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| About Sunset Elementary Sunset Elementary School: A tradition of international education and academic excellence  Sunset Elementary School is a vibrant multicultural learning community in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. Sunset Elementary’s renowned International Studies Magnet Program (ISP), the first ISP of South Florida, was created in 1986 in response to the needs of the vast international community of South Florida, with a broad and pioneering vision of producing high-achieving students with deep global awareness, fluent in more than one language and more than one culture, and well prepared to live and work in the 21st century. Sunset’s mission is to offer students a comprehensive International Curriculum, with an emphasis on world language acquisition and innovative programs, through highly qualified and diverse faculty.
Sunset Elementary’s inquiry-based International Curriculum exceeds the district’s standards. Its primary goal is to incorporate world principles that empower students to actively participate in the learning journey of becoming global citizens. As part of the objectives, methods, and activities of the ISP, students in grades one through five enjoy the unique opportunity of receiving the demanding official Spanish, French, or German curriculum in the world language of choice for a total of two and a half hours every day in both language arts and content (math, science, and social studies). Students attend school for an additional hour every day in order to meet the requirements of the program.
The ISP is a dual recognition program implemented as a collaborative effort with the Ministries of Education of Spain, France, and Germany through comprehensive agreements. Educational Attachés from these countries have been working cohesively with Sunset Elementary’s administration, teachers, students, and parents since 1986, providing curriculum, native textbooks for language arts, math, social studies, and science, as well as sponsoring foreign teachers. The three governments perform annual in-depth assessments of the program. Presently, Sunset Elementary is the only internationally accredited magnet school in the United States to provide such a comprehensive, academically challenging program to elementary school children.
Sunset Elementary embraces diversity. Its multicultural student body is composed of students from more than fifty countries who speak over twenty different languages at home. In order to accommodate divergent student abilities, Sunset Elementary offers a School of Choice Program, an integrated Math and Science Gifted Program, an Emotionally Handicapped Center, a Learning Disabilities/Varying Exceptionalities Program, and a Pre-Kindergarten Program, in add ition to its ISP. Mandarin Chinese courses are offered to all interested students.
Of Sunset Elementary’s 1,047 students, 820 students (78.3% of total student population or 85.8% of total population in grades one through five) are enrolled in the ISP: 419 in Spanish, 267 in French, and 134 in German. All students receive Sunset Elementary’s International Curriculum in all core and special classes.
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