Languages

From the inception of CSS it was decided that the the school will concentrate on Spanish as our one foreign language of study.  With a set number of faculty serving a greatly expanded curriculum, doing one language well makes the most sense for our students.   It is also a way  to build community via a common second language, to recognize our large demographic from Spanish speaking backgrounds.  Spanish is also the most common language spoken in the geographic areas our students are most likely to travel.

The goal at CSS is to have all of our students become effectively bi-lingual in English and Spanish.  We have created two five year program tracks beginning in sixth grade: one will address the needs of the novice learner, the other is for those with native or near-native Spanish language fluency.

In 2008 we began research on the third generation of the Rosetta Stone computer based learning system for use by our novice students.  Confident that this system might best suit the needs of the introductory portion of our novice track, our partner foundation approved funding for the purchase of computers and software to implement  a pilot program at CSS in early 2009. Comparing this system with our classroom based methods will allow us to make our own in-house evaluation. If, as expected, our findings are in keeping with external data already evaluated, this computer-based, dynamic immersion system will provide a superior foundation for our novice students to attain functional fluency. This will lead to a capstone introductory college level Hispanic Literature course, equivalent to AP Spanish.

Our advanced track will continue with the classroom based methods that CSS currently has in place.  These classes explore grammar, spoken language and the wealth of Spanish literature.

Due to the unique relationship between CSS and Columbia, eligible students in the CSS High School will have the opportunity to take advantage of advanced Spanish course work at the university.

The CSS electives portion of the curriculum also provides enhancements to the Spanish Language Arts program not found in other schools.  Such classes as Latin American Poetry, Spanish Journalism, Latin American Poetry, and "Sabor," the popular class exploring Hispanic cuisine and culture, are all taught in Spanish, providing expansive opportunities to explore the language in other lights.