Coral Way Bilingual K-8 Center

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Coral Way Bilingual K-8 Center, built as Coral Way Elementary School in 1936, is a K-8 school located in the Little Havana district of Miami, Florida (USA). The school, which began teaching in English and Spanish in 1963, was a pioneer in the field of bilingual instruction in the United States and remains the only bilingual K-8 center in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. It was expanded in 2004 to include grades 6-8.

The school building was designed by August Geiger, a noted South Florida architect who worked for the Dade County School Board. The architecture is in a Mediterranean Revival style with arcaded walkways around interior courtyards. It was constructed under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration and completed in 1936.

Coral Way's enrollment is 1,502 for the 2005-2006 academic year. The principal is Alejandro Pérez. The school's teams are called the Chiefs.


In 1961 the school system started a "Spanish for Spanish" program. With help from the Ford Foundation they modified the program into a full bilingual eduction curriculum. The pilot program was instituted with the 350 1st through 3rd grade students at Coral Way, selected because of the balance of English and Spanish speakers. The goal of the program was to promote bilingual fluency among all students. In the mornings, children would receive instructions in their native language, then switch to the other language in the afternoon, sharing lunch, art, music and physical education times. Several reports indicated that both groups made progress academically in both languages. (Pellerano, et al - 1998)

In 1967 the dual language program was expanded to grades K-6. A 1973-1974 report by the Department of Program Evaluation for the Miami-Dade County Schools revealed that the students who attended the dual language programs continued to show progress on standardized testing. The success of the program paved the way for the Bilingual Education Act of 1968.

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