City to add or expand 40 dual-language programs

Twenty-five schools will add dual-language programs this fall, and 15 more will expand their programs, Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced Wednesday.

The programs will be supported by $1 million in federal funds, and will include instruction in French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish. The 25 new programs, part of Fariña’s broader effort to improve instruction for English language learners, will continue a steady expansion of dual-language offerings for the city.

Fariña has said for months that she planned to expand dual-language programs, but the announcement, made at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters, provided the first concrete details about the effort. Twenty-three of the 40 new and expanding programs are in elementary schools, 13 are in middle schools, and three will be in high schools, according to city officials. 

“My hope is to double and triple the number of schools involved in bilingualism and biculturalism,” Fariña said in September.

The city operates more than 480 bilingual programs, but only a subset of those are dual-language, in which instruction is in both English and the second language with the goal of making all students bilingual. Those programs have been increasing in popularity, especially among parents who otherwise might seek out gifted and talented programs for their students.

The city had 90 dual-language programs in 2011, added 33 more between 2011 and 2012, and another 29 opened in 2013, according to city reports. Still, the vast majority of the city’s English language learners, who account for one in seven students in the city school system, have been in classrooms that focus on English-language instruction. 

Fariña’s new director of the the office of English Language Learners, Milady Baez, is an expert in dual-language education, and the city agreed to increase enrollment in bilingual programs in a November pact with state officials.

The move comes as recent graduation rates from English language learners dropped from 41.5 percent to 32.5 percent from 2010 to 2014, even as overall graduation rates rose.

Here’s the list of schools launching or expanding their dual-language programs in fall 2015:

Bronx

  • PS 333, the Museum School
  • PS 53, Basheer Quisim
  • The Family School
  • Samara Community School
  • PS 469
  • Bronx Aerospace High School
  • PS 721 Stephen McSweeney School
  • MS 223 The Laboratory of Finance and Technology
  • MS 390
  • PS 186 Walter J. Damrosch School

Brooklyn

  • PS 319
  • PS 18, Edward Bush
  • PS 147 Isaac Remsen
  • PS 249 The Caton School
  • PS 375 Jackie Robinson School
  • PS 345 Patrolman Robert Bolden
  • PS 90 Edna Cohen School
  • IS 68 Isaac Bildersee
  • IS 228 David A. Booty
  • IS 281 Joseph Cavallaro
  • The School for International Studies

Manhattan

  • PS Anna Silver
  • The Bilingual Bicultural School
  • PS 206 Jose Celso Barbosa
  • Dos Puentes Elementary School
  • A. Philip Randolph Campus High School
  • MS 131
  • MS 319 Maria Teresa
  • MS 326 Writers Today & Leaders Tomorrow
  • PS 188 The Island School

Queens

  • PS 228 Early Childhood Magnet School of the Arts
  • PS 19 Marino Jeantet
  • PS 110
  • PS 212
  • Waterside School for Leadership
  • MS 72 Catherine & Count Basie
  • IS 230
  • PS 127 Aerospace Science Magnet

Staten Island

  • PS 22 Graniteville
  • IS 51 Edwin Markham