Academic Programs
APS Bilingual Seal / Sello Bilingue
Elementary Bilingual Seal
The elementary bilingual seal is the first honor students may earn on their journey toward bilingualism and biliteracy throughout their years in K-12. Students have the opportunity to continue working for the middle school and high school seal if they continue coursework in both English and the target language and complete a portfolio. The elementary bilingual seal portfolio is a holistic presentation of how students demonstrate their proficiency with bilingual reading, writing and speaking skills through their academic achievement, involvement with the school, service to the community and personal development.
Ways parents can support their child to work toward the bilingual seal:
Exemplary Work
Preserve the most impressive school projects, tests, or student writing from each of the student's school years.
Community Service
Get involved in a community service project with the student.
Electives
Enroll the student in a least one after-school activity, club, or sport opportunity per school year. Record who was the activity sponsor; keep registration information; preserve photos taken during the activity.
Personal Option
Encourage the student to develop his/her own personal interests and hobbies.
The key ideais that parents encourage and support their children to actively apply their communication skills in English and the target language in school, home, and community, be involved in school activities and preserve their memories by taking photos and having their students keep a journal where they can write about these experiences.
Dual Language
Valle Vista Elementary School provides a 50/50 Two-Way Immersion Dual Language Program model to almost two-thirds of the student population Kindergarten through 5 th Grade and a multilingual NMPreK class. The school is in its 21 st year of program implementation and is located in Albuquerque’s South Valley hidden amongst cottonwood trees near the Rio Grande and bosque.
The school, as part of a Community School Initiative, has over 40 community partners who provide resources for families and out-of-school time opportunities for students, which include: Guitar Lessons, Ballet Folklorico, Sevillanas dance, Art and STEM clubs, as well as academic tutoring, fitness club and soccer.
Valle Vista is in the 4 th year of a school-wide implementation of Guided Language Acquisition Design as a framework for ELD (English Language Development) and SLD (Spanish Language Development) curriculum and instruction. An Understanding by Design approach to standards-based planning is used to integrate instruction for both language and content. Second language acquisition data trends at Valle Vista are that as students progress in grade levels, their language proficiency increases overall in both English and Spanish. 2018 ACCESS scores show that 52.6% of 5 th graders scored a level 4 “Expanding” overall, and 5.3% of 5 th graders reached an exiting level of 5 “Bridging” overall. District graduation data (data class of 2016) shows that 80% of English Learners, who attended Valle Vista in 5 th grade, graduated on time. 2018 Spanish LAS Links data shows that 22% of Dual Language students K-5 scored “Intermediate” overall and 10% of students K-5 scored “Proficient” or above.
The mission of the school is, “to teach, to learn, to succeed, with respect and creativity; enseñar, aprender, tener éxito, con respeto y creatividad.” This is most exemplified in the collaborative nature of teaching and learning that occurs between students, teachers and families.
