Our website has now moved to http://blogs.acpsk12.org/iatcw/
The International Academy at T.C. Williams High School
IntroductionThe International Academy is a special program within T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia designed especially for recent immigrants. Our students are learning the English language while working towards an on-time high school graduation to prepare them for college and careers. We are a departure from traditional ELL (English language learner) programs where students are placed in classes based on their current level of English proficiency and therefore often spend years of schooling not earning credits they can use towards graduation. Here with us, our students are heterogeneously mixed into credit bearing classes, thus accelerating their learning of academic English while studying a rigorous curriculum of content. Our students engage in project-based learning while collaborating in groups with diverse levels of language proficiency and native languages.
|
The Internationals Network for Public Schools
We are one of eighteen member schools in the Internationals Network for Public Schools, INPS, based in New York City. All INPS schools are based on a model emphasizing heterogeneity and collaboration, experiential learning, language and content integration, localized autonomy and responsibility, and one learning model for all. The INPS model has produced graduation rates for ELL students more than double the rate for ELL students in traditional school settings in the New York City public school system.
For more information about INPS, please visit internationalsnps.org |
History
Bringing the INPS model to T.C. Williams was a grassroots effort led by a team of staff dedicated to improving outcomes for Alexandria's growing immigrant student population. Danielle Wierzbicki and Susannah Courand first learned of the INPS model in 2009. After years of research, planning, and collaboration with INPS staff, T.C. Williams High School teachers, and the Alexandria City Public Schools Office of English Language Learners, the International Academy went live in September of 2012 with its first cohort of students, about 200 ninth grade students - class of 2016.
Currently in the 2014-2015 school year, with approximately 450 students, we are so proud to have our first cohort of juniors. Whereas our juniors are in accelerated classes amongst their own cohort, our sophomores and freshmen have a different experience. In many of their classes, 9th and 10th graders work alongside each other. This provides our sophomores the opportunity to develop leadership and communication skills while exposing our freshmen to our collaborative and rigorous instructional model with the support of their peers.
Our juniors will be the first cohort of students in Alexandria to participate in internships around the city. For many of our students, this will be their first time learning important job skills that require them to utilize their ever-improving English. Throughout the school year, we will hone our students' skills further as we prepare them for successful futures by writing resumes and college essays and applying for scholarships and universities.
Currently in the 2014-2015 school year, with approximately 450 students, we are so proud to have our first cohort of juniors. Whereas our juniors are in accelerated classes amongst their own cohort, our sophomores and freshmen have a different experience. In many of their classes, 9th and 10th graders work alongside each other. This provides our sophomores the opportunity to develop leadership and communication skills while exposing our freshmen to our collaborative and rigorous instructional model with the support of their peers.
Our juniors will be the first cohort of students in Alexandria to participate in internships around the city. For many of our students, this will be their first time learning important job skills that require them to utilize their ever-improving English. Throughout the school year, we will hone our students' skills further as we prepare them for successful futures by writing resumes and college essays and applying for scholarships and universities.
