Multilingual-Multicultural Education in DPS
The Detroit Public Schools Department of Multilingual-Multicultural Education educates children to become effective and productive dual language citizens and master the English Language.
We also offer 8 different world languages in our schools, including dual language immersion programs that begin in preschool, to more than 7000 students.
We also serve more than 6,000 bilingual students, speaking 30 different languages in schools throughout the district, helping them to learn the English Language and American culture while mastering core subject areas.
Our celebrated language schools include the Academy of the Americas, where our students are nurtured to excel in academics and become literate in both Spanish and English, and the Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies Schools (FLICS), where students can experience a rigorous core curriculum and immersion in French, Spanish, Japanese or Chinese.
We aim to provide all students with a Standards-Based World Language Curriculum, which focuses on developing effective communication in at least one world language other than English as well as cultural competence to help them become better-equipped global citizens.
DPS currently offers 8 languages:
Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Latin, and American Sign Language to meet the needs of more than 7,000 elementary, middle and high school students.
Through the Office of Global Languages, the district is also working to increase students’ exposure to Global Languages through Distance Learning and the full implementation of our Global Language Curriculum as a core academic area starting language education in the early years.
Our DPS World Language Curriculum is aligned to the World Language National and State Standards, which is based on the 5 C’s—Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities—to equip our students both linguistically and culturally to compete globally.
Our curriculum meets the World Language graduation requirement as directed by the Michigan Merit Curriculum. Beginning with the graduating class of 2016, all students must have completed two credits of a world language other than English prior to graduation, or demonstrate a two-year equivalent proficiency at the Novice High level on the American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Scale. Students at Novice-High Level are expected to use the language communicatively in highly predictable situations when interacting with native speakers in a variety of contexts. Students will need to pass a district-wide language proficiency test to demonstrate their level of language proficiency and be placed in the appropriate course.
Our bilingual education programs develop and enrich the students’ home language, culture, English language proficiency and introduce academic content area skills in the English Language.
We aim to increase the graduation rate of all English Language Learners in Detroit Public Schools and produce highly qualified, competitive, and socially adept students who excel in a technological, multilingual, multicultural, and global society, and who have plans for post secondary education. Through our programs, students will acquire a second language, not at the expense of their native language, but as an enhanced skill for the development of academic and career success.
Currently, we offer Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE), Dual Language Education (DLE/Immersion), and English as a Second Language (ESL).
- 2015-EMDE-08 – Order Adopting Limited English Proficiency Assistance Plan and Language Assistance Policy
- Bilingual Add-on Sheet and Bilingual Identification Processes
- Bilingual Students Add-on Sheet (Grades 1–12)
- Bilingual Students Add-on Sheet (Kindergarten)
- Bilingual Students Exit Request Sheet (Grade 1-12)
- WIDA Certification
Parent’s Concerns Survey
- Parent’s Concerns Survey – English
- Parent’s Concerns Survey – Spanish
- Parent’s Concerns Survey – Arabic
- Parent’s Concerns Survey – Hmong