In the fall of 2023, Shreveport will welcome its first French immersion school in Fairfield  Magnet Elementary School. The first classes to open will be kindergarten and 1st grade, all with francophone native-speaker teachers. After that, two classes will open each year. Shreveport was the only major city in Louisiana without a French immersion school until now.   

As a teacher and parent, Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy (Associate Professor of French and  Francophone Studies at Centenary) feels the immersion school is “a necessity” and "long overdue" as Louisiana has an important French cultural background that needs to be cherished. 

Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy was even surprised that the project evolved so quickly. It  "exceeded her expectations." She considers the program a major opportunity for the city of  Shreveport, which badly needs this kind of school. She is grateful that her son will be able to enter this school in a few years. 

As a new professor in town seven years ago, she could not put any project into action as she did not have the bandwidth to engage twenty-five families in petitioning for an immersion school. The law states that if 25 families ask for an immersion school, the parish must do everything possible to open one. Most people don’t know about this law or that there is an opportunity to open that kind of school in the state of Louisiana.  

Last year, Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy, accompanied by Dr. Dana Kress (Executive Director of the Centenary College of Louisiana Press and Professor of French) and a French immersion teacher, presented her case to the Parish School Board of Shreveport. Don Little, the representative for District 4 (Caddo Parish), assisted her in that process by giving her access to the superintendent and facilitating the meeting. The School Board spent nearly a year studying the question. They also asked about opening an immersion school for Spanish, because of  Texas proximity, or Chinese instead of a French one: "Which would be the more relevant for  Shreveport? " Afterward, the board visited an immersion school in Lafayette and listened to several testimonials. The visits convinced them that an immersion school would be good for the city of Shreveport.   

About history…  

In 1916, the state of Louisiana established compulsory schooling. Children were not allowed to speak French at school and were even punished for doing so. Since 1983, French immersion schools have been popping up all around the south of Louisiana, especially in Lafayette and  New Orleans. There were 5200 students enrolled in immersion schools as of 2019.

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