INTERNATIONAL SPANISH ACADEMIES
The International Spanish Academies (ISA) constitute an educational program in English and Spanish through the collaboration of American and Canadian public schools and the Ministry of Education of Spain, which aims to fulfill the following objectives:
1. Encourage students’ academic success in all subjects of the curriculum;
2. Educate students in the values of multicultural education to foster international communication and respect among different cultures;
3. Train students to express themselves and effectively communicate in English and Spanish in their personal relationships and in an academic setting;
4. Facilitate and promote the access of students to prestigious centers of higher education throughout the U.S., Spain/Europe and Latin America;
5. Prepare the students for their professional development in an international context;
6. Promote the participation of different groups and social sectors of the community in an integrative, educational project.
An ISA can be established in a school, or division within a school (elementary, middle or high school), that is starting or is already developing a quality educational program in English and Spanish. All ISA’s must have among their goals the academic excellence of their students.
The Ministry of Education of Spain makes the following resources and programs available to the ISAs:
1. Specialized visiting teachers.
2. Teacher exchange programs with Spain.
3. Language and Culture assistants.
4. Teacher training courses in Spanish universities.
5. Participation in a North American network of ISAs.
6. Didactic materials and resources.
7. Pedagogical advice.
8. Access to double academic certification
Curriculum
The ISA’s embody an integrated curriculum that will prepare the students to later participate in international programs of recognized prestige to complete their higher education degrees. The language of instruction is English and Spanish, the exact proportion being determined by the school districts and/or schools, bearing in mind that the objective is to obtain written and oral competency in both languages.
The curriculum is comprised of two blocks:
1. A general component which incorporates the content required of all students of the district/state/province (Canada). This refers to the district’s established curriculum and the district’s own evaluation. The special character of this program results from the fact that a significant part of the instruction is delivered in Spanish.
2. A specific Spanish Language and Culture component, which includes elements of all Spanish-speaking countries and applies the National Standards for Spanish Learning.
The specific component does not necessarily imply increasing the amount of instruction time, but rather making an effort to integrate it into the general curriculum of the district/school. The means of integration is to be decided by the school that opts to become an International Spanish Academy.
Methodology
The methodology of the ISAs is based on two main principles: the instruction of language as a means or vehicle (language instruction) and the instruction of other subjects in a foreign language as well as in the students’ native language (general instruction)
1. Language Instruction
The communicative competence include: formal or linguistic competence of the language, cultural competence and knowledge of the world, conversational competence, macrolinguistic or textual competence. The communicative competence will be integrated with other skills, based on tasks and projects that permit global learning and the use of the foreign language in real-life activities that are appropriate for the context and the specific student body and based on the National and State Standards established in almost all of the states. These standards provide a common framework to measure the level of learning achieved, based on the contents learned through the languages of instruction.
2. General Instruction, focused on multicultural education, which permits the students to become aware of the value of cultural diversity and to develop multicultural competence. The pedagogical approach must be suitable to the context (state, type of school, students), the methodology will be based on interdisciplinary projects and cooperative learning is essential so that it permits meaningful and interactive learning through collaboration and collective agreements.
Resources
An ISA should be able to access the greatest number of the following resources:
1. Didactic materials in Spanish: audiovisual materials, computer programs and equipment, school and classroom libraries, authentic materials.
2. Human resources: experienced bilingual teachers, specialized visiting teachers, exchange teachers, Language and Culture assistants, advising services from the Education Advisors from the Department of Education in the Spanish Embassy, community support: family, institutions, etc.
3. Other Resources: access to resource centers and the activities and resources of the Cervantes Institute; access to the Spanish Studies Institutes; access to culture: visits to museums and institutions related to the Spanish speaking world, field trips, cultural weeks, etc.; use of cultural activities sponsored by the Ministry of Education of Spain; school exchanges and partnerships; scholarships for teachers to attend summer courses in Spanish universities; professional training courses for teachers in Spain and the U.S.; advice for group participation in the creation and publication of didactic materials; the website of the Spanish Department of Education: publications, information, links.
Teaching Staff and Training
Spanish educational institutions will contribute to the training of the teaching staff, and will offer advanced, methodological proposals that will allow the teaching staff to systematically access continuous, quality training. It is thus advisable that each ISA teacher holds a High Level Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language (D.E.L.E. for its acronym in Spanish), or that s/he is in the process of working towards earning one.
Evaluation
Among other actions, the Spanish overseas educational programs supervise the promotion and organization of mixed curriculums that integrate elements of the Spanish educational system with those of other educational systems.
1. Student Evaluation and Certification
After completing the two first levels, that is Level 1 (grades K-5) and Level 2 (grades 6-8), the students receive a Diploma certifying their attendance in an International Spanish Academy during the required years of the respective level. The evaluation of these levels will be performed in agreement with the methods and instruments used by the district and/or schools, while observing the proportion of instruction in each language.
For the final level, comprised of grades 9 to 12, the evaluation instrument will consist of an external assessment especially designed to assess the specific component of the established curriculum of the International Spanish Academies. The evaluation will be carried out jointly with the collaboration of teachers responsible for the curricular components of the International Spanish Academy; that is, the specific component and the general component. The external assessment will take one of the following forms: a research project or a test in Spanish and will evaluate the ability of the student to use Spanish in authentic communicative situations (real or simulated). It will also consider the ability of the student to integrate areas of knowledge from the specific component of the curriculum. A scale will be established to assess the above skills.
2. Program Evaluation
Each ISA will design a program evaluation plan in accordance with its own objectives. The plan will specify the information to be collected to determine the progress of the students and the success of the program, the due dates and the persons responsible. To guarantee the quality of the project, the school shall submit an evaluation report within three months after the end of the school year as justification for achieving the determined objectives and complying with the requirements.
Legal Framework
In the United States, the International Spanish Academies may be initiated in institutions with which collaboration agreements are established. The development will be suited to the prevailing regulations in each school and governed simultaneously by state and federal education laws.
Within the Spanish guidelines, the Spanish Academies are to be recognized as their own entities within the Programs of the Ministry of Education through the Department of Education at the Embassy of Spain.
Duration of the contracts
Within this special idiosyncrasy, the subscribed contracts with interested institutions should be at least 4 years long. These contracts can be renewed or cancelled by mutual agreement.
Supervision of the Agreement
The Department of Education, or the person delegated by it, will supervise the observance of the signed agreement between the Department of Education and the Teaching Center. In order to guarantee the quality of the project, each International Spanish Academy needs to submit an evaluation report and an activities report.
Recognition of Studies
The development guidelines will govern the conditions and requirements to validate in Spain the studies that were completed in the International Spanish Academies.
For further general information on this and other programs, please refer to:
Eva González-Abad
Education Advisor
For further information on the ISA program: http://www.educacion.es/exterior/usa/en/programs/isas/concept.shtml
General information on programs and initiatives of the Ministry of Education of Spain in the USA: www.educacion.es/exterior/usa