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Feb 25, 2009 4:31 pm US/Central
Dual-Language DISD Program Draws Many
Wait List Grows As Does DISD Dual-Language Program Popularity
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A Dallas school district program is getting an "A-plus" from parents. In fact, it's so popular with some parents that there's a waiting list for the 2009-2010 school year.
Irma Delaguardio provides a 'double-dose' of teaching, since she teaches math in English and science in Spanish, for her five and six-year-old students.
For parents like Andrea Nayfa, who once considered placing her son Luke in a private school, the dual language option was the primary reason for choosing to send her son to Withers Elementary.
"Yes, I have one [child] in private school, but this program is offering something equivalent to that; because of the Spanish," Nayfa explained.
Some 20 schools in the Dallas Independent School District participate in the 'two-way language' program. The academic concept allows children to receive their daily work in dual languages.
The program has been so successful at Withers that there is already a waiting list for the 2009-2010 school year. Parents have already filled the allotted seat for two kindergarten dual language classes.
"It doesn't surprise me at all. Why would a parent not choose to have their child in a program where they receive all of the curriculum, taught in an interesting, rigorous way? And oh by the way, they're also learning it in Spanish," said Withers Principal Anita Hardwick.
The program also benefits students with limited English skills; sixty-percent of the students at Withers are part of that population.
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