Home > What we do > Advocating for NMCS’s Future

2023 Charter Renewal

Nuestro Mundo, Inc. is in the process of renewing its charter with the school district. Your input and support are an important piece of this process. Here’s a presentation that outlines the charter’s 2024-2029 proposals and changes. For more information, please see the 2024-29 Charter Renewal Updated Executive Summary, the 2024-29 Charter Renewal Application, and November 2023 Addendum.

——————————–

2018 Charter Renewal

Nuestro Mundo, Inc is moving forward with NMCS’s charter renewal. The next step is to provide comments to the Instruction Work Group of the MMSD Board of Education. NMI and NMCS will present the renewal application to the Instruction Work Group on December 3, 2018. If you can attend and give your support, here are the details:

Instruction Work Group
When: Monday, December 3, from 5:00pm – 6:30pm
Where: Doyle Administration Building, 545 W. Dayton St., Room 103, Madison

If you are unable to attend, you can provide a statement in support of the application for a 5-year charter renewal for Nuestro Mundo. Be sure to add comments about what the school means to you in meeting the educational needs of its students and in promoting intercultural awareness and equity.
You may provide your comments on this public appearance form. If you cannot attend the meeting, please drop off your completed form to the NMCS office no later than 5:30 PM on November 29, 2018 and we will submit it on your behalf. The slips must be handed in on the day of the hearing to be considered by the Board of Education.

Want to read a summary?  Here is the charter renewal executive summaries in English and Spanish:

English Executive summary charter application

Spanish Executive summary charter application

Here is the complete charter renewal applications in English:

NMCS Charter Renewal Application

NMCS Charter Renewal Appendices

Permanent Facilities for NMCS

Nuestro Mundo, Inc. believes that the time has come to advocate for permanent facilities for our school. As Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

NMI has adopted an advocacy goal related to the desire to secure a permanent home for Nuestro Mundo.

The goal reads:

Through securing permanent facilities for a Spanish DLI elementary school as an innovative and independent program within MMSD, Nuestro Mundo will continue to unite and lead our community as a force for social change, equity, and educational excellence.

The following are essential components to our success and therefore must be central to the advocacy goal stated above:

  1. We advocate for a school-wide dual language program: Research and experience demonstrates that a school-wide approach to DLI, as opposed to a strand program of DLI, allows for a more focused approach to school improvement.  Because we are a school-wide DLI program, we are able to provide professional development centered around biliteracy and  immersion strategies. The result is a coherent scope and sequence and aligned instructional practices from one environment to the next.
  2. We advocate for an independent school facility located in proximity to where our students live:  Since moving to our own school building, NMCS has been able to form an identity central to its mission and focused on the NMCS community.  In our experience, after having left our “school-within-a-school” at Frank Allis, we have been able to define our identity. As a result, we have developed a positive climate and culture and strong ties between the school and our community.
  3. A student body that is culturally, racially and linguistically diverse: Diversity goes to the heart of the Nuestro Mundo mission to promote a pluralist and inclusive community.  Our program requires the linguistic diversity offered by students who speak Spanish in the home.  Nuestro Mundo founders sought a model that would more effectively set Latinx students up for social mobility.  What they discovered through dual language immersion is a model that enhances the educational experience of all students.  The school has made many efforts to reach out to the African-American community, and it is important that these families continue to have access to our program.
  4. 90/10 dual language program:   NMCS has found the 90/10 model to be effective, and our data suggests it is working.  Our biliteracy framework and unit plans reflect a thoughtful approach to English literacy instruction and Spanish literacy instruction within this model. NMCS has also developed an exemplary bilingual approach to serving students who may be in need of intervention, additional supports, and/or special education.  Our 90/10 program allows us to meet the needs of all students.

NMCS has benefitted from the nimbleness afforded through the charter to be responsive to cutting edge research in the fast-changing field of bilingual and immersion education, which has proven to best meet the needs of our students–especially those historically underserved in our district.  NMI also believes that the school district benefits from allowing innovation to thrive.  NMCS brought DLI to Madison.
The path forward must allow NMCS to continue to serve MMSD as an incubator for innovative practices related to equity, cultural and linguistic responsiveness, and biliteracy.

Click here to download the a pdf version of this statement. NMI Advocacy Goal – Adopted 11-13-17