Welcome to Don Gaspar de Portola’s Dual Immersion website. Congratulations on taking the first step in learning about the unique educational opportunity that a Dual Immersion program offers your child.  In addition to providing your children with the tools to be successful in a global economy, participation in a Dual Immersion program gives your children an edge in their education.  

Dual immersion, also referred to as Two-way immersion, is a distinctive form of dual language education in which native English speakers and native speakers of another language are integrated for academic content instruction through both English and the partner language, which in this case is Spanish.  The structure of the program integrates the two groups of students for most instruction and provides 50% of instruction in the partner language and 50% in the native language at all grade levels. Successful programs begin in the primary grades and extend at least five to seven years.  Our program currently spans Kinder through third grade.  Expansion of the program is dependent on enrollment and staffing.  Two-way immersion (TWI) programs strive to promote bilingualism and biliteracy, grade-level academic achievement, and positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors in all students.  At Portola, we have taken great care to develop a well-structured Dual Immersion program.

At the heart of such a program are the committed teachers that are first, excellent educators, and second, excellent language models.  These teachers are responsible for teaching core subjects to all participating students, and work together to make sure that students, in moving from one language model to another, move forward regardless of the content delivery language. All teachers at Portola are specially trained to work with second language learners and in methodology designed to ensure engaging delivery of high-level content, regardless of language of instruction.  Bilingual support staff is also available to provide additional academic support as needed.  We hope that you will look through the pages on this website for general information and invite you to contact us or visit the school for a first-hand experience.

Respectfully,

M. Jamal Fields
Principal