About three-fourths of the students at Mountain View Elementary School is of Armenian heritage. In this regard, Armenian dual-immersion program was included into teaching program for the first graders.
Armenian becomes one of main teaching languages at LA elementary school
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 16, ARTSAKHPRESS:Last year, Mountain View launched a pilot program with two kindergarten classes. Students spent half their time in a classroom in which their teacher spoke only Armenian to them and half their time in an English-speaking classroom, Los Angeles Times reported.
Over 80 students are included into the program. About 5,500 L.A. Unified students start school speaking mostly Armenian. Some parents whose children speak English still want them to study in the dual-language program “so that they will feel more connected to their heritage.”
According to the director of the school, the program helped to increase the number of students from 360 to 395.
