Press Release Details
SFUSD to Develop Arabic and Vietnamese Language Programs Link to this section
May 27, 2015 (San Francisco) – At its regular meeting last night, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to develop and implement Arabic and Vietnamese world language pathways beginning in the 2017-18 school year.
The San Francisco Unified School District serves an increasing population of Arabic- and Vietnamese-speaking students and families in its schools. Nearly 500 students speak Arabic as their home language, and over 1,100 speak Vietnamese. Districtwide, students speak more than 70 languages.
“At SFUSD, we are committed to providing learning environments where all students can be proud of and celebrate their own heritage, as well as that of others,” said the resolution’s lead author, Commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer. “We want to give our Arabic and Vietnamese students access to authentic experiences in language and culture.”
In 2008, SFUSD was one of the first large school districts nationwide to create distinct language pathways for recent immigrant students to develop multilingual abilities with their Lau Action Plan, and the district currently offers language instruction or language pathway programs in Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, French, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Mandarin, and Russian.
Staff will use the district’s program placement process for developing and implementing K-12 Arabic and Vietnamese world language pathways.
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Page updated on 05/27/15