The two-story building sits on top of the Berkeley hills, overlooking the San Francisco Bay. On the green grass and on the small playground children are laughing and playing catch. The scene is like many others on a school day at East Bay elementary schools. That is, until a child shouts the words “Fang mich” which means, “Get me” in German. The children continue to chase each other around the playground until their teacher calls out, “Die Pause is zuende. Kommt bitte wieder rein,” which translates as  “Break is over. Please come back inside.”

Twenty-six students are currently enrolled at the German International School in Berkeley (www.gissv.org). The Berkeley facility is the first satellite campus of the German International School of Silicon Valley, located in Mountain View. The school opened with a kindergarten class in 2007 and now includes first and second grade classes. One grade will be added each year to build the campus out to a full K through 5. The classrooms are colorful, and have a cozy atmosphere, providing children with a nurturing environment.

Class sizes are small, currently with about 8-10 children in each. Pamela Mead, marketing coordinator of the German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV), says that “small class sizes allow for a warm, personal environment that offers one-on-one and small group learning opportunities. With fewer students per class, teachers are able to individually track each student's progress and to work personally with each student to strengthen skills.”

"With public school systems facing severe budget cuts, there are fewer teachers per student. Weaker students are falling through the cracks and stronger students aren’t getting the extra support they need to excel," says Kirstin Paydo, the mother of a student at GISSV.

As a result, many families are turning to European and Asian based school philosophies that focus on high-standard bilingual education. “Our family is not planning on going back to Germany any time soon, but we do not want to miss the opportunity of giving our two sons the same outstanding education I enjoyed being a child in Germany. We are very happy that our son thrives in an environment of different nationalities, cultures and traditions and for sure he gets the best start in life one can hope for," Paydo explained.

Jie Moore, founder and head of Shu Ren International School in Central Berkeley says his school “provides a stimulating and fun environment where children are nurtured to become independent, open-minded and enthusiastic lifelong learners."

Shu Ren International School  (www.shureninternationalschool.com) opened in 2008 with five students. They have grown steadily and currently have 41 students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first, and second grades. As one of the first schools in the country to offer a Mandarin/English dual immersion program based on the International Baccalaureate Organization's curriculum framework, which offers high quality programs of international education to a worldwide community of schools, Shu Ren aims to meet the growing demand for high-quality Chinese language education, Moore said.

While in today’s economy tuition expense play a major role, many of the prices of bilingual schools are very competitive to other private schools, with tuition starting at around $10,500 annually. The opportunity to offer children a bilingual education seems compelling. Researchers at the Center for Research of Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) at the University of California, Berkeley found that a bilingual program for native English speakers produced higher levels of non-native language literacy and significantly higher levels of English literacy.

Bilingual education in a multi-cultural setting not only gives children a head start in language requirements for higher education, but also increases understanding and appreciation of people from other cultures. Bilingual students are truly global citizens, said Mead.

“We live in an era when facility in multiple languages is becoming more and more important in order to get ahead in a global environment,”  says Frédéric Canadas, Head of School of the East Bay French-American School Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley (www.eb.org). For 33 years the school has been providing a bilingual, international environment where children from preschool through eighth grade are cared for, stimulated, and challenged. Since opening their doors in 1977, enrollment has grown from 55 students to 525. “Succeeding in the 21st century will require new ways of thinking, strong language skills and an open mind. Bilingualism carries concrete advantages to success. Learning another language is a step towards joining the global community.”

Like GISSV, Shu Ren International School and Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley, there are other bilingual start-up schools offering classes for East Bay students including the Spanish bilingual immersion school, Escuela Bilingüe Internacional (EBI) that opened its campus in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland in 2006, offering a Spanish-English dual language program based on the highest international academic standards (www.ebinternacional.org).