Palm Springs Unified outlines growth, curriculum and assessment plan for Spanish dual immersion program

Palm Springs Unified School District officials on Sept. 23 presented an overview of the district’s Spanish dual immersion program, describing how the program has expanded from Vista Del Monte Elementary into middle and high school grades and into Desert Hot Springs, and explaining curriculum, assessments and pathways to the Seal of Biliteracy.

The presentation, led by Mark Arnold, executive director of student learning, and Jairo Armenta, dual immersion teacher on special assignment, said the immersion program’s mission is to prepare transitional kindergarten through 12th‑grade students to be bilingual, biliterate and multicultural leaders. Arnold and Armenta outlined a 90/10 model in early grades that phases to a 50/50 Spanish–English balance by fifth grade and then two secondary pathways: Spanish language literacy (a foreign-language sequence) and content classes taught in Spanish (for example, science or social studies in Spanish).

The district reported a multi‑year rollout: the program began at Vista Del Monte Elementary in 2015 as a kindergarten cohort that added a grade…