Culturally Responsive Educators: Our teachers are not just academically skilled; they are culturally competent, aware, and responsive, adept at creating inclusive environments that cater to the academic, social, and linguistic growth of every student.

Asset-Based Approach: We embrace and leverage the diverse skills, languages, and cultural backgrounds of our students as invaluable assets to enrich learning and foster a deeper understanding.

Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement: We define clear roles for all stakeholders, including teachers, parents, administrators, and the community, to foster a supportive ecosystem for our multilingual learners.

Excellence in Education: Our definition of excellent education encompasses engaging, student-centered learning experiences that spark creativity and connect with global citizenship.

Student-Centered Learning: Every classroom is a hub of student-centered activities, where tasks are designed to engage students actively, fostering creativity and critical thinking.

Dual-Language is an instructional approach through which students develop academic skills in their native language, while building skills in a different language. In DL instruction, multilingualism is viewed through an asset-based lens where the diverse skills, languages, and cultural backgrounds of students are embraced and leveraged as invaluable assets to enrich learning and foster a deeper understanding.

Dual-Language is a research-based approach that Passaic Public School’s district has made a priority because it has demonstrated that it is the most effective in supporting multilingual children. A key benefit to Dual-Language Instruction is that research shows that students achieve better outcomes as opposed to high intensity ESL or Transitional Bilingual Programs. Specifically, studies conducted by Thomas and Collier have shown that students in DL programs have higher levels of cognitive and academic development and are more engaged in the learning process than their peers.

Our goal with the Dual-Language program is to develop bilingual, biliterate and bicultural students that thrive with high levels of proficiency in both English and Spanish. Passaic Public School’s has adopted a 50/50 DL model, where half of the instruction is provided in English and half is provided in the native language (Spanish)