Cohorts of younger Americans are more diverse than older Americans in essentially every way. , 70% of U.S. K–12 students were white, just shy of 10% were Latino, and not quite 3% were Asian or Pacific Islander. , U.S. K–12 enrollment was 44% white, 29% Latino, and 5% Asian or Pacific Islander. Similarly, , roughly 21% of school-aged children spoke a non-English language at home — , it was under 14%. Go younger, and linguistic diversity grows. , roughly 1 in 3 children under 5 years old spoke a non-English language at home. 

Our politics are badly lagging our educational reality. As I’ve written many times — echoing experts like demographers and (and ) —this new diversity is a huge advantage for the United States. However else you feel about the American present and future — particularly in light of the horrifying lies perpetuated against Ohio’s immigrant communities by the Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees — there’s no factual dispute about the benefits that immigrants bring to the country. Immigrants sustain growth in the U.S. economy and labor market (), which leads to greater public revenue via taxes. And all of this is to say nothing of the immense value of these children’s rich linguistic and cultural assets. 

But the extent of these benefits depends on schools’ abilities to take advantage of them — and American public education has plenty of room for improvement when it comes to supporting diverse kids. What’s the best way to help young and/or young kids who are still developing proficiency in both English and another language, known as ? It’s one of the most stable findings in education research: These kids uniquely benefit from early education programs. 

And yes, if you’re thinking, “surely pre-K programs are good for all kids,” you’re not entirely wrong. For years, economists, developmental psychologists, education researchers, and a wide range of advocates () have touted early education investments as a high-yield strategy for helping kids succeed. It’s true! have shown that access to high-quality early education programs helps improve short-term outcomes like for , as well as long-term outcomes like . 

And yet, recent research has provided a reminder that the success of educational interventions has more to do with implementation quality than with brand and good intentions. If high-quality pre-K can improve opportunities and outcomes for children, it’s also true that just because the public invests in early education (particularly in and ). 

For instance, recent research on Head Start has been somewhat mixed. The Head Start Impact Study produced some discouraging findings, with the academic bonuses for students “fading out” over time, but subsequent analyses have been more positive. , “Natural experiments of the effects of Head Start show that Head Start causes better , , and outcomes over the long term as a consequence of participation, though the effect sizes are smaller than those from the model programs.” 

But there is little research debate about early education program’s benefits for dual language learners. Indeed, even though found some discouraging overall outcomes for students, it still found that “non-native English speakers” showed stronger gains than other groups. 

Why? It’s simple: dual language learners appear to from early education programs because these programs give them an early start on English acquisition and sometimes provide them with . 

First, it appears that the earlier that these early ed students begin the process of learning English, the better they do in the long run. Pre-K programs that offer some instruction in English can help these kids get a jump on the expected five- to seven-year window that it takes for most students to reach proficiency in English — and when their brains are more neurologically flexible. Indeed, of the federal Head Start program found strong academic benefits for dual language learners, which appeared to be linked to early . 

Second, their native languages are powerful assets for these children in the long run. Early education programs are than K–12 schools to be staffed by bilingual teachers, which makes it easier for them to continue to develop their first languages and English simultaneously. that children who develop strong speaking and/or reading abilities in their native languages do better at learning English over time. It’s not yet clear exactly why this is, but it may be because their native language abilities often include transferable skills — stronger Spanish speakers and readers are also stronger users of verb tenses who better understand sentence structure and nuances of conveying meaning through language. 

In other words, dual language learners do best when we — when early education systems — prioritize their development in all the languages they’re learning. And notwithstanding the pull of backwards-looking discourse that in search of political gains, we all do better when young English learners —many of whom are children or grandchildren of immigrants — succeed at school. 

Lozano, an immigrant and former preschool teacher from Colombia who previously worked for UCLA’s , stresses the importance of belonging as a key to learning and personal growth. “I always tell moms, when you go and see a preschool, you’ll have this gut feeling that this is the right place for your child because it’s warm and its teachers are welcoming.” Part of that feeling includes books, songs and lessons in the language a child hears at home.

California’s current policies are increasingly supportive of DLLs, but this wasn’t always the case. Crolotte grew up speaking Portuguese and French, and learned English in public school. “At the time,” she recalls, “California wasn’t very welcoming of bilingualism.” Indeed, the state passed an “English-only” instruction law in 1998. The measure was finally , and the following year, California released its , with the report coming out soon after, declaring, “To better prepare students to succeed in the changing economy and to strengthen California’s own rich mixture of cultures and languages, California needs to vastly expand opportunities for students to learn a second and possibly even a third language.”

With research on the benefits of bilingualism becoming more widely accepted, Crolotte says, the path is clear for asset-based policies that support the youngest learners. The California Department of Education fully recognizes the science behind encouraging bilingualism in young children. In 2012, California became the first state to establish the , which recognizes proficiency in multiple languages.

Proclaiming, “The stroller is California’s first vehicle for upward mobility,” , released in 2020, builds on these asset-based policies and research, and sets out research-driven goals for educating young children whose families speak languages other than English.

Government reports are one thing; investment is another, so it was especially significant when Gov. Gavin Newsom included $5 million for training for DLLs and early childhood in 2018. Further funding aims at expanding the bilingual teacher pipeline. On Oct. 10, Gov. Newsom expanding the DLL identification process established in state preschool in 2021; it will now be implemented in general child care programs and Migrant Child Care Programs.

“Change takes state agencies, the legislature, and of course, advocates, parents and providers,” Lozano says, “but those who are making the decisions at the funding and programmatic level are the ones who pull the levers.” She credits Deputy Superintendent Sarah Neville-Morgan and California Department of Social Services’ Dr. Maria Guadalupe “Lupe” Jaime-Mileham and Kim Johnson for showing leadership and an inclusive spirit.

Early Edge and other advocacy groups in the state have found themselves in the somewhat unaccustomed position of realizing more of their agenda than they would have thought possible back in 2005, when they first started pushing the Preschool for All initiative. These victories, Lozano and Crolotte say, open the door to further possibilities for access and equity.

The expansion of California’s Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program makes preschool universal for 4-year-olds. Lozano sees this as a gateway for additional multilingual or dual immersion programs. Expanding bilingual programs that incorporate children’s home language, she says, provide the best support for DLLs, so they are able to reap the benefits of bilingualism and start on pathways that allow them to ultimately attain their state Seal of Biliteracy.

Unlike Texas, which has had a statewide mandate for bilingual education since 1973, California offers an uneven landscape, with some districts resisting bilingual education. “We have to figure out how to incentivize districts to support these types of programs,” Crolotte says.

Crolotte also envisions more work engaging families that speak languages other than Spanish. Los Angeles Unified School District, she says, has implemented Korean dual immersion programs, which starts in preschool and TK. First 5 LA’s , for example, promotes the benefits of bilingualism to families in Los Angeles. She adds that Westminster, which has a high population of Vietnamese speakers, not only starts early but also emphasizes culture as well as language. helped to secure $5 million for Asian language teacher expansion. “California has so many languages,” she says, “And it’s difficult to find qualified teachers, but research and our own experience show us it really matters to celebrate and promote bilingualism.”