21/09/2023
Cambridge University Press & Assessment experts will evaluate the success of a bilingual education programme run by the Madrid regional government in Spain. The evaluation, which will last a total of four years, will provide invaluable data that will help teachers, schools and institutions reflect on the progress achieved this far, and look to further improvements ahead.
The bilingual programme, which began in 2004, aims at helping school students become highly proficient in a second language other than Spanish. Students enrolled in the Spanish-English programme split their learning time between English and Spanish and, depending on the itinerary which they follow, between approximately 20% and 40% of the curriculum taught and assessed in English, including five hours of English language classes per week.
At the end of primary and secondary school cycles, students will take a Cambridge English Qualification at an appropriate level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) – the international standard for describing language ability - to test their level of English.
The number of students involved has grown since 2004, when students in 26 primary schools started the programme. There are currently more than 330,000 students aged 6 to 18 enrolled in the programme in the Madrid region. Cambridge Impact monitoring and evaluation team will use a combination of assessment data, survey responses, classroom observations, key stakeholder interviews and focus groups, to evaluate the outcomes of the bilingual programme, including understanding the efficacy of teaching practices, as well as levels of students’ motivation and attitude towards English learning and assessment.