The Twain Dual Language Academy in the San Antonio Independent School District is being held up as a blueprint for multilingual education by the U.S. Department of Education, with its wall-to-wall dual language model and high achievement standards being touted during a visit Wednesday.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was greeted by a school mariachi band as he entered the campus that’s north of downtown Wednesday morning. After speaking to the students in Spanish, he told teachers and administrators that the greeting was indicative of the important embrace of culture at the school, which is run in collaboration with UTSA.
“To me [that] is more than just music,” he said. “It’s an affirmation of who they are.”
School administrators, teachers and a parent held a roundtable discussion in which they discussed the shift in education in recent years from bilingual education — which focuses primarily on English proficiency — to dual language education, which focuses on learning subjects and skills in both English and Spanish (or another language).
“Students are not only learning content, but they’re learning that they matter,” he said. “That what they bring to the table is an asset, not a deficit.”
That mindset has been transformational for the Twain community, which was a failing campus under the old approach, with students and parents viewing their native language as a handicap, according to Esmeralda Alday, the executive director of dual language for SAISD
“There was no pride,” Alday said. “There was shame because ‘my language and culture are a handicap.’”
Within years of the shift to dual language, however, the school received an A rating, and biliteracy started to be viewed as an upper hand rather than an obstacle.
That “flipping of the script” and the broader focus on multilingualism are part of a recently launched agenda by the Department of Education to “Raise the Bar: Lead the World.”
The point of the agenda, he said, is to raise the educational expectations and achievements of students in America, so that future graduates are able to compete on the global stage.
Without an adequate education, pathways to higher education and multilingual offerings, Cardona said the next generation will have less of a competitive edge in an increasingly global marketplace.
Value of first language
The multilingual approach at Twain builds on the strengths and past knowledge students have in their native language, Cardona said, instead of allowing those skills to fade and offering the same language years later as an elective in high school.
“Let’s value what they bring to the table,” he said.
The number of dual language programs has grown substantially over the years in SAISD, with 62 out of the district’s approximately 100 campuses holding some dual language offerings.
Irving and Twain dual language academies both have dual language in every classroom.
Much of that expansion has happened under the leadership of board president Christina Martinez, who spoke with Cardona about the role a governing body can play in shifting districts toward dual language models.
In addition to long-standing issues with shortages of bilingual teachers, Martinez said families in the community were hesitant to embrace the dual language model, at first.
“What we were trying to do was convince the community that was the way to go, which was a mind-shift change,” she said. “I remember specifically this area, families questioning why we want to teach Spanish when they already knew Spanish.”
The focus was educating parents on the benefits of biliteracy and bicultural education, she said.
Those challenges have been replicated as dual language programs expand to more schools, she said.
David García, the principal of Twain for the last seven years, said that is also an ongoing education for parents.
“Every single year, we put on something called Parent University so that our parents, our monolingual English speakers, as well as our Spanish speakers truly understand the purpose of the program and how we go about educating a child in both languages,” he said. “After that … we get full support and trust because they really get it.”
The focus on cultural literacy has also been key in hiring and training teachers to fit into the program, according to García and Alday.
In dual-language environments, students who speak English as a primary language are also in classes learning to become proficient in Spanish.
But without a focus on culture, the bicultural benefits could be lost, Alday said.
“If we don’t have that component, we may have teachers that speak perfect Spanish and may cater to the English-speaking students with blonde hair and blue eyes,” she said. “The danger of gentrifying our program is … very real.”
A lifetime of learning English
Superintendent Jaime Aquino shared his story with Cardona as the two walked the halls of Twain from classroom to classroom, watching students learn and converse in English and Spanish.
“This is a passion of mine because I am an immigrant from the Dominican Republic,” he said.
In a third-grade math class, Cardona spoke with children before giving them chocolate coins.
The two also stopped in a science class where seventh-grade students were learning about the meaning behind different types of heartbeats, measuring their own and that of Cardona.
The round table took place in a bright library decorated with colorful paper flowers and ceiling titles decorated by students with their favorite book covers.
“The students here are, in my opinion, better prepared than most students across the country,” Cardona said. “Because they’re in an environment that sees them for who they are and sees that as an asset.”
Aquino said his life-long journey has featured breakthroughs and drawbacks related to his learning of English as a second language. Before coming to SAISD just over a year ago, he said he felt held back by his pronunciation of words and sounds in the English language.
“I’ve lived my life, though I’ve been successful, like I was not good enough to lead an educational system,” he said. “This is the first time that under this board and under this city, I have been embraced to be as my authentic self.”
