Dual-Language Immersion Education at Scale - An Analysis of Program Costs, Mechanisms, and Moderators

Oct 15, 2026

Dual-language immersion education at scale is analyzed using input and outcome data from a randomized study of dual-language immersion programs in an urban district. The analysis tests mediating relationships among dosage, expenditures, and classroom characteristics affecting students’ academic performance, while also assessing how moderators tied to students’ race and ethnicity influence effects. Differential immersion costs appear concentrated at the district level and remain modest (about 2%–4% of per-pupil spending annually). An added US$100 per immersion student is linked to improved language arts performance, with no generalizable race/ethnicity effects reported.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Differential costs and outcomes

Research on DLI Education

Economic and cognitive rationales

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis September 2018, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 420–445 DOI: 10.3102/0162373718779457 © 2018 AERA. [http://eepa.aera.net](http://eepa.aera.net) Dual-Language Immersion Education at Scale: An Analysis of Program Costs, Mechanisms, and Moderators Jennifer L. Steele American University Robert O. Slater American Councils for International Education Jennifer Li RAND Corporation Gema Zamarro University of Arkansas Trey Miller American Institutes for Research Michael Bacon Portland Public Schools Using input and outcome data from a randomized study of dual-language immersion programs in an urban district, we examine the mediating relationships of dosage, expenditures, and classroom characteristics to students’ academic performance, and the moderating role of students’ race/ethnicity. Differential costs of immersion were concentrated at the district level and were modest, at about 2% to 4% of per-pupil spending annually. We estimate that an additional US$100 spent per immersion student in a given year was associated with an additional 8% of a standard deviation in language arts performance in English, which was just over one third of the causal point-in-time enrollment effect of 22% of a standard deviation. We find no generalizable evidence of differential effects by race/ethnicity. Keywords: economics of education, educational policy, finance, language comprehension/development, bilingual/bicultural, urban education, econometric analysis, experimental design Introduction In evaluations of individuals’ responses to behavioral interventions, randomized studies are considered the gold standard. Because they remove, in expectation, both unobserved and observed differences between treatment and control groups, randomized studies can eliminate concerns about selection bias that otherwise thwart studies of interventions—medical, behavioral, educational, and so on—to which people have some control over their own exposure. Of course, many social science interventions are multifaceted. Although random assignment to multifaceted interventions may allow researchers to estimate their causal effects, additional work is needed to illuminate the mechanisms by which such effects may be produced. Understanding the effects of randomization on access to intervention components or contexts can shed light for policymakers on how programs are being implemented in the real world, and on the resources involved. Ideally, evaluations of randomized policies or Dual-Language Immersion Education at Scale interventions should go beyond the question of whether they work into an exploration of why, and at what cost. This article considers these questions in the context of a district-wide school choice option focused on delivering a bilingual educational experience. Specifically, dual-language immersion (DLI) programs are programs in which students receive general academic instruction in two languages from early grades onward. In our context, they include both two-way programs, in which at least one third of students in a classroom are native speakers of each of the two classroom languages (in the United States, typically English and a “partner” language), and oneway programs, in which most students in the classroom are native speakers of English who are immersed in a non-English “partner” language. A key objective of both types of programs is to produce students who are bilingual and biliterate, regardless of their first language (Fortune, 2012) . Research on DLI Education Once considered niche, DLI programs are becoming more widespread. In just a few years, the number of programs operated under the DLI rubric nationwide has likely reached at least 2,000, as California, Delaware, Louisiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Utah have implemented programs.1 In large cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, DLI programs are steadily growing in number. The New York Cit

FAQs

What does the study examine in dual-language immersion programs?

It examines how dosage, expenditures, and classroom characteristics relate to student academic performance, and how these relationships may be moderated by students’ race/ethnicity.

How large are the differential costs of immersion programs?

Costs are described as concentrated at the district level and modest overall, at roughly 2% to 4% of per-pupil spending annually.

What cost-outcome relationship is reported for language arts performance?

The authors estimate that an additional US$100 spent per immersion student in a given year is associated with an additional 8% of a standard deviation in English language arts performance.

Oct 15, 2026

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