Sanchez Elementary School

Sanchez Elementary School is a strong school community committed to high quality instruction for all students. We believe deeply in the importance of developing and using strong partnerships to support engagement and learning goals for students. Our commitment to social justice is the single most important principle that will allow us to attain continuing increased student success. Social justice, to us, means high standards, a focus on the achievement of all students, and culturally-relevant instruction. The overarching goal is that Sanchez students have increased access to high quality learning opportunities offered by peer interactions, parents and school staff and driven by a student-centered approach to learning. 

In order to engage in this work, our teachers work to build a trusting and respectful relationship in classrooms. As a result, our learners are comfortable taking risks so they can learn more. We have adopted the shared values reflected in our partnership with the MOSAIC project, and use explicit teaching around Mutual Respect, Open-Mindedness, Self-Respect, Attitude, Individuality and Community throughout the school to build positive learning communities in all classrooms. 

Our Spanish biliteracy pathway program is a cornerstone of our approach to student-centered and assets-based instruction. Students whose primary language is Spanish are encouraged to continue to develop their literacy skills in Spanish through 5th grade; we systematically design our instruction to use these as a bridge to developing skills in English. Our goal is that students in our biliteracy pathway achieve and demonstrate proficiency in both Spanish and English by the time they leave us at the end of fifth grade. Teachers in our English pathway similarly work with students to identify their unique cultural and linguistic strengths and celebrate, maintain and leverage them to support engagement and ultimately achievement. As a community, we feel successful when students arrive to school curious about the community and world around them, ask questions, and work cooperatively to seek answers with the support of peers, families and teachers. 

Part of the Sanchez vision is to institute systems to support shared leadership for all stakeholders through leadership development for parents, teachers, and students. Parent leadership development builds parents' capacity to support student academic learning and helps strengthen our school for future students. Student leaders serve as models for other students; they motivate, support, and cultivate positive relationships with other students. Teacher leadership development helps our staff build skills to support varied students' academic development and increases our sense of ownership for our school community as a whole. Respect is a fundamental element in all aspects of Sanchez School's work to create a safe place for learning for all members of the community.