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The Bilingual/Biculture Program:
Mission
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) recognizes the importance of providing equal educational opportunities to language minority students. The Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program provides linguistically- and culturally-distinct students with an opportunity to experience early academic success in their first language while learning English as a second language. This program is an educational process that enhances language skills acquisition and fosters basic skills development. In addition, a multicultural environment is created where students’ appreciation for their own and other cultures is encouraged. Community and parent involvement is pertinent to the effectiveness of the program.
The Bilingual/Bicultural program at Pulaski High School is designed to ensure that language minority students become fluent and literate in English. It also stresses retention and development of a child's primary language and use of that language as a vehicle or medium for exploring and acquiring a second language.
The Bilingual/Bicultural Program promises to help improve human relations in our community and contribute to a mutually respectful and creative society.
The goals set for the students in the Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program are essentially the same as those set for students in mainstream schooling. MPS and Pulaski High School have the following goals for the students in their bilingual program:
- To enable students to achieve full proficiency and literacy in English.
- To enable students to acquire basic and higher order thinking skills for achieving in school and beyond.
- To help students develop a self-concept.
- To help students to successfully graduate and make an effective transition to higher education, work and community life.
The Pulaski High School Bilingual Program uses the traditional Developmental (Maintenance) model. This program builds on each student’s native language skills to develop full English language proficiency in curricular areas.
The traditional Developmental program strengthens the child’s sense of cultural identity and affirms the rights of an ethnic minority group in a nation, while acquiring and developing proficiency in English.
Background
In 1969, the MPS Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program was one of 64 bilingual education programs to be funded under Title VII, ESEA. The MPS program began at Vieau Elementary, South Division High School and Lincoln Junior/Senior High School.
The MPS Bilingual/Bicultural Education Program, one of the first in the nation, is founded on these legislative landmarks:
1974 - U.S. Supreme Court Decision, Lau vs. Nichols: Special educational services must be provided by the schools to ensure a high quality of educational opportunity for language minority students.
1976 - The State of Wisconsin passed the Bilingual Education Act (Chapter 115, Subsection VI), mandating school districts in the State with 10 or more limited English-speaking students in grades K-3 or 20 in grades 4-12 to begin transitional bilingual/bicultural programs.
Enrollment
The program is voluntary. Parents must sign a consent form for their children to participate in the program. The program is primarily designed to meet the educational needs of students for whom English is not a first language and who come from environments where the dominant language is other than English.
In keeping with the MPS policy of giving parents options for their children's education, the program is open to:
- newly arrived non-English speaking students.
- students of limited English speaking ability.
- students whose parents would like them to maintain and develop the language they bring from home.
- English speaking students whose parents have had a clear explanation of the program and who would like to have their children develop skills in two languages and an appreciation for more than one culture.
The guidelines for enrollment are:
- Kindergarten and lower primary: open to all students.
- Middle primary to grade five: open to students who have a background in English and Spanish. These students should be reading at grade level in English.
- Junior and senior high school levels: all Spanish background students and also English-dominant students who have completed two years of Spanish.
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