Overview
The United States has long been a country of immigrants and today has over 50 million foreign-born residents.[1] For over half a century, the immigrant share of the U.S. population has had a visible impact on the curriculum in certain public schools. In 1963, Coral Way Elementary School in Miami, Florida, was selected as the site for the first publicly funded bilingual program in the United States.[2] Now known as the Coral Way Bilingual K–8 Center, the school is recognized for being the first bilingual school to include both non-native and native English-speaking children to achieve bilingualism and biliteracy.[3] Since 1971, schools in Washington, D.C., have used this model.[4] Bancroft Elementary School—one of the District of Columbia’s top bilingual schools, notable for its large population of recent immigrants from Central America—has adopted this bilingual model.
While there has been an increase in schools adopting this instructional model, its origins are tied to migration patterns—which cannot be divorced from U.S.-Central American relations. The curriculum unit, “Why Are We Bilingual? U.S. Intervención en Centroamérica,” will examine the question: “When and why did Bancroft become a bilingual school?” To understand the origins of this instructional shift, students will also be asked: “Why have people left their home countries to come to the U.S.?” Students will connect immigration, the school’s demographics, and bilingual education at Bancroft. Because Bancroft has many students from Central American countries with migration patterns directly tied to U.S.-backed wars and economic and political intervention, this unit will explore the U.S.’s role in Central America. The curriculum will also address how the U.S. received immigrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala and describe the dual and discriminatory immigration policy toward these groups based on the U.S.’s politics and foreign policy.[5] Given that Bancroft originally launched its bilingual program to serve the language needs of immigrant students predominantly from El Salvador, several lessons will focus on that country. Ultimately, students will understand the genesis of bilingual education at Bancroft and its connection to U.S. intervention in Central America.
The unit will be tied to cartography. To help students identify Central America on a map and align with DCPS social studies standards that ask students to “analyze […] their space in Washington, D.C., using map skills,” students will start small by finding Bancroft on a map of D.C.[6] From there, they will zoom out and find D.C. on a broader U.S. map. Ultimately, students will be able to find Bancroft on a world map, in relation to Central America, and answer questions such as: “Where is Central America?” “What countries are part of Central America?” and “How would you get from El Salvador to Bancroft?” “Would you walk, drive, fly, or take a boat? Why?” Finally, students will share how they think or know their families arrived in the United States.
Figure 1: Map of Central America
Figure 2: It takes 4 hours and 15 mins to fly from El Salvador to Washington, D.C.
Source: Google Maps
Figure 3: It takes 57 hours to drive from El Salvador to Washington, D.C.
Source: Google Maps
Figure 4: It takes 1,161 hours to walk from El Salvador to Washington, D.C.
Source: Google Maps
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