can come in and participate in a class or observe it. To promote the event Invite people that are hostile to the pro-gram, in order to show them that the children are enjoying themselves and are learning valuable

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Implementation Planskills for life. We would provide culture-specific food for parents and community participants that attended the open class day.

Chinese night --Decide on a day (for example at the beginning of October, when they are cele-brating the National Day) to have a Chinese night. You would invite parents, teachers and stu-dents to a celebratory party where Chinese food will be served and some parts of the culture will be introduced by the teachers. The school would be decorated accordingly according to what people in China would do on National Day, as well as implement similar activities that take place on the day.

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Research Through much research, mountains of data were found confirming what was already known about immersion schools. No matter how it is sliced, they are extremely beneficial to both the students and the community. Test grades do not drop, in fact they rise. Creativity flourishes; graduation rates increase, and the programs even help students that may be learning English as a second language. But the most important information that was found was concerning the methods other schools used to both publicize the benefits of language immersion schools, and calm the fears of apprehensive parents. There are a few immersion programs that provide a perfect backdrop for how the Jeffer-son County School District should proceed with their programs. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 2008 there was a small school district that, much like Jefferson County, had not had much ex-posure to language immersion programs. Knowing there would be questions and concerns in the surrounding community, Shannon Graber, an advocate for immersion education and former immersion teacher helped set up an informational meeting for parents in the community. She contacted her former French immersion kindergarten students from 1991. These students and their parents were more than happy to share their experiences and feelings towards immersion programs. Some even drove the 270 miles to attend the meeting just to share their success sto-ries. These students shared stories about how the languages they learned had helped them in their education. The parents shared stories of how immersion education helped their family as a whole. Shannon put together packets with all of these testimonials to hand out at the meeting. The meeting was a massive success. Shannon remembers the experience in her own words: “…Starting up the first language immersion program in South Dakota, in a community with limited exposure to immersion education, has provided us with the opportunity to intro-duce the benefits of immersion education. Experience breeds confidence. For a new program, we found that by drawing on the experience from Edina, Minnesota’s French Immersion program of seventeen years, we were able to build that confidence from the student/parent testimonial

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Researchpacket and parent presentations. The testimonials gave credibility to the immersion research, and gave the Sioux Falls parents confidence in immersion education. Though more subjective in nature, the sharing of information on Minnesota immersion graduate students and their testimonials has proven to be a powerful education tool in promot-ing immersion education in South Dakota.” Today, the Sioux Falls immersion program is continuing to flourish. Two years after its inception, the “Parent Advocates for Spanish Immersion, INC” a non-profit was organized to help fund the immersion program. On their website (http://pasisf.shutterfly.com) they have resources to help parents help their kids with homework, information about meetings, Spanish summer camps, and methods of accepting donations. In order to learn more about this organization and how they have continued to deal with parental anxiety, the PASI was contacted. Carly Reiter, one of the Board of Directors answered with the following statement: “Our immersion program has very strong support from a core group of parents. Our dis-trict is great, but not as supportive as we would like. Because of that, the parents have really tak-en the supportive role in calming other parents’ fears and uncertainties. We did that by creating this non-profit organization (PASI) where we have monthly meetings where we invite people like reading specialists, principals, or have parent round tables to talk about successes and concerns. We also have several communication vehicles to stay in touch with families. We use this Face-book page, have an organization website and have all families email addresses and send up-dates, announcements, etc. to all families frequently. We hold several information meetings each year trying to recruit new students for our kindergarten classes. We show classroom videos and our classroom teachers come and answer questions about the immersion process. Our teachers are great in helping parents feel good about their decision to enroll their students. Our program is only 6 years old and is growing faster than anyone ever imagined it would.”

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Research With the help of the non-profit, and fundraising events, The Sioux Falls immersion pro-gram has continued to grow. Finally, many programs were researched on a website called indiegogo.com. Indiegogo is a crowdfunding site. They allow people to propose a project and ask for donations from anyone in the world for funding. In return for their funding, people receive different benefits. For one program in New York City, they offered perks that ranged from poems or paintings from students in the program, to 2 months of French classes. This program accumulated over $11,000 in 60 days for their program. With a combination of these methods, the Jefferson County School District can and will see sustained success in their immersion programs.

Case Study: At George Mason University, professors Wayne Tomas & Virginia Collier conducted a lon-gitudinal study over an 18 year period involving 23 school districts and 15 states. This study com-pared the students of bilingual programs with traditional English only education. They found the following:• the dual immersion program closes the gap between students who knew English and students learning English• friendships crossed classes and language barriers• increased parent involvement in the child’s education• higher testing scores were found • according to one finding, 90% of 115 students who started a language immersion program in kindergarten were enrolled in college.

