Every year, John Stanford International and McDonald International Elementary face the daunting task of raising funds to cover the cost of placing full-time language immersion Instructional Assistants (IA’s) in every classroom. The IA’s are native Spanish or Japanese speakers who help to provide each classroom with a lower-student-teacher ratio. What’s more, having an IA in the classroom enables students to hear conversations in Spanish or Japanese, providing a higher rate of language acquisition.
On the school’s PTA website, McDonald Elementary explains that the cost for one full time IA that supports two classrooms is $50,000 per year. The Seattle School …