Teaching languages to young children may improve math, reading test scores.

Teacher Magazine (11/7, Manzo) reported, "Thousands of" Glastonbury (Connecticut) Public School District's "students have built proficiency in" languages ranging from Spanish to Mandarin Chinese, beginning as early as second grade. The language program "is now viewed as a model for meeting the demand for graduates with language skills and an understanding of other countries and cultures." At a time when many schools are "beefing up instruction in mathematics, reading, and to a lesser extent, science, to meet the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act," many schools are reluctant to add language classes for young children. But advocates believe that foreign language skills are rapidly growing vital in a globalized economy, and that students learn languages more easily in elementary school than in later years. "Several research studies since the 1990s have concluded that elementary pupils learning a foreign language performed better on standardized tests in math and reading than their peers who were not in such classes."

From the Open Bell email, an affiliate of USAToday