Maintenance

**Maintenance Bilingual Education**

Purpose: help language minority students preserve and enhance their primary language while becoming fully proficient in oral and written English

Program Goals:
 * 1) full bilingualism
 * 2) biliteracy for English learners

Characteristics:
 * students are taught in their home language for at least 40% of the time in elementary school
 * founded on the idea that it is most effective for students to be exposed to their home language for language before the class becomes Engilsh-only.

Strengths:
 * Offers sociocultural benefits for language minority students.
 * Cognitive–academic language proficiency is developed.
 * Continued development in two languages.
 * Students receive substantial language support in their native language.