A perennial point of curiosity among prospective parents—which can sometimes even linger for current parents—is whether Mandarin immersion comes at the expense of achievement in English. The great news from research—and from generations of CAIS students’ experiences—is that learning is not a zero sum game. In fact, learning in each language builds connections and pathways that support learning in the other. We see this borne out in a variety of ways with CAIS students; one data point that provides helpful perspective in the context of peer school comparison is the results from annual ERB tests of 4th-7th graders. These standardized tests gather information on students’ English verbal reasoning, reading comprehension, writing mechanics, and writing concepts and skills, as well as their quantitative reasoning and mathematics.
As we typically see each year, ERB results are one data point demonstrating the “bilingual bump” enjoyed by CAIS students, in which they outpace their monolingual peers by middle school in English reading, verbal, and writing skills. This spring 4th-7th grade parents joined English Curriculum Director Cristina Calcagno and an ERB testing consultant for a Zoom to learn more about the ERB CTP-5 assessment, which CAIS 4th-7th grade students took in late autumn this school year.
Our students are outperforming monolingual school peers in English, which underscores the findings that, over the course of elementary and middle school, dividing instructional time between two languages actually provides a gain in both.
2025 ERB Information Zoom for 4th-7th Grade Parents
2024-2025 Results
CAIS results are the blue bars in the graphs below, compared to the independent schools norm group in purple and the national median represented by the black dotted line. See 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade results below.
4th Grade ERB CAIS Results vs Other Independent Schools
5th Grade ERB CAIS Results vs Other Independent Schools
6th Grade ERB CAIS Results vs Other Independent Schools
7th Grade ERB CAIS Results vs Other Independent Schools
7th Grade Growth Over Three Years
CAIS is represented by the blue line, compared to the independent school norm group in purple.
