Spanish Immersion

Spanish Immersion Program

Alvarado follows state standards for math, science, social studies and language arts. In the 2025-2026 school year, SFUSD has shifted to all SI models having 50% Spanish instruction and 50% English instruction K-5. Through a community engagement process, remaining aligned to SFUSD's instructional parameters and curriculum, students in Alvarado's SI Program recieve about 65% of instruction in Spanish and 45% in English K-2. 

In this model, the school district has filled two-thirds of the Spanish Immersion kindergarten seats with native Spanish speakers and bilingual students, which allows the teachers to converse with students in Spanish without resorting to English translation. The native English-speaking children learn Spanish from their fellows and from their teacher. The native Spanish-speaking children start their education in a familiar language and hone their English skills with their peers in the same way. 

There is considerable emphasis on Latino culture across the programs. We celebrate the Day of the Dead; we host Fiesta Latina, an evening program of dance and Central American food; we put on a Spring Carnival modeled on Latin American celebrations.

Our teachers take learning outside the classroom, too. Alvarado students take many field trips, usually in groups of two classrooms, often with groups from both the General Education and the Spanish Immersion programs. Last year two fourth-grade classes visited the Marin Headlands Institute, all four classes of kindergardeners visited the California Academy of Sciences, and one fourth/fifth-grade class visited the Academy twice. Third graders traveled downtown to see an ODC performance of the Velveteen Rabbit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The number of classes and class sizes are the same for the General Education and the Spanish Immersion programs. There are two classrooms for kindergarten, first, second and third grades. There is one fourth-grade class, one fifth-grade class and one classroom split between fourth and fifth graders. 

The composition of each class changes each year as children are shuffled and distributed into new classrooms for the next grade, based on staff assessments and student needs. This creates a larger circle of friends and familiar faces for each child while making the entire school a more tightly knit community.