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Dual-language school a model for others
By Conor Gilliland
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Photo by James Baca/DCR |
Two representatives from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles visited northwest Denver’s Escuela de Guadalupe Sept. 21-23 to gain insight into how dual-language immersion can work well in a Catholic school.
“We wanted to observe a successful model of dual-language immersion in the Catholic domain,” said Anne Bouvet, principal of All Souls School in Alhambra, Calif.
All Souls is one of two schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to be reopened as a dual-language immersion school.
“What would a program look like if we built it around the culture and community we want to serve?” said David Card, Escuela president, explaining the driving question behind the school’s formation.
In northwest Denver, the answer was the unique dual-language education provided at Escuela for the last 12 years. Other communities asking the same question have taken notice and are looking at the school as a model as they attempt to answer this question for themselves.
“As Escuela de Guadalupe is doing here, they’re looking at their community and seeing what the needs are. We are doing the same thing,” said Thomas Delgado, board member and educational consultant to All Souls.
According to Delgado, Alhambra has a significant Asian and Latino population, which means they will have to meet the needs of the community differently than the Denver model.
“We’ll have two strands,” Delgado said. “We’ll have a Spanish-English dual-language immersion and we’ll have a Mandarin-English dual-language immersion.”
He added that parents will be free to choose which strand their children follow.
The Los Angeles representatives were impressed by Escuela on several levels.
“The first thing I noticed was children engaged in learning everywhere,” said Bouvet. “At every grade level you see kids that are really demonstrating the success of the model.
“The kids are engaged, on task and content,” she added. “And that’s a big indicator of success.”
Bouvet and Delgado were especially impressed by the emphasis on social justice and accountability at the school. Indeed, the school was built on principles of social justice and meeting the needs of the community. Bouvet observed that this mentality has made its way into the curriculum.
“They have social justice in the forefront. From kindergarten on the children are learning to ask, ‘How can I help?’ and that is very much in line with our Catholic values,” Bouvet said. “Those things are hallmarks of Catholicism.”
In terms of accountability, the duo noted planning and communication as major strengths in Escuela’s model which they hope to emulate at All Souls.
“What I’m very impressed with and something I will take to the other school … is every teacher from kindergarten to fifth posts a syllabus outside their classroom for that week,” Bouvet said. “I noticed that immediately, because the accountability piece is so high.”
Delgado was similarly impressed with the transparency between various levels of operation.
“There’s that seamless communication between teacher, principal, administration, president—that they really know what the other one is doing in this school,” Delgado said. “This is something that I see as very important and a concept that needs to be brought back.”
Bouvet was getting ready to hold her first parent meeting and said she felt prepared after her visit to Escuela.
“I now feel much more comfortable about talking to parents about what language immersion in a Catholic school would look like,” she said. “Because I’ve seen it.”
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