Nearly $1.5 million in new federal money will allow Portland Public Schools to strengthen and enlarge its budding Russian language program.
The federal government awarded PPS the grant this summer through the
Foreign Language Assistance Program, designed to improve language training in schools — particularly for “
critical languages” such as Russian.
“This grant enables Portland Public Schools to serve our students, both native Russian speakers and others, who are interested in learning bilingual and biliterate skills and gaining a rich multicultural understanding,” says Michael Bacon, a PPS teacher on special assignment who supports language instructors.
PPS launched Russian immersion in fall 2007 with a kindergarten classroom at Kelly Elementary School. As those students grow up, so does the Russian immersion program; serving kindergarten through third grade this fall, plans are to add a grade each year through high school, with the option for students to continue study through Portland State University’s
Russian Flagship Partner Program.
Natalia Gunther, a PPS Russian curriculum specialist, says the grant supports the
school district’s work on equity — helping all students succeed. “My goal is that this program helps build pride in Russian-speaking students, so they can say, ‘Here is something I’m good at and proud of.’ It will help them achieve in every subject.”
Gunther notes that Portland has one of the nation’s largest populations of Russian speakers with 85,000 in the metropolitan area. More than 700 Russian-speaking students attend PPS. “This is a critical step to engaging those communities,” Gunther says.
PPS has had unusual success winning grants in support of immersion programs; the Russian grant is the third received by PPS since 2008. PPS immersion programs also cover Japanese, Chinese and Spanish.
An
immersion program teaches students a portion of core academic content in a language other than English. In contrast, non-immersion language classes – which PPS also offers – are separate and focus exclusively on language skills (not, for example, on math).
“PPS is one of a handful, if not the only, school district to earn Foreign Language Assistance Program grants so close together,” Bacon says.
Families are on waiting lists for entry into the Russian immersion program. The grant will allow PPS to add an second elementary school to the program in September 2011; along with Kelly, it will add a grade each year.
In addition, PPS will develop grades 6-8 and high school Russian immersion offerings and, eventually, offer online classes that will support students studying Russian as a foreign language, as a heritage language or as part of the immersion program.
Says Bacon: “This is not just some two-year model where students learn to say hello or ask where the bathroom is. This is collaborating around world health, the environment, economics. These skill sets are valuable for the future world.”
