The Online Collection of National Heritage Language Program Profiles

PreK-12 and Adults

Arabic
Bridge & Central Academies of Ohio
Toledo, Ohio

The program's goal is to ensure that students achieve language proficiency in Arabic. Our school offers daily Arabic language instruction in addition to the language instruction that is part of the standard Ohio state curriculum. Our mission is to offer daily mandatory Arabic language instruction. The instructors and students meet four to five times a week and have an hour class each time. Since 75% of the students come from homes where the heritage language is Arabic, many students have the ability to use conversational Arabic.

Chinese - Mandarin
Chinese Program/Flushing High School
Flushing, NY

The purpose of this high school program is to develop high-level literacy skills in Chinese of students who speak Mandarin Chinese as a first language and to develop a full range of Chinese language skills of heritage language learners.

Chinese - Mandarin
Chinese School of Delaware
Hockessin, DE

The school’s classes for high school students focus on strengthening basic Mandarin literacy and Chinese identity.

Denaakk’e Athabascan
The Yukon-Koyukuk School District
Fairbanks, AK

The Literacy Program at the Yukon-Koyukuk school district provides Heritage language immersion for heritage and native speakers. Yokun-Koyukuk school district teaches students basic Denaakk’e (Koyukon or Lower Tanana Athabascan) through daily instruction. Students learn how to greet one another, use Denaakk'e in the classroom setting, and honor their elders. Our mission is for students to gain an appreciation of their native language and culture.

French and German
Alabama School of Math and Science
Mobile, AL

This program teaches French and German on an accelerated track to prepare heritage speaking students for the Advanced Placement (AP) Examination. Additionally, the program seeks to provide students with examples of civilization and advanced literature during the learning process.

French
French Heritage Language Program
New York, NY

The French Heritage Language Program is designed to support and enrich the teaching and learning of French language, literature, and culture for students of Francophone background enrolled in New York City public schools.

German
International School of Tucson
Tuscon, AZ

The International School of Tucson offers an internationally-based and internationally-grounded bilingual program of instruction in Spanish/English, French/English, and German/English (full-immersion Pre-K-K; currently dual-immersion Grade 1-2 and projected Grade 1-5). They encourage students to develop social understanding and values for a global society by educating them under full or dual-language immersion. Some of the German students are heritage German speakers.

German
New School Prep
Orlando, FL

The New School Prep offers partial immersion, foreign language, content-based, and before- and after-school programs, and an extracurricular club. It also includes a service learning component through the innovative “New School to Namibia” program. The purpose of the New School Prep German program is for students to experience the joy and personal enrichment that learning this language brings. To complete these expectations, students need to face goals such as using German language effectively in written and oral communication, developing foreign cultural literacy and cross-cultural awareness, and developing aesthetic and interpretive capacities through engagement with authentic cultural materials and situations.

Hebrew
Melvin Berman Hebrew Academy
Rockville, MD

Melvin Berman Hebrew Academy is a PreK-12 school created by specialists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and administered by Hebrew College, offering 4 years of mandatory Hebrew study. The program uses interactive techniques in 5-hour per week classes following the NETA program, an innovative Hebrew language curriculum designed for children in grades 7-12. Four levels of Hebrew are taught in classes ranging from 15-20 students. Credit is given for language study, and courses cover both language and culture.

Korean and Spanish
Granada Hills Charter High School
Granada Hills, CA

This is a series of special classes in the Foreign Language Department of Granada Hill Charter High School for heritage speakers of Korean and Spanish. The program focuses on developing the written and oral proficiencies of these speakers and fosters a strong sense of pride in their cultural background.

Multiple Languages: Chinese - Mandarin, French, German, and Spanish
International School of Tuscon
Tuscon, AZ

The program was founded in 2005 to provide an environment for students to develop confidence and pride in their language skills.

Multiple Languages: French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish
Bristol Warren Regional School District
Bristol, RI

This school specializes in the development of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and French literacy in high school students in the Bristol School System. The program’s curriculum covers an intensive university language track and offers the possibility of college credit.

Navajo
Magdalena Municipal School District
Magdalena, NM

The purpose of the program is to create biliterate, bilingual Navajo students and to build cross-cultural connection within the school and the community.

Russian
Russian Maryland Cultural Center: Matryoshka
Clarksville, MD

The Russian Maryland Cultural Center: Matryoshka provides an enriched educational experience for adults and children through the study of the Russian language, traditions, history, and through performance of choral music and national folk dance presented to the Maryland community. Matryoshka was founded in September 2008, and focuses on Russian language and literature (reading). A wide selection of topics of study is offered in Russian History, Amazing Math, Russian Literature, Art, Theater Studio, Folk Dance, and Russian Music.

