Bilingual School in Washington DC

Oyster-Adams Bilingual Elementary School:
Oyster-Adams Bilingual Elementary School offers a nationally and internationally recognized bilingual (English / Spanish) program for grades Pre-K to eighth. We have two campus locations in Washington, DC: Our Oyster Campus is based on Calvert Street and our Adams Campus is located on 19th Street, NW. All instruction and school activities are conducted in a dual-language immersion environment, with equal weight given to learning in English and in Spanish.

At Oyster-Adams Bilingual Elementary School, both the faculty and the student body are balanced 50%-50% between native English and native Spanish speakers. In addition, by enrolling children from many neighborhoods, nationalities, cultures, and economic circumstances, Oyster provides a heterogeneous social environment that is essential to its multicultural mission.

Oyster enjoys an unusual dual status as a DCPS neighborhood public school and as a school entirely devoted to a specialized program. Accordingly, all "in-boundary" children have a right to attend grades K-8, while "out-of-boundary" and pre-k applicants are admitted according to the school's selection criteria

- Oyster is an example of a 50 / 50 two-way dual immersion bilingual model.
- This means that students receive 50% of instruction in English and 50% in Spanish.
- It is different from typical ESL pull-out programs in that Spanish-speaking English language learners receive support in their first language while learning a second language.
- Each classroom at Oyster has two teachers: one a native Spanish speaker, and one a native English speaker. Each teacher is responsible for teaching language arts in his / her native language.
- The teachers share the responsibility for teaching the content area subjects: math, social studies, and science.

* We believe that every child has the ability to learn, and it is our task to fully develop this ability.

* We believe that every Oyster Bilingual School student has an inherent right to an education that will enhance the development of that student's maximum capability, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic level.

* We believe that every child's learning ability, employment potential, and cultural interests are enriched by achieving competency in a language beyond his/her own, in a classroom where children from various cultures learn and share together.

* We believe that the bilingual program at Oyster must provide an environment in which all students are afforded the opportunity to obtain the knowledge and skills that will enable them to succeed both as individuals and members of society.

* We believe that native Spanish speaking children will learn to perform better in an environment that respects their native language and provides continued growth in their native language.