Seven additional schools will offer the two-way dual language program this school year, providing more opportunities for students to learn to read, write and speak in two languages.
In this program, English speakers can learn Spanish and Spanish speakers can learn English. Students grow to become biliterate and bilingual while gaining high academic achievement and cross-cultural competence. Dallas ISD now has 68 schools that offer the two-way dual language program.
Over the course of a day in a two-way dual language program, students that speak and students that are learning to speak English are taught together certain subjects (such as science) in Spanish and other subjects (such as math) in English. The classrooms aim to have a fairly even split of students who speak English and are learning to speak English.
“These students can think like a scientist in Spanish, then turn around and solve a complicated math problem in English: it just blows you out of the water to watch,” said Cloris Rangel, the Dallas ISD Director of Dual Language Programs. “Being bilingual and biliterate gives these students a huge leg up not just in school, but in their lives well beyond graduation.”
Campuses to start offering the two-way dual language program for 2019-2020:
- Montessori Academy at Onesimo Hernandez
- John W. Carpenter Elementary
- Trinity Heights School for the Talented and Gifted
- Mark Twain School for the Talented and Gifted
- Frederick Douglass Elementary
- Sam Houston Elementary
- Bethune Elementary
H.S. Thompson Elementary will also offer the program when the school reopens, scheduled for January 2020.
