Coral Way K-8 Center

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Formerly "Coral Way Elementary School", construction on the middle school (Grades 6-8) wing began in 2004. The school, originally built in 1936, is in one of the first neighborhoods of the City of Miami. Coral Way K-8 as it is today known, lies in the center of a highly Hispanic middle class neighborhood. This neighborhood lies close to the outskirts of downtown Miami, but the average lot is just under 1/4 of an acre. The neighborhood, just south of the famed "Little Havana" and just east of the Upper-Middle class "The Roads" area, was relatively cheap to buy into before the Miami real-estate explosion around 2002. Take this for example, a Two bed/1 bathroom house with an attached garage on just under 1/4 of an acre went for $89k in 1989. Now, in July 2006, this small 1936 house could realistically fetch somewhere around $425k. A now defunct Dry Cleaners 6 blocks from the school was called "Five Points Dry Cealing" since the neighborhood is truly in the center of everything.

The school itself is on Southwest 13th Avenue, also officially known as Cuban Memorial Boulevard. This street was widely known for its Tree-lined median, with a wide lane on either side of it. But recently, City of Miami politicians decided to make these streets slightly less wide, and putting a paved walkway, benches and at its southern tip, some minimal landscaping. The majority of the local community supported this change, while some furious because it called for the removal of about 20 trees, each planted sometime around 1917.

You become aware of the cultural diversity of the school when you travel a half mile north on Cuban Memorial Boulevard and you begin to see statues and memorials commemorating the fight against Cuban communism, and you pass the home for Cuban Political Prisoners.

Before construction began on the middle school wing, there was a large field of grass, asphalt basketball courts, small playground, and physical education shelter.

Back when the field was there, students would play sports during Physical Education. In mid-December the long-awaited "Coral Way Super Bowl" would take place, where the best football players in the school would make two different teams with student coaches. The physical education coaches would be referees, and every single child in the school would be allowed to skip class for the day and go watch the game. But now with the disappearance of the large grass field, physical education is limited to a small grassy area adjacent to the middle school wing, with too little room for any true sports.

Many of the students are enrolled in an optional academic after school program. "onternational studies" as it is called, is held after school for one hour. The entire program is held in Spanish, with rotating schedules covering science, language arts and history. Unlike it's Latin American student body, this program is taught using Spanish (as in Spain) textbooks and grammar. One of the reasons that parents choose this option for their children is because this program basically acts as a key to a high-quality magnet middle school for language; G.W. Carver Middle.

The original school is very beautiful, although it's a square, the majority of the area is taken up by a courtyard with large trees, bushes, and a now non-functioning fountain in the center. It's Spanish-style architecture is highly apparent. The school is truly like no other in many ways, but the mixture of architecture with the courtyard cannot be matched.

The final year of nationally-acclaimed principal Migdania D. Vega was in the school year of 2002-2003. A very rigid old woman with high standards was not particularly loved by the teachers for her strict policies and tight standards, but the parents and School Board alike were very pleased by the level of excellence she attained for the school. Instead of promoting an already experienced Assistant Principal to Principal of the school, the county brought in a man with a Doctorate degree from another school. Dr. Pablo Ortiz.

History of the Bilingual Program in the School

In 1961 the public school system provided "Spanish for Spanish," speaking students. The schools ran into problems because they were not equipped with the resources or Spanish speaking teachers to meet the needs of the students. The Miami-Dade County School Board recognized this problem and decided to apply for funds from the Ford Foundation to help fund materials and resources. The Ford Foundation agreed to give the school board funds, but in return the school board must develop a bilingual school.

In 1963 a school site was selected for the experimental bilingual program. The school that was selected was Coral Way Elementary in Miami. This school site was selected because there was a balance of English and Spanish speakers in a middle class community. The goal of this bilingual program was to create a dual language program where both English speakers and Spanish speakers would participate. The goal was that both groups would attain fluency in both languages while maintaining their native language.

The program began with 350 first, second and third grade children. The children were grouped by language. In the morning the Cuban children received instructions in Spanish and in the afternoon they received instruction in English. The English speaking children had the schedule reversed. They would receive English instruction in the morning and Spanish instruction in the afternoon. Both the English speakers and the Spanish speakers spent time together during lunch time, art time, music time, and Physical education time. Several reports indicated that both groups made progress academically in both languages.

In 1967 the dual language program was offered to all grades, K-6. Many experienced Cuban teachers were hired to assist with the dual language program. In 1973-1974 the Department of Program Evaluation of the Miami Dade County Schools revealed that the students who attended the dual language programs continued to show progress on standardized testing.

The Coral Way Elementary bilingual program paved the way for the 1968 federal Bilingual Education Act. It was a superior representation of the many positive effects a bilingual program has on achieving student success. This program was the first quality bilingual program established in our nation. The program was very instrumental in establish bilingual programs throughout the country. The programs at Coral Way Elementary reinforces the notion that dual language programs for English speakers and Spanish speakers are an asset and an enrichment to the student's learning process. Coral Way Elementary is a representation of a dual language program at its best.

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