Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools

The Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools (TWIN-CS) advances the Catholic tradition of academic excellence by empowering Catholic schools to systemically transform from a monolingual to multilingual educational model in the service of vibrant culturally diverse populations, with fidelity to the mission of Catholic education. This initiative, grounded in the research and leadership of Boston College faculty and other university researchers from around the country, implements and assesses models of dual-language immersion in Catholic school classrooms around the United States.  

 

About

As the United States continues to grow more diverse culturally and linguistically, there is heightened awareness of the needs of our various communities. This is particularly true within Catholic schools, which have experienced a great deal of growth linguistically and ethnically in recent years. Many of these students require support financially as well, despite limited resources in the schools themselves.

The Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools (TWIN-CS) is unique in its approach to dual language instruction. Building upon the long-successful tradition of language instruction in Catholic schools, the TWIN-CS (or ‘the Network’) is a national initiative to share research, ideas, techniques, and resources to enable some of the most socially and economically challenged students to become bilingual and biliterate. This deliberate, intentional, and dynamic incorporation of twelve Catholic elementary schools from across the United States was forged into practice during the 2013 Summer Academy held in Massachusetts.

Teacher and Student Reading

While two-way immersion and dual language instruction has been utilized in a number of educational settings for many years, the Network provides an innovative manner of supporting teachers and schools to enhance student achievement. Participation in the Network requires a great deal of input from the schools, while providing extensive support from university researchers and TWIN experts. It is this creative structure of the Network that helps the schools achieve success.

Meet the Design Team
 

History

TWIN-CS began in January 2013 with a cohort of 12 schools across 11 states; 10 were building Spanish-English programs, one Mandarin-English, and one both Spanish-English and Mandarin-English. Today, membership includes 19 member schools. 

 

Interested in becoming a TWIN school? Contact Dr. Melodie Wyttenbach at wyttenba@bc.edu

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