Alicia R. Chacón International School
Chacón has a two way bilingual education program that is intended to teach Spanish-speaking students English and English-speaking students Spanish. Students may also take a third language; available third languages are Chinese, German, Japanese, French, and Russian. The bilingual education program was developed to encourage speakers of one language to retain their language and to also learn a second language at the same time. This differs from other bilingual programs in Texas, where non-English speaking students are expected to learn solely in English once they achieve a certain competency in English. As of 2009 Chacón has long waiting lists of students. Nate Blakeslee of Texas Monthly argued that other Texas school districts should use Chacón's bilingual program.
History
The school, which opened in 1995, was named after Mexican American politician and judge, Alicia R. Chacón. Its two-way bilingual program for kindergarten through grade 3 opened that year as part of the U.S. Department of Education-funded Project Mariposa ("Mariposa" means butterfly), an effort between different school districts. Each following year an additional grade level with bilingual education was established; in 2000 the school's first eighth grade class graduated.
In 1995 the school had 352 available spaces for students. By June 25, 1995 234 places were taken.
Curriculum
Students are expected to gain a high level of literacy in Spanish. As of 2009 early grades course content is primarily taught in Spanish, but in later grades English becomes the predominant language of instruction.
Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, French and Russian were to be offered in the coursework from the school's beginning.
Student body
As of 2001 95% of the students are Hispanic and Latino, and the remainder belong to other ethnicities.
References
- ^ Howard, Elizabeth. "The Alicia Chacón International School." Center for Applied Linguistics, DC. Retrieved on January 11, 2010.
- ^ Espino Calderón, Margarita and Minaya-Rowe, Liliana. Chapter 4: "Case Study: The Alicia R. Chacón International School." Designing and Implementing Two-Way Bilingual Programs. Corwin Press, January 22, 2003. ISBN 1483351858, 9781483351858. Start: 53. CITED: Start: 53. This confirms the presence of Chinese, German, Japanese, and Russian.
- ^ "District Staff Directory". Ysleta Independent School District. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
Teacher Foreign Lang French
- This source confirms the presence of French instruction. - ^ Blakeslee, Nate. "Dream of a Common Language. Sueño de un Idioma Común." Texas Monthly. September 2009. Retrieved on January 11, 2010.
- ^ "School Named After Chacon". El Paso Times. 15 June 1995. Retrieved 9 April 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Espino Calderón, Margarita and Minaya-Rowe, Liliana. Chapter 4: "Case Study: The Alicia R. Chacón International School." Designing and Implementing Two-Way Bilingual Programs. Corwin Press, January 22, 2003. ISBN 1483351858, 9781483351858. Start: 53. CITED: Start: 55.
- ^ Renteria, Ramon (1995-06-25). "Get in character". El Paso Times. pp. 1F–2F. - Clipping of first page (1F) and clipping of second page (2F) from newspapers.com
External links
- Official website
- Alicia R. Chacon Elementary School at the Wayback Machine (archive index)