Maria H. Arambula-Ruiz

Director

(956) 473-5242

marambul@uisd.net

Bilingual Education

United Independent School District is committed to all English Language Learners’ language and academic needs. Through collaborative partnerships with district/campus administrators, teachers, and parents, the goal is to grow successful bilingual and bi-literate students.

Mission

All English Language Learners (ELs) will become proficient in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the English language through the effective integration of second language strategies in the development of literacy and academic skills.

Program Models

The Early-Exit Transitional model builds on the EL student’s primary language and strengthens the English skills to prepare the EL student to be successful in English-only instruction not earlier than two or later than five years after the student enrolls in school.

The DUAL Two-Way model is offered to both English Learners and English Proficient students. The DUAL Two-Way model builds upon the student’s primary language while adding a second language (English/Spanish or vice-versa). The goal is to develop bilingual, bi-literate, and bicultural students. In United I.S.D., this model begins in Kinder and concludes in 5th grade.

The ESL Pull-Out model serves students identified as English Learners. The model targets English language development through academic content instruction that is linguistically and culturally responsive in English language arts and reading. Instruction is provided in a pull-out or inclusionary delivery model.

There are 27 languages represented in United I.S.D. They are 67% Spanish, 33% English, 0.1% Vietnamese, 0.05% Mandarin (Chinese), 0.03% Arabic, 0.02% Cantonese (Chinese), 0.02% Pilipino (Tagalog), 0.02% Turkish, 0.01% Hindi, 0.01% Ibo (Igbo), 0.01% Korean, 0.01% Portuguese, 0.005% Farsi (Persian), 0.005% Nepali, 0.005% Russian, 0.005% Telugu (Telegu), 0.002% Afrikaans (Taal), 0.002% Amharic, 0.002% Bengali, 0.002% Cambodian (Khmer), 0.002% German, 0.002% Hebrew, 0.002% Japanese, 0.002% Shona, 0.002% Ukrainian, 0.002% Urdu, and 0.02% Other languages.

Staff