El Camino del Río Elementary School

Mission Statement: Students in the El Camino del Río Dual Language Program will be bilingual, biliterate and culturally responsive. Students will exhibit high academic achievement in all content areas in both languages.

Program Description: River Road/El Camino del Río is a two-way immersion program initiated in 2009. Two-way immersion offers a unique opportunity in 4J for native English and Spanish speakers to work together to become bilingual and biliterate. Research tells us that students in dual immersion programs ultimately earn equal or higher test scores than their single-language counterparts. ELL students outperform their English-only peers on tasks that require problem-solving, metacognition and patterning.

Students learn to read in Spanish and English simultaneously. Their day is evenly divided between Spanish and English in all grade levels. English and Spanish language arts are taught every day for an hour each. Math and Caring for Kids social skills is taught for one hour and twenty minutes a day in Spanish. Science, social studies, and PE are taught in English. Music is taught in Spanish most days. Classrooms are designed to be a balance of native Spanish speakers (33%), bilingual speakers of Spanish and English (33%), and native English speakers (33%).

School Improvement Goals:

• Bilingualism and biliteracy: Students will develop a high level of oral and written proficiency in both Spanish and English
• Academic excellence: Students will achieve academic excellence in all subject areas, meeting or exceeding district and state performance standards
• Cross-cultural understanding and the development of pro-social skills: Students will develop positive attitudes toward other la