ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Mi’reya Primer is only in second grade, but at 8 years old can recite the Pledge of Allegiance in both English and Spanish.
A native English speaker, Mi’reya gained the bulk of her Spanish language knowledge over the past two years as a pupil at Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy.
It's among Allentown School District’s new theme-based schools.
Mi’reya said learning a new language can be hard and scary sometimes, but her teachers give her courage.
“If you believe, then you can achieve,” she said.
Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy, at 2020 East Pennsylvania St., opened in fall 2024 to provide pupils with core content instruction in both English and Spanish.Allentown School District
Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy, at 2020 East Pennsylvania St., opened in fall 2024 to provide pupils with core content instruction in both English and Spanish.
Every classroom is split 50-50 between native English- and native Spanish-speaking pupils.
Each grade has both an English immersion classroom and a Spanish immersion classroom. Pupils alternate between the two, learning literacy, math, science and social studies exclusively in English one day, and then exclusively in Spanish the next.
Research shows that a bilingual education, such as the one provided at the new Allentown academy, strengthens students’ academic performances and attendance rates.
It also leads to fewer behavioral problems and more parent involvement.
A growing demand
When Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy launched last academic year, it offered just pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade.
To accommodate the progression of those initial student cohorts, the school began offering second grade this academic year.
By the 2028-29 academic year, the school plans to serve pupils in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
The academy is available to pupils across the district on an application basis. It’s first come, first served.
In its first year, 117 pupils were enrolled. This school year, enrollment jumped to 149 students. The added grade level accounts for the increase.
Principal Jennifer Aponte said there’s a demand for the education offered by the school.
When eight kindergarten spots opened up at the start of the academic year, there were 75 applicants, she said.
'Cohesion for the learner'
Aponte also said the school’s model produces academic results.
Last school year, 80% of Sonia Sotomayor Academy kindergarteners and first graders demonstrated substantial, measurable growth in both literacy and math, and the rest “showed steady progress,” Aponte said.
“It’s hard to grasp a new language when you’re disconnected, and every content [area] is talking about something different. When we can bring it under one umbrella, it creates cohesion for the learner."Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy Principal Jennifer Aponte
In first grade, the percentage of pupils performing above the expected literacy benchmark increased from 6% to 32% during the year, according to school data.
In math, the percentage performing above the benchmark rose from 21% to 53%.
Aponte said the school is focused on preparing its first cohort of students to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA, next school year.
The standardized test is given to elementary and middle schools students across the state, starting in third grade.
The principal said it’s her goal for Sonia Sotomayor Academy to become a Blue Ribbon School — one acknowledged by the state Department of Education for either its exemplary high performance or its exemplary work in closing an achievement gap.
Aponte said the academy’s strategy for academic success lies in theme-based learning.
Pupils learn about a chosen topic across all subject areas in both English and Spanish immersion classrooms. Past themes have focused on different kinds of animals and the culture of Spain.
“It’s hard to grasp a new language when you’re disconnected, and every content [area] is talking about something different,” Aponte said.
“When we can bring it under one umbrella, it creates cohesion for the learner.
“I’m able to go from a Spanish class to an English class, and if I’m learning about the weather, it’s connected. And it’s not repetition of the same content, it’s a fluid connection.”
'Glue that makes it all work'
The academy's language instructional coach, Amaris Recker, said comprehensible input is the “glue that makes it all work" when it comes to language acquisition.
Comprehensible input lets students learn a language naturally. They may not understand all of the words being used in the new language, but they can understand the concept being discussed by context or inference.
“I truly believe in the program."Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy first-grade teacher Savannah Jarjous
For example, Recker said modeling can help students learn new words. She might hold a pencil and point to the eraser while describing the writing tool in Spanish so students can understand “what it is and what it is for.”
Christine Gray, a kindergarten teacher, said she and colleagues at the academy have various strategies to ensure students understand the language being used in their classrooms.
“There’s a lot of pictures … a lot of vocabulary, a lot of motions and movement and music to help them feel more comfortable,” Gray said.
English immersion teachers speak only English, and Spanish immersion teachers only Spanish.
“If [pupils] don’t know how to say something in Spanish, they will say it in English, but then it is corrected in Spanish and responded to in Spanish,” first-grade teacher Savannah Jarjous said.
Jarjous said collaboration between English and Spanish immersion teachers is essential to make the school’s model work.
From day to day, partner teachers pick up where the other left off, transitioning to a lesson in each content area that builds on what students learned the day before, she said.
The partner teachers also plan out homework assignments for students in both languages.
“I truly believe in the program,” Jarjous said.
'Action research project'
Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol Birks said at a January news conference that the Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy is an “action research project” for the district, serving as a model for its bilingual education efforts.
“The dual language immersion program helps students see the world through many other lenses,” Birks said. “It teaches them how to listen, how to collaborate and how to value differences.”
She also said the school serves as a way to honor the district’s Latino students, who account for 77% of ASD’s total enrollment, which hovers around 17,000 students.
“My school is a bilingual school, and it's really the best,” second-grader Yeriana Rodriguez-Alameda, 8, said.
Yeriana said that when she isn’t learning new Spanish words at school, she’s practicing the language with her Spanish-speaking grandmother.
“What I really love is she’s teaching me different words,” Yeriana said.
Bringing 'joy and passion'
State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, D-Berks County, said she wants pupils “to be proud in their heritage and in their roots and in their culture and in their language.”
While visiting Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy in January, Cepeda-Freytiz said she hopes the school’s model for learning is replicated across the state.
“I think it's important, especially when a lot of our history and who we are as people and where we come from — it's like we’re forced to be erased,” said Cepeda-Freytiz, who chairs the Pennsylvania Legislative Latino Caucus.
“It’s just something that I wish I did have. And so now being able to offer that to my children is just really special and important.”Julie Velazquez, a member of the academy’s parent group
Cepeda-Freytiz last year proposed legislation to require Pennsylvania schools to implement dual-language immersion programs from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Schools would choose “the foreign language that best reflects the demographics in their communities,” the bill’s memo states.
House Bill 1288 was referred to the state House Education Committee in April, with no further action taken.
Parents of pupils at the academy have bought into the school’s model and mission, too.
Julie Velazquez, a member of the academy’s parent group and mother of two pupils there, said the school’s educators bring “joy and passion” to her children’s language-learning experience.
Velazquez said it’s important for her children to learn Spanish so they can connect to their family’s Puerto Rican heritage and to the wider Allentown community.
She said she’s glad they have access to that opportunity thanks to the new dual language immersion academy.
“It’s just something that I wish I did have," she said. "And so now being able to offer that to my children is just really special and important.”
