BELIEFS AND PHILOSOPHY:

• Effective programs have at their heart the desire to serve all participants and improve their current and future experiences in the academic, social, emotional, and cognitive arenas.

• Effective instruction is rooted in the careful attention to individual learner needs, learning styles, personalities, and cultural and linguistic background(s).

• Effective instruction delivers expected content to the student while being personally relevant and cognitively challenging.

• No two students learn exactly the same way and at exactly the same pace, but all students can be academically successful and demonstrate gains in learning.

• Ethnic and linguistic heritage is valued and promoted for students’ improved understanding of themselves and the world around them; no language or set of cultural norms is inferior or superior to another.

• Assessment of individual learners and entire programs is essential for feedback regarding the successful attainment of program goals; the impact of program implementation on the community, school, and individual students; the success of students in mastering the curriculum; and students’ success in attaining bilingual proficiency and biliteracy.

• All students respond favorably to high expectations; all teachers are aware of the expectations they hold for their students and communicate high expectations to them.

Effective instruction has at its heart the whole child. To effectively educate any child, every aspect of their development must be taken into consideration: academic, social, emotional, cognitive. A child’s cultural heritage, family context, and language background are an essential and valuable part of their academic persona, and as such play a vital part in their educational success. Therefore, it is the philosophy of this program that education focused on additive bilingualism is both empowering and affirming for students of diverse linguistic backgrounds. The successful development of bilingualism and biliteracy can be effectively accomplished in a cognitively engaging, intrinsically interesting, and academically successful classroom. Such classrooms are characterized by student-centered, individualized activities and learning experiences that enrich them cognitively, support them emotionally, and prepare them academically, while developing the highest quality language skills.