SUSD hosts many specialized programs for students throughout its 30-school community.  Dual Language Immersion (DLI) is one such specialty, offering core content instruction, while promoting biliteracy and biculturalism in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

Pueblo Elementary and Mohave Middle schools in the Saguaro Learning Community are home to the Spanish immersion program; Desert Canyon Elementary and Desert Canyon Middle schools in the Desert Mountain Learning Community host the Mandarin immersion program.

Beginning with exposure in Pre-K, kindergarten through 5^th grade students spend 50% of their daily instruction in the target language. Middle school students spend two class periods, or 40% of the day, in the target language.  This includes the completion of two high school language courses by the end of 8^th grade.  As students transition from the DLI programs to high school, advanced language pathways are available, leading many students to earn the Arizona Department of Education’s Seal of Biliteracy. 

In addition to academics of learning a new language, DLI students explore culture and the arts, often including special school and community celebrations.  Most recently, two Desert Canyon Elementary students competed in a Mandarin speaking contest held at ASU.  Read more about that below and click here to learn more about DLI in SUSD!

Nine Desert Canyon Elementary students took part in the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Arizona Chinese Speech contest.  Fourth grade students Evelyn Nicks, Elsa Gallagher, Summer Viderman, Ava Ball, Michael Calabrese, Lincoln Chu, Zoe Kotsovos, Sara Lindley and Logan Olley were among the contest’s more than 200 entrants from around the state, 45 of whom from 21 schools advanced to the second round at ASU on Feb. 25.  Ava and Sara, pictured above with their Mandarin teacher Huang Laoshi, finished in 3^rd place overall, each earning a trophy and Certificate of Excellence.  The remaining seven earned certificates of Achievement.  It was the first time DCES took part in the competition -   congratulations, Cubbies!  

Read more at The SUSD Source

Four years in the making, Anasazi Elementary School can now officially call itself an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. Principal Jennifer Waldron and her team of dedicated educators and staff undertook the intense process of adapting the school’s teaching and learning practices to the rigorous, interdisciplinary framework of IB’s Primary Years Programme (PYP), becoming an IB Candidate School in July 2019. Anasazi is one of only eight elementary schools in Arizona to have earned the PYP designation, and the achievement completes Scottsdale Unified’s goal of offering an entire kindergarten through high school internationally acclaimed learning experience to students in the Desert Mountain Learning Community and beyond. Mountainside Middle School and Desert Mountain High School earned IB Middle Years Programme certification in 2020, and Desert Mountain has offered the IB Diploma Programme of study since 1999. Congratulations, Scorpions!

Two SUSD seniors are in the running for a 2023 Flinn Scholarship. Baraa Abdelghne from Saguaro High School and Zack Okun from Desert Mountain High School are among 39 outstanding graduating seniors from around the state vying for an all-expenses-paid education at the Honors College of one of Arizona’s three public universities.  More than 1,000 students applied. The list will get trimmed to 20 in April, following final interviews next month. Baraa is a student in the Saguaro-based Scottsdale Math and Science Academy.  Zack, president of SUSD’s Student Advisory Board, is also a finalist for a prestigious Coca-Cola Scholarship.

The winning word in the 2023 SUSD Spelling Bee last month was ‘zoolatry,’ correctly spelled by Cocopah Middle School 8^th grader Erica Johnson.  Erica will be joined by (to her left) runners-up Greyson Jennings (8^th grade, Cheyenne), Landry Bruyere (4^th grade, Hopi), Jacob Mihlfeith (7^th grade, Tonalea), Siena Hardy (5^th grade, Pueblo), and Hazel Tomassini (5^th grade, Sequoya) at the Region II Spelling Bee at Coronado High School on February 17.  The winners of that competition, other Valley regional Bees and county Bees statewide head to the Arizona Spelling Bee on March 18, with a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the nation’s capitol over Memorial Day week at stake.

Four SUSD First Lego League (FLL) robotics teams were among those that descended on the Memorial Union on the ASU campus last month for the Arizona FLL State Championships. Desert Canyon Middle School’s DC Voltz not only picked up the tournament’s top Core Values Award, but the team’s coach, teacher Larry Bloom, received the Coach/Mentor Award! Cheyenne Traditional’s Coding Kings, Cocopah Blue and Echo Canyon’s RoarBots also joined in the crazy, fast-paced fun. Robotics combine many academic interests in a team-building, problem-solving atmosphere that encourages creativity and cooperation. Way to succeed, SUSD!

Read more at The SUSD Source

December and January are big months for SUSD’s school robotics programs ‒ at all levels! 

December saw Saguaro High School’s robotics organization host a state championship-qualifying event for First Lego League (FLL) teams. Desert Canyon Middle School’s DC Voltz and Cheyenne Traditional’s Coding Kings will represent SUSD at next weekend’s big state tournament at ASU! The Voltz also won an award for their Robot Design, with their coach, teacher Larry Bloom, picking up Coach/Mentor top honors.

Other SUSD teams received event recognition, too: The Cocopah Blues team was awarded the Core Values medal; DCMS’s other FLL team, the DC Jigawatts, took the Innovation Project award; and Navajo Elementary’s RoboBuffs received the Motivate Award.

This was the first time Saguaro hosted the FLL event, although the Saguaro Robotics team has been its longtime organizer. It is always an all-hands-on-deck affair, supported behind the scenes by robotics team and Sisters in STEM volunteers, as well as former Sabercats. This year, the alums included Laney Olson (tournament director), Ben Nearing (judge advisor), and Lewis Ruskin, Eli Arnold and Jacob Ellsworth (technical team). Thank you!

The following December weekend, Saguaro’s two VEX robotics teams competed in the Spin-Up qualifier at Desert Ridge. They have a final chance to qualify for that robotics platform’s state tournament next month. 

But before that, Saguaro is hosting the ‘reveal’ event for this year’s FRC mission. More than 400 students who are part of 40+ FRC robotics teams statewide are descending on Saguaro this weekend to pick up their robot kits and learn what this year’s ‘mission’ is in a live-stream event from FIRST headquarters. Chaparral High School will host the Arizona East Regional FRC competition over spring break in March.

Staying on the topic of STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics ‒ next weekend, Chaparral’s Firebirds Robotics team is sponsoring its first Valley STEM Festival, an opportunity for families, and especially children, to learn about STEM studies and local STEM careers.  The free, outdoor, Jan. 14 event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Read more here.