Dual Language and Global Education at Elon Elementary Leads to Student Success

For the past two years, the Alamance-Burlington School System (ABSS) has partnered with Participate Learning and the state of North Carolina to address challenges commonly faced by schools offering dual language programs.

Schools with dual language programs sometimes encounter a “school within a school” dynamic, where only select classrooms benefit from the program’s language and cultural opportunities. This can create disparities in access to enriched learning experiences.

A Unified Approach at Elon Elementary

“We had great programs, great teaching and learning taking place, but we kind of felt like something was missing,” said Principal Jack Davern. “So we started exploring and expanding, and we found our approach to putting a global lens on our standards, enriching our environment and what was happening in the classroom.”

Led by Principal Davern, Elon Elementary and ABSS Superintendent Bill Harrison began integrating global themes, teacher training, and classroom lessons across the entire school. This ensured that all students and teachers received meaningful global experiences, regardless of whether they were in dual language classrooms.

Enhancing Learning Through Global Themes

“As we got more into it, we realized that the [global components] were a vehicle for teaching the standards and for really engaging students in the curriculum,” said Sue Cauley, academic coach at Elon Elementary.

The addition of global education helped unify Elon Elementary’s students, teachers, and parents, creating a cohesive and enriched learning environment. Inspired by this success, ABSS expanded the model to its other five dual language sites, where similar positive outcomes have been observed.

Bringing Global Perspectives to Your School

Interested in learning more about how dual language programs can incorporate global perspectives to enhance learning for all students? Download Participate Learning’s ebook: Building Bilingual Education Programs.