With encouragement from the Chamber of Commerce, Hantman's school board approved a plan in March that will expand foreign language classes for native English speakers and bilingual programs for limited English speakers. This is called the gateway to the Americas. Miami puts students with limited English skills into classes that are taught predominantly in English with some Spanish or Creole every day. Within three years, most of the students become fluent in English. But Miami's bilingual education program doesn't end there.
Students continue to study in their native languages through middle and high school.
Even a native English speaker could choose to take a high school geography class in Spanish. It keeps more limited English speakers in bilingual classes from kindergarten through 12th grade, without moving them into English-only classes. Houston educators reasoned that the city is close to Latin America and has an international job market that needs a work force that can function in two languages. Cognitively they were behind their peers because they lost their first language. Support for bilingual education in Texas is mixed at the highest levels.