At each of U-46's 5 traditional high schools, students can take Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Spanish for Heritage Speakers.  We offer an innovative 4 level curriculum aligned to the World Readiness Standards of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the College Board's 6 themes for Advanced Placement Language and Culture courses.  In each of our middle schools, students can enroll in both 7th and 8th grade level 1 Spanish and Heritage Spanish courses. Students beginning Spanish in middle school will be able to take AP Spanish Language and Culture in their senior year of High School.

Since school year 2021-2022, Dual Language students and students who have completed AP Spanish Language and Culture will be able to sign up for AP Spanish Literature or Dual Credit Spanish 201, 202 and 261 in partnership with Elgin Community College.  Those students may also take LatinX Studies as a capstone course if they do not take the ECC Dual Credit option.  LatinX Studies is a Spanish Language Arts class taught entirely in Spanish and is not currently calculated as a World Language credit by the ISBE.

Students completing 4 levels of world languages in U-46 should be prepared to test for and earn the target language component of the Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy in that language.  In U-46, ALL students can test for free for any Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy language at any point in time while enrolled in a U-46 High School (in both traditional or alternative settings).

Please feel free to contact World Languages coordinator, Jacob VandeMoortel if you have any questions about our program.