Treadwell is a Title I school, its students face barriers as racial and ethnic minorities, and The Heights’ poverty rate is above 30 percent. “When you see kids that are from different cultures and backgrounds come together in this way, it really lights you up to believe that adults can do the same,” said Carr. The hope is close connections across student groups make them more empathetic and willing to work together to reinvest in the community that invested in them.
All grades eat lunch together and most students will keep the same classmates all five years. Since the program was introduced in 2009, it’s focused on improving educational outcomes and language proficiency alongside harder to measure gains like preservation of Latino heritage in an area with a growing Latino population (whose numbers are also difficult to quantify because immigrants are often fearful of surveying). DLI programs are proven to enhance learning ability and being bilingual is a marketable skill for any future career.
Principal Jason Carr said the program is a long-term investment in The Heights’ future success. “The dual language program is a microcosm of the school which is a microcosm of the neighborhood, and more and more our city,” said May. The DLI program has 202 students, and 56 percent are native Spanish-speakers. Fifty-four percent of the native English-speakers are Black or African American, five percent are white, and the remaining five percent are of Asian or multiracial descent. It's the only program of its kind in Tennessee (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian)Īccording to May’s data, 36 percent of Treadwell’s 702 students speak primarily Spanish in the home.
Treadwell's dual language program immerses kids in both Spanish and English for or full fluency by fifth grade. Optional school coordinator Darlene May talks in Spanish with some of Treadwell Elementary School's dual language students as the line up for lunch on September 21, 2018. It’s an especially important program for a diverse neighborhood like The Heights and an increasingly diverse city like Memphis. So all of the kids in the program should be bilingual and biliterate in English and Spanish, regardless of their home language,” May said of the program, which serves grades K to 5. “It’s not just a Spanish immersion program it’s a dual immersion program. May’s job is to help Treadwell’s dual-language immersion (DLI) program - the only optional program of its kind in the state - grow in terms of size and success. “Those aren’t dual language kids,” notes May. Along the way, she’s met by a dozen students shouting, “Hola!,” through beaming smiles. It’s lunchtime at Treadwell Elementary, and the school’s new optional program coordinator, Darlene May, is heading to the cafeteria.