Additional support of the positive impact of dual immersion programs:

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Research Jo Anne Kleifgen, a Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Education, said, ““In the long run, dual language schools have tremendous benefit. You have young adults with strong skills, who graduate from high school, who can communicate in more than one language” (Wilson, 2011).Wilson, D. M. (2011). Dual language programs on the rise. Harvard Education Letter, 27(2), Re-trieved from http://hepg.org/hel/article/496

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Time Chart/ActivitiesEvent DateFocus Group 5/3Create Forum 5/4Posters/Fliers at Grocery Store 5/6Radio Ad 5/6News Release 5/12Chinese Night 5/17Begin initial efforts to create a non profit 6/2Begin Kickstarter and Fundraising 6/20Focus Group Final Evaluation 6/28Website 7/17

Parent Night Classes

South Fork Elementary: Every Tuesday evening: Chinese Parent classes 5:30-6:30 PMEvery Tuesday and Thursday evening: Spanish Parent classes 7-9 PM.

Jefferson Elementary: Free Adult Spanish Classes every Wed 6pm.

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Strategies and TacticsStrategies TacticsRadio Ad Targeted at the older generation in Rigby.

This ad should be focusing on the benefits and findings this program has created. This ad would also be a major resource for debunking the communist propaganda that people are scared of. Fundraising and retention. $25 for 30 seconds every time you play it. (Potentially free)

News Release Who: Someone from the class, or a group in the class implementing the PR plan, can write up a news release, that way it will be free.When: SeptemberWhat: Talk about Chinese night and fundrais-ing Where: Post Register and Standard Journal

Create a Forum Create an online forum prior to the campaign where teachers and parents can communicate with each other about questions or concerns.

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Strategies and TacticsStrategies TacticsSocial Media We encourage you to continue using the cur-

rent facebook page that has been created for the dual immersion program. On the facebook page you could communicate some of the information that students are learning about each week. This would also be a media where the parents could easily share their thoughts about the program.

Parent Night Classes Widely advertise through the above strategies that night classes are offered for parents who want to keep up with their children’s language learning. South Fork Elementary Every Tuesday evening: Chinese Parent classes 5:30-6:30 PMEvery Tuesday and Thursday evening: Spanish Parent classes 7-9 PM. Jefferson Elementary Free Adult Spanish Classes every Wed 6pm.

Poster at Laundromat and grocery store Since there is only one Broulim’s and one Laundromat in town, we could have posters for fundraising, or just to advertise the pro-gram.

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Strategies and TacticsStrategies TacticsIndiegogo Indiegogo is a crowd-funding site that allows

people to post their ideas to the site and ask for donations to fund their projects. Unlike Kickstarter, they have a “flexible funding” option that allows the groups to keep all funding raised, even if they do not reach their goal. Once the project is posted and a goal is set, groups come up with perks to give their donors. Once the funding period is over, if the goal was not reached, 9% of the money fund-ed goes to indiegogo. If the goal was met, only 4% of the money goes to indiegogo.

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Strategies and TacticsStrategies TacticsNon Profit A non-profit is a great way to garner commu-

nity support and inform them of all things re-lated to the immersion program. Some things a non-profit could to do help the immersion program would be: organize events that ben-efit the school’s students and their families, support or sponsor projects to help the com-munity, help educate parents about immer-sion programs and how to be more involved in their children’s education, and help fund the immersion programs growth.

Some ways other non profits have helped immersion programs are to help provide class-room materials, funding for teaching interns via an international exchange program, pro-fessional teacher development opportunities, community connections, educating the public on immersion education and second language acquisition.

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BudgetItem Estimated Cost Actual Cost Charge Num-

ber(s)Unit Number(s)

Fliers for grocery store

$35 $54 $1.08 300 (6 per page)

Radio Ad $50 N/A N/A N/APosters for laun-dromat

$15 $21.60 $1.08 20 (1 per page)

Food for culture night

$50 N/A N/A N/A

Website $100 N/A N/A N/A

Total $235 N/A N/A N/A

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Evaluation Plan In order to effectively evaluate the success of the campaign, a focus group will be con-ducted prior to the beginning of the campaign to help observe the current image that the public has for the dual immersion program. After completing the focus group a word cloud, findings and content analysis could be done to measure the current public opinion of the program. At the end of the campaign a similar focus group will be done to see if the public per-ception of the dual immersion has changed and if so if it is positive. This would be measured by content analysis of the focus groups.

Conclusion/ final section: Overall this PR plan focuses on community support and awareness. This plan aims to ac-complish this through various media including: posters, newspapers, social media, press releas-es, radio and local advertising. This plan also includes ideas for fundraising through Kickstarter donations, non-profit sponsors and local donations at school events. This plan seeks to increase local support, informing the public, increase funding, retain students and continue to maintain student enrollment in the program each year.

Campaign Kickstarter link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/offer-french-dual-language-ed-ucation-to-more-nyc-kids

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Team Members Brayden Christensen

Jessica FryeAlex HarrisonJesse Kempler

Brad MillettBrandon Moore

Joana RibeiroMatthew Stephenson

Whitney Wilson

idaho’s language immersion program - · pdf filethe primary audience for the language...

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