There is an energy across the country for dual-language programs and schools providing instruction in both English and a second language -- that language is typically Spanish, the second-most spoken language in the world.
The Dallas Independent School District believes it may have the largest number of dual-language campuses in the nation, with programs in all but eight of its elementary schools and continued expansion into secondary schools.
In one Dallas ISD kindergarten class, the students are learning the same material every other 5-year-old is learning around the country -- only this class is learning the lesson only in Spanish. Down the hall another kindergarten class is hard at work, too, but their teacher is instructing only in English.
On the next day of class, they'll switch languages.
It's like this every week at Dallas' Rosemont School, where true biliteracy is the goal for both elementary and middle school students.
"That's the whole point of the bilingual program, to have both your English-language learners, your Spanish speakers, learning in their native language alongside kids who only speak English," said Marco Barker, principal at Rosemont.
Here's how it works at Rosemont.
"On Monday, Wednesdays and Friday, we have Spanish-speaking days. On Tuesday and Thursdays are English-speaking days, so instructions are given in the designated language of the day," Barker said.
Some topics, though, are always taught in one language or the other.
Barker said students who start in kindergarten and remain at Rosemont through middle school have better academic outcomes compared to those at schools in the district without dual-language programs.
"It may take a little time to develop the language portion of it, but in terms of the content, concept, learning, thinking, processing in a different language, that's what they're acquiring in the program, so that's what enables them to actually dominate the other language. Not only being able to speak it, but actually think, read and process information in a second language, thus making them fluent," said Barker.
Ultimately, it empowers students and their communities and means more job opportunies. And, there are other, more subtle, benefits.
"That cultural awareness that brings by interacting daily with someone from a different language, from a different culture, so culturally you're a more well-rounded individual and it becomes a norm for our kids in teh dual language program," Barker said.
Eighth grader Mary Grace Bacsik is one of those students who started in kindergarten.
"I understand fluent Spanish and I can prepare things to say, maybe not right off the top of my head, but simple Spanish I can speak and I can understand basically anything," Bacsik said.
Her classmate, Alexis Matehuala, started Rosemont in sixth grade already speaking Spanish.
In dual-language programs, Spanish-speakers improve grammar, vocabulary and writing skills in their native language, while also developing bilingual proficiency.
"My vocabulary has improved more than I thought. I haven't used as many advanced words as i'm supposed to, but once I started using them, I become more fluent and better at my grammar skills," Matehuala said.
Rosemont is currently 76 percent Spanish-speakers and there's a waitlist to get into the program.
Bacsik's mother, Susan, has three of her children in the program at Rosemont.
"Having a 5-year-old connecting those neurons of a second language, just is incredible. It's so great and to have that as a consistent curriculum, starting from kinder through 8th grade, I think is incredible," Susan Bacsik said.
There are a number of successful dual language programs in North Texas, including one in the Garland ISD where Superintendent Dr. Ricardo Lopez told NBC 5 that studies proved bilingual students do better in school and in life.
"What studies have shown is that bilingual education for students that are properly biliterate, not just getting them exposure and getting them out quickly, outperform their counterparts because it functionally increases your congnative rates," said Lopez.
With more dual language programs on the way is a sign that this truly is the future of education in North Texas.
But many public and private schools across North Texas have programs in place or are in the process of phasing them in, with the additional challenge of recruiting Spanish-speaking teachers.
