Our Model

The dual language immersion model integrates the best of bilingual education for all students: Native Spanish speakers develop literacy in their first language before acquiring their second, resulting in higher proficiency in both. Non-Spanish speakers are immersed in learning Spanish beginning in Kindergarten, when their brains are most suited to learn a second language. Teachers adjust instruction for children at different levels of language fluency and literacy, and all students emerge from 5th grade fully bilingual and bi-literate in Spanish and English. Research has consistently shown that students who develop two languages early on exhibit elevated levels of academic and cognitive functioning, including enhanced problem solving, reasoning, and communication.

We use a “90/10” immersion model, meaning that in Kindergarten 90% of the day is taught in Spanish by a highly qualified, credentialed teacher, fluent in both Spanish and English. The children may speak or respond in either language, but the teacher will speak only Spanish 90% of the day. The teacher guides students to correct vocabulary, pronunciation, and sentence structure by modeling and by creating authentic opportunities for students to use the target language. Spanish instruction decreases and English instruction increases by 10% percent each year, until the program is 50-50 by 4th grade.

Our students are invited to explore their interests and use what they already know to build new knowledge and make sense of the world around them. Within a standard-based program, they can choose specific topics or projects and formulate the questions that drive their learning experiences. Our teachers design learning opportunities that are challenging and interesting, while guiding students to be active learners who ask questions and seek understanding. Current research shows that this type of active inquiry approach to teaching and learning develops deep and long‐lasting conceptual understanding in students. Students graduate from CLIC able to think critically and independently, pursue their interests, ask hard questions and seek new understanding. Most importantly, our approach preserves and celebrates the natural curiosity of children, and keeps learning fun and engaging, while challenging students to tackle challenging content and problems.

We believe and have seen that when students feel safe, known, and loved, they are much more likely to engage in school and perform well academically. In collaboration with our students and parents, we developed 10 shared community agreements. These agreements remind us all to treat one another with respect, and to be inclusive of all community members, regardless of our similarities or differences. We reinforce our values and agreements through our daily actions, by constantly reminding students how to be allies and supports to one another, through a restorative approach to discipline (we don’t yell at, berate, or publicly embarrass students), and with frequent community-building events throughout the year like all-school assemblies, and other ongoing.

As an intentionally integrated and diverse school CLIC purposefully develops a community whose members embrace difference and seek to learn from one another. Students study specific aspects of multiculturalism to help develop their own identities and learn how to work, play, and learn across lines of difference. Our goal is to interrupt patterns of segregation in public schools, and to ensure that CLIC students:

• Are validated and affirmed by the school culture, curriculum, and community.
• Develop a strong foundation of self-identity and leverage that awareness to self-advocate and practice empathy toward others.
• Experience meaningful bridges between home and school, and develop a positive connection that enriches their experience in both environments.