PK - 12 Schools
Languages:
- Chinese Mandarin,Spanish
PreK-K | Washington, DC Public Schools | District school
District school
Oyster Adams Bilingual School
Washington, DC, District of Columbia 20009
Oyster-Adams is a national flagship for bilingual education Institute Background
At the heart of Oyster-Adams and the key to our success is our schoolwide dual-language program, developed and improved over 50 years. We are the longest-standing such program in DC and one of the oldest in the nation where students outperform comparable monolingual schools on annual assessments and where we are proving that opportunity and achievement gaps must and will be closed. Oyster-Adams is a national flagship for bilingual education that prominent researchers have studied and featured as a leading example of dual-language excellence. We know that all students, regardless of race, class, gender, or circumstance, can achieve bilingually at high levels, and it is our firm (research-based) belief that a high-quality bilingual education can work for any child and help close achievement gaps for our most marginalized populations. Our dual-language model includes all aspects of our academic, socio-emotional, cultural, parent engagement, and data-driven programs are bilingual. For K-5, we teach math entirely in Spanish and science entirely in English. Specials such as library, technology, music, art, and physical education are in Spanish, per our PK-8 language allocation plan. We offer intervention and special education services in both languages. Even some sports teams are coached entirely in Spanish.
For our achievement and our progress, Oyster-Adams has been recognized as setting a standard of excellence and equity, earning us two National Blue Ribbons (2006 & 2020). But we find the greatest validation of our model and our efforts in the life-changing moments our students experience. We know our strategies for excellence and equity are working when newcomer ELL students who arrived here as unaccompanied minors assume a position of "expert" for at least half of the day, and everyone knows that our learning community is successful because of and not in spite of them.
- Access
- Accountability
- Keys to Access & Accountability
Improve Access for all learners in more languages
Actively Recruit HULs
Yes
Strategies to Recruit HULs
Local recruitment campaigns targeting specific communities or learners
Increase Accountability by effectively meeting all learner needs
Assess Language Outcomes
- Advanced National Evaluation of World Languages
Emphasize in Language Program
- Cultural Literacy
- Intercultural Competence
- Social-Emotional Learning
- Usage/immersion learning (teaching content through the target language)
Certain aspects of programming help ensure both Access and Accountability and merit more specific inquiry, including Teaching, Immersion Learning, and Partnerships.
Immersion Experience HULs
Yes
Institution Information
Urbanicity
Urban
Levels
PreK-K
Groups Over 10%
Latino/Latina/Latinx learners
Free & Reduced Lunch
30 %
Second Language Requirement
Yes