Coral Way Bilingual K-8 Center

Coral Way School, built as Coral Way Elementary School in 1936, is a K-8 school located in Miami, Florida, USA. The school, which began teaching in English and Spanish in 1963, was a pioneer in the field of bilingual instruction in the United States and remains the only bilingual K-8 center in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. It was expanded in 2004 to include grades 7 and 8.The school building was designed by August Geiger, a noted South Florida architect who worked for the Dade County School Board. The architecture is in a Mediterranean Revival style with arcaded walkways around interior courtyards resplendent with lush foliage. It was constructed under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration and completed in 1936.Coral Way's enrollment was 1,502 for the 2005-2006 academic year; it has increased to 1566 in 2007-08. The principal is Barbara Martin. The school's teams are called the Chiefs, although the school does not participate in athletic activities.In 1963, the school system started a "Spanish for Spanish" program. With help from the Ford Foundation they modified the program into a full bilingual education curriculum. Coral Way was also the first bilingual school in the United States of America. The pilot program was instituted with the 350 1st through 3rd grade students at Coral Way, selected because of the balance of English and Spanish speakers. The goal of the program was to promote bilingual fluency among all students. In the mornings, children would receive instructions in their native language, then switch to the other language in the afternoon, sharing lunch, art, music and physical education times. Several reports indicated that both groups made progress academically in both languages. (Pellerano, et al. - 1998)