Spain's "School of the Year" contest for US Spanish Programs

A competition sponsored by Spain's Ministry of Education is planning its second addition of presenting awards to American elementary, middle and high schools who excel in Spanish teaching.

The announcement came a couple of days ago because the Ministry of Education in Spain wants to reward and recognize those schools that are really making an effort to promote bilingual programs and Spanish teaching.

In the USA, 4 million young people study Spanish as a second language, making up more than all the students of the other offered languages together. 800,000 university students continue studying Spanish, a statistic highlighted by Diego Fernandez Alberdi, the Spanish Education Ambassador in Washington D.C. In fact, the US is the country with the largest number of Spanish-as-a-second-language learners.

Link to PDF brochure from the Spanish Ministry of Education website

What can your school win?

The new edition of the "School of the Year" contest will recognize 4 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and one outstanding high school.

The top candidates in each category will win a $5,000 prize, 2nd place $2,500, $1,500 for third place and $500 for fourth. The cash prizes are financed by Spain's Santander Bank.

Additionally, the Comillas Foundation will cover the costs of a one week course on Spanish literature and language for one professor from all 7 winning schools.

The Cervante's Institute, another official sponsor of the contest, will donate 2 licenses to each winning school to access their virtual classroom

Last, Anaya and Santillana editorials will provide Spanish learning materials for different language levels for each winning institution.

According to Fernandez Alberdi, there are 500 educational institutions in the US with bilingual English/Spanish programs. Recent studies show that a bilingual education not only helps to learn a second language, but also helps students to master their native tongue.

The Spanish Education Ambassador went on to explain that English speakers in bilingual environments go on to achieve better results in English than those students who receive a more traditional education. Additionally, these centers play an important role in the integration of immigrants.

How can your school participate?

In order to participate as an elementary school, your must have some sort of bilingual program in which at least 50% of the teaching and education is in Spanish, for a middle school the requirement is 35% and for a high school 25%.

In the first year of the contest, only 57 American schools participated.

Candidates have until the 31st of January to apply.  Towards the end of February, 15 finalists will be selected and in March the schools will be visited by contest officials. In April, the lucky winners will be announced.