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Moline School’s Dual Language Program Officially Begins

The 2015-2016 school year is underway and in the Moline-Coal Valley School District, there’s a new program that isn’t offered anywhere else in the Q...

The 2015-2016 school year is underway and in the Moline-Coal Valley School District, there's a new program that isn't offered anywhere else in the QCA.

The Dual Language Program is now part of the curriculum at Lincoln-Irving Elementary School. WQAD did a report on the program when it was in the piloting stages, which lasted the past two years.

The program is being offered to all Kindergartners and 1st Graders at Lincoln-Irving, 164 students total. It's also taking place in two sections of 2nd Grade and two sections of 3rd Grade, according to Stephanee Jordan who is the Director of E.L.L. Programs for the Moline-Coal Valley School District.

"This is a culmination of a five-year dream," she explained. "We had a team that started going to training five years ago and we're all still with the program. We talked about how when we were driving to Chicago to take classes on dual language we really weren't sure what it would look like, what it would be like and five years later, here we are."

When WQAD first visited Ms. Caitlin Lingle's classroom last year, she had two English-speaking students. Now, she has 12, which is half her class. She said it proves that what they're doing is working.

"I think a misconception is that we're not teaching in English either, but we're teaching in both languages," she said. "We teach all of the concepts in Spanish first and once they have all that vocabulary down, we  go and we teach it again in English so the concepts are more clear to them."

"We believe that 2nd and 3rd language education is a 21st Century Skill that everyone needs to have," Jordan added. "It's such an asset for the Moline School District and our bilingual community - our students, their parents. People pay a lot of money in other parts of the country to be involved in programs like this and we're able to offer it to the citizens of Moline and their children. It's very exciting."

Also exciting - Lincoln-Irving also has a new Principal who is originally from Moline and has a lot of experience with dual language learning.

"I'm excited to be back home," said Principal Blanca Leal. "My whole career was in dual language and bilingual education, so I really do believe that it does work. I've seen it work and so I'm excited to get us on that path to success for all of our students."

"She's an experienced dual language administrator and she comes to us from Schaumburg, Illinois, but she is home-grown talent," said Jordan. "She went to school in Moline and has now returned to us to raise her family in this great community."

It is that word "community" that Jordan, Lingle, and Leal hope to also teach their students through the Dual Language Program.

"Regardless of the language, it's academic success and really having them become life-long learners and contributing to our community, which I think is an exciting thing for the Quad Cities," said Leal.

"The advantage is obviously being bilingual," added Lingle. "They can take that with them. There are so many more career opportunities once they're older and that's in the long term, but I think that for right now they're interacting with different children, they're seeing diversity, and they're seeing different cultures."

Every year, the Moline-Coal Valley School District will add another grade to Lincoln-Irving's Dual Language Program. The goal to have the entire school offer dual language learning in five years. Jordan said the Moline-Coal Valley School District is also working on continuing the program into middle school.

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