Students from Abraham Lincoln High School in southwest Denver bring many diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to the classroom that enrich the school community. At 1 p.m. on Monday, May 6, the school celebrated 50 students who are “Exiting with Excellence” by meeting the criteria to exit from Multilingual Education Services. This significant accomplishment shows that these students have achieved proficiency in the English language. Many of these students have simultaneously advanced their native language abilities as well. Some will be graduating with the Seal of Biliteracy, while some are in pursuit of earning their Minor in Spanish before graduating high school.
Lincoln is a Transitional Native Language Instruction (TNLI) school that serves Multilingual Language Learners (MLL). The school prepares all students for college readiness and provides opportunities for students to take high school courses in Spanish to develop their native language in an academic setting.
“Students at Lincoln have a unique story behind their journey, some students have benefitted from DPS MLL services as early as kindergarten. Others have excelled during their high school career. The recognition is meaningful not only for their self accomplishment, but for their families and peers,” said Dr. Eva Ortiz Benitez, Language Arts Teacher and Senior Team Lead.
“Our students who are ‘Exiting with Excellence’ this spring exemplify the dedication, intelligence, and perseverance of our Lincoln Lancers! We could not be more proud of how our students have demonstrated their growth and proficiency in their second language and so excited to see them continue their development of both of their languages!” said Assistant Principal Kathy Fox.
DPS has over 35,000 MLLs with home languages other than English in ECE to 12th grade. These students enrich the linguistic palette of our city with the sounds of more than 200 languages spoken across our district. Spanish is the home language for the majority of MLLs in DPS, but other widely-spoken languages include Arabic, Amharic, Vietnamese, Somali, French, Nepali, Tigrigna, Mandarin and Russian.
