Megan Pike, the district Spanish immersion coordinator, presented a mid‑year update to the Mendon‑Upton School Committee on Jan. 6, 2025, outlining a multi‑step plan to define proficiency targets, align curriculum, and adopt standardized assessments for the district’s K–12 Spanish immersion program.

Pike said she and the district have worked with Dr. Tara Fortune, identified in the presentation as the former director of immersion research and professional development at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, to map expected proficiency levels across grades using ACTFL proficiency bands (novice through superior). The team created a draft spreadsheet that pairs Massachusetts ELA standards with Spanish‑language standards used by other states and sets grade‑level targets, using a color‑coded system to show current and target proficiency levels.

"We're working on developing a vision for Spanish immersion," Pike said, adding the district’s aim is for students to be biliterate and bilingual and to attain high levels of Spanish proficiency so they could "go to a Spanish speaking country and feel confident." Pike said the targets on the spreadsheet represent both where teachers believe students currently are and where the program expects students to be once assessments are in place.

Pike described a plan to adopt the APPLE assessment (an ACTFL‑aligned instrument the district already uses at the high school level) across K–12 to provide a single benchmark for listening, speaking, reading and writing in Spanish. She said the district will draft a testing schedule and a budget plan and that district curriculum staff are exploring timing that mirrors successful models used by other states.

The presentation addressed implementation questions: the district will continue translating and aligning standards (Pike highlighted California’s Spanish language arts translations as a resource), add a Spanish grammar scope and sequence by grade level, and add interdisciplinary units that teach Spanish language standards through content areas such as science and social studies. Pike said the district is also reviewing special‑education supports for immersion students and considering schedule changes at the middle school to increase Spanish exposure.

Committee members raised parent concerns about whether immersion students temporarily lag in English and how the district measures long‑term English outcomes. Pike and other administrators said elementary literacy assessments are available in Spanish and that the district can and has used MCAS data and local data to compare trajectories over time; they said prior analyses have shown immersion students eventually reach parity with peers on English assessments. Committee members recommended the district develop a companion chart describing expected English‑language progress to share with prospective parents.

Pike said the district will continue developing targets and said AP Spanish, AP exam scores and the Seal of Biliteracy are high‑school‑level outcomes the district tracks. She said the work is still in draft form and will be refined after the proposed APPLE testing is scheduled and pilot data collected.