Davis Bilingual Magnet School is one of only two schools in Tucson Unified School District to use a Spanish immersion program.
At Davis, where the program has been in effect since 1979, kindergartners and first-graders are taught only in Spanish. In second grade, teachers begin speaking in English 15 percent of the time. From third through fifth grade, students are taught in English 30 percent of the time.
Davis, 500 W. St. Marys Road has been a performing or performing plus school since 2004. All teachers are bilingual certified.
Principal Carmen Campuzano said the school attracts parents who want their children to be bilingual. She said many teachers, architects, engineers and professors send their children to Davis.
Campuzano said the school’s goal is dual-language proficiency for every student. From the first day of kindergarten students are spoken to only in Spanish. Campuzano said within two weeks English-only students are responding to their teachers in Spanish.Campuzano said the school is successful because all students are given a strong foundation in the Spanish language. The skills students learn transfer from one language to another.
Children are taught listening, speaking, reading and writing in Spanish.
Campuzano said it is usually hard for a school where students are bilingual because of state testing mandates. Because Davis is a magnet bilingual school, it is easier for them because they are allowed to test children in Spanish.Davis is working with Roskruge, TUSD’s other bilingual magnet school, which teaches kindergarten through eighth grade, to help them develop a stronger bilingual program.
Students from Davis are encouraged to go to Roskruge, 501 E. Sixth St., for middle school. Roskruge uses a different bilingual program, where students are taught in Spanish half of the day and in English the other half. Middle school students are taught in English, but take a Spanish class.
Roskruge Principal José Olivas was a teacher and assistant principal at Davis and is now trying to overhaul the program at Roskruge so that in the future, it can be as successful as Davis’. He said it is difficult and will take time because at the middle school level, children come from over 30 different schools in Tucson, and they all have different Spanish-speaking backgrounds.
For more information on Davis Bilingual Magnet School, visit http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/Davis/ or call 225-1400.
