International Education in the Seattle Public Schools: Background

It was the former Seattle Public School Superintendent John Stanford’s dream to create a world-class, international public school system that prepares students to achieve and thrive in our increasingly global community. He envisioned an international education program where graduates are able to communicate comfortably and effectively to diverse audiences in diverse modes, including fluent use of a second language and state-of-the-art technologies. These communication skills would be enhanced by graduate’s experience of a variety of cultural milieu through academics, recreation, and the arts. Students following the international pathway would meet its challenges by developing and honing problem-solving and creative-reasoning skills, leading to above-standard performance in all disciplines.

John Stanford International School (JSIS) and Hamilton International Middle School (HIMS) represent the initial implementation of this vision. After several years of study, planning and key stakeholder buy-in, JSIS opened its doors in the fall of 2000-becoming the Seattle Public School’s first international school and first world language immersion school.

With strong leadership from Principal Karen Kodama (personally selected by John Stanford as JSIS’s founding principal), the support of the University of Washington, the business community, parents, and a staff who embrace the school’s vision and direction, JSIS has quickly established—and is continuing to build—a reputation for excellence. The enrollment waiting list is the largest in the district. Over half (53%) of JSIS’s 385 students are minority/students of color and, collectively, they speak over 19 different languages. Approximately 33% of all students are eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program.

When JSIS opened its doors in the fall of 2000, it began with a half-day Spanish immersion program in kindergarten and first grade, and a strong international curriculum in all grades. Each year a grade level has been added to the language immersion program, so that the initial first graders are now in Spanish for half of each day in 3rd grade. In the fall of 2001, the additional challenge of a half-day Japanese immersion program was taken on. Now in its second year, it is offered to kindergarteners and first graders.

The second step in building the international program was designating Hamilton Middle School (grades 6-8) as the Seattle Public School’s international middle school. Currently about 750 students attend HIMS—over 62% minority/students of color, approximately 50% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, and 11% special education students. At last count, 38 languages were spoken by the families of students attending HIMS. As with Ms. Kodama, HIMS’s principal, Terry Acena, was personally selected to bring strong leadership to the school. The school has strong support from its parent stakeholder group and its teachers and staff.

HIMS already has a 3-year Spanish program in place, and has made great strides in integrating a global perspective throughout the curriculum. The school is working closely with JSIS and the University of Washington to enhance their world languages program to meet the needs of diverse skill levels of incoming students, including those who are fluent in Spanish. Japanese is the next language to be added to the middle school world languages program. The integration of HIMS programs with those at JSIS creates the first major stepping stone in language immersion education on the international education pathway in Seattle.

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