Adelante Charter School achieved the greatest academic performance index (API) gain of any school among the Santa Barbara Unified district’s elementary schools, with an increase of 37 points from 2011.

Adelante’s API gain far surpassed its target growth of 5 points, and represents the third year in a row of API increases in excess of the school’s growth targets.

Over these three years, the school’s total API increase adds up to an impressive 85 points. One thing is certain: Adelante is surely “moving forward.”

Adelante is a small Spanish/English two-way immersion charter school. The school’s faculty is a group of bilingual educators committed to closing the achievement gap across economic and cultural boundaries. By applying the best research from highly successful dual-immersion programs around the world, the school is committed to supporting all students in achieving academic excellence and cultural competency with a curriculum rich in language, science and technology.

Adelante, which shares space with Franklin Elementary School, has an overall enrollment of 226 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Aside from its two-way immersion language curriculum, the school also places great emphasis on the arts and sciences. Fine art, music and dance are supported through community partnerships with ICAN (Incredible Children’s Art Network) and the Santa Barbara Dance Institute.

The science program at Adelante is based on FOSS, a research-based science curriculum developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. It is a hands-on, inquiry-based program that engages children with the natural world and matches activities to the way students learn.

When California’s API results were released last week, Juanita Hernandez, Adelante’s principal, was ecstatic.

“We are definitely on the right path,” she said. “Congratulations, Adelante Charter School!”

Click here for more information about the school.

— Sheila Cullen is a board member for Adelante Charter School.