Bilingual Education at the Kremen School

The Joyce M. Huggins Center was first established in 1994 and the Spanish Dual Immersion preschool classroom opened its doors in August 2014. The objective of the program is to provide a comprehensive early education and child development program in a Spanish/English language immersion preschool classroom by following a 90/10 Spanish/English model. Spanish is spoken by the teachers 90% of the time and English 10% of the time, while children are able to respond in either language with the eventual goal of fluency in both languages.

The center partners with the Fresno Unified School District-in regards to placements from preschool to Kindergarten. The program is funded in a variety of ways, some of which being through CSPP Contracts for subsidized families through CDE, Child Care Access Means Parents In School, Full Fee families tuition, student referendum fees, Early Stars (QRIS funds), and the Fansler Grant. The program serves Fresno State families (students, faculty and staff) with children that are 2.8 years old to 5.0 years old. Their goal is to have 50% of the families enrolled speak Spanish at home. The capacity of the classroom is 24 children.The program helps preserve the heritage language learner's home language and strengthen their cultural identity. It also helps promote non-heritage language learners' development of a second language.