April 8, 2010
Contact:
Tina Jung
E-mail: communications@cde.ca.gov
Phone: 916-319-0818
State
Schools Chief Jack O’Connell
Congratulates Napa School for International
Honor
SACRAMENTO - State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jack O'Connell today announced that Napa Valley Language Academy was
selected by the Ministry of Education of Spain as an International
Spanish Academy. This is the second time a California school has
received this distinction since 2005.
"I am proud that the
Spanish Ministry of Education has selected Napa Valley Language Academy
for this high honor," said O’Connell. "The Academy has a wonderful
program that immerses students in a foreign language and cultural
activities. The Academy helps students learn to embrace our state's
diversity and prepares them for our hypercompetitive global economy."
Napa
Valley Language Academy, in the Napa Valley Unified School District,
has offered a Spanish/English dual language immersion program for 14
years. The Academy enrolls a balanced number of native English and
native Spanish speakers, creating a much sought-after, vibrant, and
fully integrated school community in the city of Napa. In addition to
students acquiring bilingual competency, they are also given the
opportunity to explore their talents in visual and performing arts
through such enrichment classes as world music, ballet folklorico, hip
hop, classical ballet, science, garden explorations, and multicultural
art classes. A school-wide instrumental music program works in
partnership with the Napa Valley Symphony called "Heart Strings" that
provides weekly violin and band classes for all 700 students.
The
Academy was recently invited to become a member of the prestigious
International Spanish Academies that is a consortium of Spanish
immersion schools in the United States and Canada sponsored by the
Ministry of Education of Spain. There are 68 throughout the United
States and 17 in Canada. Academy students will receive an additional
certificate upon completing the sixth grade acknowledging their literacy
skills in two languages.
The International Spanish Academies program
is part of the California Department of Education's Memorandum of
Understand with the Ministry of Education of Spain.
The Spanish
Ministry offers their International Spanish Academies many benefits.
These include a full-time language assistant fully paid by the Ministry,
access to the double academic certification, specific teacher training
activities in the United States, sister schools in Spain, participation
in the International Foundation of Sister Schools sponsored by the
Ministry, pedagogical guidance, development of educational projects with
Spanish schools using Internet support, and, when available, classroom
and curricular materials and resources. With the double academic
certification, a graduating high school student may enter a university
in Spain or in a European Union country.
The goals of the
International Spanish Academies are to:
-
Educate students in the
values of multicultural education that make possible international
communication and respect among cultures;
-
Train students to
express themselves and effectively use English and Spanish in their
personal relationships as well as in the learning process;
-
Facilitate and promote
student access to centers of higher education of recognized academic
excellence in the United States as well as in Spain, Europe, and
Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas;
-
Prepare students for
their professional development in an international context; and
-
Foster participation of
different groups and segments of society in an integrated educational
project.
For more information on
the International Spanish Academies, please visit Estados
Unidos (Outside Source).
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