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Fort Worth ISD Dual Language:
A future beyond the classroom

Setting students up for a lifetime of success and multiculturalism

Pre-K to 5th Grade

Dual Language is a biliteracy model of instruction where students acquire a second language through grade-level content instruction while maintaining their native language.

Fort Worth ISD offers both One-Way and Two-Way Dual Language programs:

One-Way Dual Language

1 language group

All students speak Spanish as their dominant language and become fully bilingual and biliterate.

Emergent Bilinguals in Dual Language meet reclassification criteria within 5 to 7 years of participating in the program.

Two-Way Dual Language

2 language groups

A balanced number of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers, with both groups becoming bilingual and biliterate.

English-speaking students must start the Two-Way Dual Language program in pre-k, kindergarten, or the first semester of 1st grade.

Simultaneous Biliteracy Model

Fort Worth ISD implements the Simultaneous Biliteracy Model in Pre-K through 5th grade Dual Language classrooms. Learners receive the same core curriculum as non-dual language learners, with literacy and content instruction in both English and Spanish.

Both language groups receive initial literacy instruction and substantial learning opportunities in the Spanish language.

Exposure to English is intentionally planned and delivered.

Teachers facilitate cross-linguistic experiences enabling students to make connections and transfer their language learning from one language to the other.

Benefits

• Biliteracy leads our students to higher levels of academic achievement, increased multiculturalism, cultural humility, curiosity, and high levels of sociocultural competence.
• The Spanish language has a phonetic sound-letter system, making it easy to learn how to read and write because words are pronounced almost exactly as they are spelled.
• Reading skills acquired in Spanish readily transfer to reading in English.

Approximate language breakdown by grade using the Simultaneous Biliteracy Model:

2024-2025

Pre-K to 5th

• Burton Hill
• Lily B. Clayton
• Charles E. Nash
• Christene C. Moss
• De Zavala
• Mary Louise Phillips
• Morningside
• North Hi Mount
• South Hi Mount
• Sunrise-McMillan

New locations: Pre-K only for 2024-2025

• Luella Merrett
• M.H. Moore