Monday, April 16, 2007

Jefferson County's Hawthorne Elementary and Fayette County's Maxwell Elementary show Bilingual success

Hawthorne's bilingual program, where 200 students are taught in Spanish for half the school day and in English the other half, is one of only two of its kind in Kentucky.

The other is at Maxwell Elementary in Lexington.

Since adopting the programs, both schools have seen their test scores increase dramatically.

"When we first started it, people were afraid that the students wouldn't do well," Hawthorne teacher Flora Martinez said. Hawthorne's scores have risen more than 30 points to 95.6 on the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System since it began the program in 2002.

And Maxwell has seen its scores climb 11 points to 100 since 1999.

At both schools, math and science are taught in Spanish and reading and social studies are taught in English.

This from the Courier-Journal.

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