The implementation of the AUHSD Dual Language Immersion program allows students to become bilingual, biliterate, bicultural, and better prepared for college, career and life.  Data collected demonstrates all seniors who graduated from the Dual Language Academy at Anaheim High School have had a 100% pass rate on their Advanced Placement Spanish Language and Culture exam and 100% of students were accepted to a university. This data matches the 30 years of research by Thomas and Collier (who research dual language immersion programs all over the globe), who found that DLI students consistently outperform traditional students in multiple metrics. AUHSD has over 1,000 students earn the state Seal of Biliteracy and 100% of AUHSD DLI students earn the Seal of Biliteracy. A specific example of how the program affected a student’s life is a senior who is a first generation college student being accepted to the University of California, Los Angeles as a result of the rigor of the DLI program. The program is successful and fills up every year. One DLI parent said, “I want to give my child a competitive advantage to succeed in the global economy. The job market is continuously changing but the need to communicate in multiple languages has not changed. Being biliterate helps my child communicate with their grandparents and will help them communicate in a future job.”

The innovative and exemplary AUHSD DLI Program is the first secondary (7th-12th) DLI programs in Orange County and one of the first in California. The AUHSD DLI program was honored and highlighted as a part of the Dual Language Immersion school site tours for the 2017 California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) Conference, where educators from all over California and the nation visited the classrooms and learned from our program. AUHSD has presented on DLI at numerous local, state and national conferences, such as the annual CABE conference, CSUF & CABE’s Secondary DLI Conference, CABE Pepperdine Chapter DLI Conference, and Redlands University’s Summer Institute on Leadership for Educational Justice. Educators have come as far as Hamilton High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have all thanked us for sharing our innovative DLI program. By design, the secondary Dual Language Immersion program is innovative and entails students learning in Spanish (or Vietnamese) and English each day where two to three classes are taught in the target language and the other classes are taught in English. Through a 50/50 model where students learn all subject matter standards in both languages 50% of the day, they have the opportunity to improve their academic and cultural proficiency skills.