Somoan
University of Hawai’i at Manoa GEAR UP Project
Farrington High School/Honolulu School District

The GEAR UP program offers classes in the Samoan language, taught by Farrington High School in Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Manoa. The program seeks to strengthen students’ knowledge of Samoan and to establish a lifelong tradition of practicing Samoan culture and language. The program is intended for students in grades 9-12.

Spanish
Bellevue School District
Bellevue, WA

The program focuses on developing the proficiency of Spanish heritage language speakers in both Spanish and English. The program strives to prepare students for the Spanish Advanced Placement (AP) examination and further language learning on a university level.

Spanish
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Raleigh, NC

This program seeks to provide language learning opportunities for heritage Spanish speakers that would not be readily available to them in the normal course of study. Students are encouraged to perfect their Spanish speaking abilities and their personal knowledge of Hispanic culture and heritage.

Spanish
Creekside High School
Fairburn, Georgia

Creekside High School heritage Spanish language program was funded in August 2007. The program aims to improve the overall communication skills of heritage speakers as well as to expand their awareness and cultural connections with their countries of origin.

Spanish
Español para Hispanohablantes
Egg Harbor Township, NJ

This is an academic Spanish course that is intended for heritage speakers of Spanish who have traditionally been placed in a Spanish 1 foreign language course.

Spanish
Gateway Charter High School
San Francisco, CA

This program teaches heritage Spanish high school speakers on an advanced university language curriculum. The course of study includes various topics and examples of Hispanic literature and culture.

Spanish
Heritage Language Literacy Club
Fairfax, VA

The Heritage Language Literacy Club (HLLC) provides literacy instruction after school for students in grades 1-5, while providing community service opportunities and job experience in a supportive environment for tutors in grades 6-12.

Spanish
High School of Science and Technology
Springfield, MA

The program tries to enhance native speakers’ knowledge of the Spanish language and culture. Furthermore, we try to help them become proficient in all aspects of the language to prepare them for taking the Spanish Advanced Placement (AP) exams.

Spanish
Hispanohablantes, Enid Public Schools
Enid, OK

This is a special language track of the Enid Department of Foreign Languages. This class is designed to perfect the Spanish skills of fluent Spanish heritage speakers through an advanced course of study.

Spanish
Literacy Squared
San Diego, CA

This program strives to maintain and improve the Spanish language ability of heritage Spanish speakers and other community members who are not Spanish dominant, as they learn English.

Spanish
Olympic High School
Charlotte, NC

This program meets the education and literacy needs of many Hispanic first-generation immigrants. The program seeks to provide students with opportunities to study Spanish literature and grammar.

Spanish
Omaha Public Schools
Omaha, NE

The goal of the program is to increase the literacy and communication skills of Spanish-speaking students in grades 6-12.

Spanish
Ossining Union Free School District
Ossining, NY

This program seeks to develop written and oral skills of heritage speakers, in grades 6-8.

Spanish
Ottumwa High School
Ottumwa, IA

This program focuses on literacy development for Spanish speaking high school students.

Spanish
Redondo Union High School
Redondo Beach, CA

This course is an integrated language arts program designed to provide native Spanish speaking students with cognitive academic language proficiencies. Students develop the four language skills by participating in communicative activities, which allow the skills to develop naturally within the context of a linguistic and literature-based curriculum.

Spanish
Cross Keys High School Spanish for Native Speakers
Atlanta, GA

Spanish for Native Speakers is a program that builds the linguistic and cultural experiences of Native Spanish Speakers in Atlanta Georgia. The program was established in the fall of 1997. It serves mostly Mexican and Central American students, but also students from Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Students who take Spanish for Native Speaker courses develop a high level of proficiency in Spanish, as well as a strong cultural pride in their culture. Students take Spanish for Native Speakers I and II and improve their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Students become familiar with Spanish and Latin American history, culture, and literature, and can receive university credit if they pass the AP Spanish and Literature tests.

Spanish
Storm Lake High School
Storm Lake, IA

This program seeks to develop heritage Spanish speaker’s Spanish and English skills to a level of fluent bilingualism. Additionally, the program attempts to incorporate other academic subjects into the curriculum, for example science, math, and history.

Spanish
The Literacy Program at Wilcox High School
Santa Clara, CA

The Literacy Program at Wilcox High School provides a heritage language immersion program for heritage and native speakers. The program serves mostly second-generation heritage Spanish speakers and seeks to build and develop students’ academic language.

Spanish
West Windsor-Plainsboro School District
Plainsboro, NJ

This program seeks to develop the Spanish skills of heritage Spanish speakers and strengthen community ties with families. The program also draws on heritage family members to teach various topics related to Spanish culture and language.

Tongan
West High School/Salt Lake City School District
Salt Lake City, Utah

The program was founded in the fall of 2006 to interest heritage Tongan speakers in the class so they would stay in school, successfully complete their other classes, and graduate.

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*The Alliance is no longer collecting profiles for higher education programs. Please visit the National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC) at UCLA to find out how you can participate in their survey of college-level heritage language programs.