We offer two options: a developmental bilingual program for Spanish-speaking students, or a monolingual (English-language) educational experience. Developmental bilingual education means that students are taught to read, write, and understand their lessons in Spanish and in English. Our bilingual teachers are dually certified, experienced educators who can provide individualized attention to students.

We honor our students’ native language as they work toward proficiency in English. More than 75 percent of our Longfellow families are of Hispanic descent, and over 40 percent of our students are English language learners. Our program does not replace Spanish with English. Spanish-speaking students use their primary language and English as they learn, through three steps:

• Building Oracy: Students develop speaking and listening skills, build their vocabulary and an understanding of what words mean, and learn how to process what they learn.
• The Bridge: Students learn to recognize what is the same and what is different in the two languages, that you can use language in different ways depending on what you want to say, and that words and sentences can have more than one meaning.
• The Extension: Students are given meaningful and interesting ways to use both languages equally.

Longfellow School also offers the following bilingual, full-day programs: K3 Head Start, K4 and K5.

Bilingual Education Contact

Please contact the Lau Compliance Center at (414) 475-8525 to have your child screened and enrolled in bilingual, multicultural education.

Learn more about Milwaukee Public Schools’ bilingual dual-language programs.