| Ah, beautiful Miami! Sun, sand, and palm trees. It's also | | | | countries have been scooped up and set back down |
| the town of opportunities for most students in | | | | into the Miami Schools' district of Miami-Dade. The |
| Kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade who | | | | goal of the program is to produce students who are |
| attend Miami Schools. Magnet programs are abundant, | | | | proficient in a foreign language. |
| and surrounding communities like Coral Gables and | | | | Another success story for Miami Schools, at least so |
| Aventura teem with innovative and exciting schools. | | | | far, is the new ACES charter school, located in |
| Of course, Miami Schools also have their fair share of | | | | Aventura. The school's student body population |
| problems, as well. Budget concerns and dropout rates | | | | began at 425. The city also has constructed a |
| continue to burden the district. | | | | 300-seat middle school expansion of ACES. The |
| One of Miami Schools' success stories is Coral Gables. | | | | charter school is managed under contract by Charter |
| The town has a highly respected magnet program, | | | | Schools USA. ACES boasts gifted teachers at each |
| which resides at Coral Gables High School. It received | | | | grade level, personalized assessment and objectives, |
| a Magnet School of Distinction Award at the 24th | | | | a character building curriculum, four computers |
| Annual Magnet Schools of America Conference in | | | | installed in every classroom, a full-time ESOL teacher, |
| Omaha, Nebraska. | | | | a science lab, and specialty classes not only in music, |
| Also on the horizon for Miami Schools is a new | | | | art, P.E., and media, but in computers, Spanish, and |
| International Studies Magnet High School, which will | | | | science. |
| open near Coral Gables High School. It will offer | | | | It's not all roses for Miami Schools, however. 40 |
| intensive study in foreign languages and culture. | | | | percent of students don't graduate from high school. |
| Seven hundred of Miami Schools' students will spend | | | | An influx of younger families over the past ten years |
| half of each day learning the history and cultures of | | | | requires more classrooms to serve the new |
| Europe entirely in a foreign language. It will be the | | | | large-scale residential projects that are popping up. |
| first and only high school of its kind in the country! | | | | Rising housing prices in the Miami Schools area force |
| The curriculum will be based on the successful | | | | many young families to move into older condos. This |
| international education programs already in place at | | | | triggers a demographic shift and effects what each |
| Miami Schools like Carver Elementary, Sunset | | | | school system receives from property taxes. |
| Elementary, and Ponce de Leon Middle School, all of | | | | Also, the statewide classroom reduction amendment, |
| which teach French, German, and Spanish. Not only | | | | passed by voters in 2002 has become a challenge for |
| are students immersed in a foreign language, they | | | | Miami Schools' administrators, as they must rely more |
| are instructed in a foreign culture; just as other | | | | and more on portable classrooms. Miami Schools face |
| students in France, Germany, or Spain would be. | | | | many challenges, yet are still able to create and |
| English isn't spoken at all during the foreign language | | | | maintain some exciting and innovation school choices. |
| part of the day. It's as if schools from those | | | | |