On June 24-27, Principal McGowan joined by 2025-26 Assistant Principal, Mr. Manifesto and the Two Way Language Immersion (TWIN) teachers, Mrs. Perino, Mrs. Fajardo and Miss Castaign, traveled to Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento, to take part in the annual Dual-Language instruction provided by Boston College.
Since 2023, Our Lady of Grace School has been a member of Boston College's Two Way Language Immersion program, joining 31 Catholic Schools throughout the country providing instruction to elementary school students in two languages.
This coming school year (2025-2026) TK students will spend 90% of their day immersed in Spanish. Students in Kindergarten and Grade One will spend 50% of their day in each language (Spanish and English) and 2nd grade scholars will continue receiving focused Language Arts (reading and writing at their grade level) for 20% of their school day.
The data conclusively points to increased reading and mathematics scores for students who participate in dual-language learning since their brains develop in a manner that encourages the formation of complex synapses necessary to "code switching" between languages. This in turn is most useful when working in science and technology, fields that continue to develop at an extremely rapid pace.
The team was refreshed and invigorated by the material presented by the Boston College faculty and feel much better prepared to begin a new year.