Purpose, Goals & Unique Qualities

• To develop high levels of communicative and academic second language proficiency
• To maintain and develop primary language skills
• To develop average to superior progress in all curricular areas
• To develop an understanding, positive attitudes and acceptance of oneself, as well as the diversity of languages and cultures represented in the community
  
  

The Dual Language Enrichment school wide methodologies implemented by Academia, logically have unique elements guiding its implementation. First and foremost among these unique qualities are the linguistic character, history and needs of the community we are serving. According to Los Angeles Unified School District school profiles published on their website[2], most schools in the East Los Angeles area serve close to or above 60-70% Spanish language speakers (ELL's). Moreover, based on our informed judgment and experience we believe that the majority of the 30-40% English language speakers (EO's) have family members, often their own parents, who speak Spanish as a primary language as well. In addition, a significant number of Mexican families in Los Angeles also speak a native language as a maternal language, others as a second language and yet others as their only language. The presence of this linguistic diversity adds depth and strength to the Dual Language Enrichment program at Academia.

Academia embraces our community's linguistic diversity in several ways. Academia has adapted the 90-10 model of Dual Immersion in order to include English-speaking students at different levels of English fluency. In other words, Chicano families (Mexican families with more than one generation of residency in the U.S.) who have lost Spanish fluency can enroll their children in our school in order to learn their maternal language and English. Our school's experience has shown that through our model our students are gaining English fluency at a faster pace than their peers in surrounding schools. Moreover, multilingual education has demonstrated increased cognitive ability among children in recent neurological research. Although often questioned in the United States, multilingual education is the norm around the world, and placing many monolingual American students at a competitive disadvantage in the twenty-first century.