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The Transitional Bilingual Program utilizes Spanish as the primary language of instruction from kindergarten through grade 3. The mission of this program is to transition Spanish-speaking students into mainstream classrooms by the third grade. In kindergarten, 90 percent of the instruction is provided in Spanish and the remaining 10 percent is done in English. As the students matriculate through grades one, two and three, the percentage of Spanish instruction is gradually reduced and English is increased by 10 percent. Afterwards, gradually adhering to the transition of the students to instruction in English, the goals are to facilitate the content classes, to develop their literary abilities, and to get students to become fluent in their own native language. This method will facilitate a transition from the Spanish into English language in a less stressful way for the students.

The Dual Language Immersion Program is based on a two-way immersion educational model. This model stresses the following:

• High academic proficiency in two languages
• High academic achievement
• Mastery of the state’s content standards
• Multiculturalism
• Life skills
• Community service

In the area of language arts, the goal is for students to speak, read, and write fluently in both English and Spanish as measured by the state standardized assessments and teacher-developed assessments.

Students in the program have the same access to the academic core curriculum as those children educated in an English only setting. The benefit is that, in addition, the students receive second language instruction.