Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, in collaboration with students, families and the community promotes a safe learning environment and prepares ethically responsible student to be college and career ready. Our students demonstrate creativity and critical thinking through effective collaboration and communication in a diverse, ever-changing world. Thomas Jefferson Elementary School is a neighborhood school located in the business section of southwest Glendale. Built in the 1950's the school was modernized in 2004. Housed on 4.2 acres of land, the campus is comprised of a main office building and six surrounding buildings. Jefferson services approx. 630 students in grades K-6 and also houses a state preschool on its campus. The families in the community are culturally and linguistically diverse with English, Armenian, Spanish, and Hindi being some of the languages being represented. The academic achievement has been recognized by being the recipient of the Title I Academic Achievement Award, California Distinguished School Award, Blue Ribbon nominee, Reading First Academic Achievement Index in the State of California, California Business for Education Excellence Honor Roll and the school's FLAG program has been recognized by the California Association of Bilingual Educators. Jefferson is home to the first Armenian Language Immersion Program, which is part of the District's Foreign Language Acquisition of Glendale (FLAG) that includes at total of seven languages. Selection and placement in the FLAG program is through a district-wide lottery following a parent application process. The goal of the Armenian Heritage Language Program is to maintain the students' language of heritage, culture and tradition. The Armenian language arts curriculum is taught as enrichment, with literacy as a primary focus. Daily instruction is based on District and State guidelines, standards and curriculum. This model is operational in grades 5 and 6 and is being phased out at Jefferson as students matriculate to middle school. The Dual Immersion model of the program began in 2010-11 with the goal of developing bilingualism and biliteracy through a 50/50 program model. Instruction in all core academics is provided in Armenian for 50% of the day and in English for the other 50%

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