HIGH POINT, N.C. — People who speak more than one language earn up to 20 percent more per hour. That's part of the reason dual-language programs are growing in Guilford County Schools. And Allen Jay Elementary in High Point has a unique program that's leading the nation in tailoring the curriculum to the families in their neighborhood.
In the last decade, North Carolina’s Asian population increased by 45 percent with an estimated 1,000 Pakistanis living in Guilford County according to UNCG researchers. Many settle right around Allen Jay Elementary in High Point.
“We have a growing Pakistani community in our neighborhood, so when we decided to open the Spanish-English dual-language program, we also thought about all the other students who were coming from a different country,” said Milay Alvarez, Allen Jay’s dual-language curriculum facilitator.
The school became one of the first in the country to offer a dual-language Urdu program with instruction half in English and half in the language from Pakistan.
“It's a way to embrace people who are coming from different countries around the world,” Alvarez said.
Teachers say the writing is on the wall that teaching students a second language sets them up for success. The kids in the program already have some of the highest test scores in the school.
“According to many researchers, learning a language from a young age helps expand the brain better,” Alzerez said. “It is important because it opens a new, different perspective of the world. It is telling people around that there are from other cultures, that there are other ways to see things, to be more tolerant, to be more open to diversity.”
And it helps the students maintain their roots while starting a new chapter for their family.
“So basically, in Pakistan, if we ever go to visit family or something, and a lot of people there speak Urdu and stuff, we won't understand them if we don't know it,” third-grader Fatima said. “It's very unique and has a lot of history.”
Right now there are about 90 students in the program, but it keeps growing. The school has even had families move from California to the Triad for this opportunity.