Alicia R. Chacón International School () is a K–8 school in

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It is operated by the

Ysleta Independent School District Ysleta Independent School District is a school district based in El Paso, Texas, El Paso, Texas (United States, USA). Ysleta ISD is the third largest school district in the city of El Paso. All of the district area covers sections of El Paso. ...

. Chacón has a two-way

bilingual education In bilingual education, students are taught in two (or more) languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The t ...

program that is intended to teach

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

-speaking students

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and English-speaking students Spanish. Students may also take a third language; available third languages are

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

,Espino Calderón, Margarita and Minaya-Rowe, Liliana. Chapter 4: "Case Study: The Alicia R. Chacón International School." ''Designing and Implementing Two-Way Bilingual Programs''.

Corwin Press Sage Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent academic publishing company, founded in 1965 in New York City by Sara Miller McCune and now based in the Newbury Park neighborhood of Thousand Oaks, California. Sage Pu ...

, January 22, 2003. , 9781483351858. Start
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This confirms the presence of Chinese, German, Japanese, and Russian.

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, – This source confirms the presence of French instruction. and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. The bilingual education program was developed to encourage speakers of one language to retain their language and to also learn a second language at the same time. This differs from other bilingual programs in Texas, where non-English speaking students are expected to learn solely in English once they achieve a certain competency in English. As of 2009 Chacón has long waiting lists of students. Nate Blakeslee of ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...

'' argued that other Texas school districts should use Chacón's bilingual program.Blakeslee, Nate.
Dream of a Common Language. Sueño de un Idioma Común.
''

''. September 2009. Retrieved on January 11, 2010.

History

The school, which opened in 1995, was named after

Mexican American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexico, Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the Unite ...

politician and judge

Alicia R. Chacón Alicia Rosencrans Chacón (born November 11, 1938) is an American politician. She is best known for several firsts in El Paso, Texas. Chacón was the first woman elected to El Paso government when she became Municipal clerk, county clerk in 1974. ...

. Its two-way bilingual program for kindergarten through grade 3 opened that year as part of the

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a United States Cabinet, cabinet-level department of the federal government of the United States, United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, havin ...

-funded Project Mariposa ("Mariposa" means butterfly), an effort between different school districts. Each following year an additional grade level with bilingual education was established; in 2000 the school's first eighth-grade class graduated.Espino Calderón, Margarita and Minaya-Rowe, Liliana. Chapter 4: "Case Study: The Alicia R. Chacón International School." ''Designing and Implementing Two-Way Bilingual Programs''.

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In 1995 the school had 352 available spaces for students. By June 25, 1995, 234 places were taken. �
Clipping of first page (1F)
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from

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Curriculum

Students are expected to gain a high level of literacy in Spanish. early grades course content is primarily taught in Spanish, but in later grades English becomes the predominant language of instruction. Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, French and Russian were to be offered in the coursework from the school's beginning.

Student body

95% of the students are Hispanic and Latino, and the remainder belong to other ethnicities.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chacon, Alicia R. International School Public K–8 schools in Texas Bilingual schools in Texas Ysleta Independent School District schools