Join us for a 15 Minute History exploring the history of Escuela Key Elementary and Arlington’s groundbreaking Spanish immersion program. Hear from longtime educators and administrators Evelyn Fernandez and Dr. Marjorie Myers to learn how Key became one of the world’s most recognized bilingual schools, shaping generations of students through dual-language education.
Evelyn Fernandez helped launch Arlington’s first Spanish immersion program at Key in 1986 and spent decades supporting bilingual education across APS. Dr. Marjorie Myers, principal of Key from 1995–2018, led the school to international recognition as a model immersion program.
More about our speakers:
Evelyn Fernandez, M.Ed. Key Elementary School ESL and Gifted Teacher 1984-1995, APS Immersion Coordinator 1996-1997, Assistant Principal at Key School 1997-2016.
In 1986 Key School accepted the first class of students into the first grade to begin the first two-way partial Spanish immersion program in Arlington Public Schools.
In the early 1980s when Evelyn Fernandez taught at Key Elementary in the ESL program and as a gifted education teacher, she earned the “Gifted Teacher of the Year” award for Arlington County Public Schools. As a native Spanish speaker, she became involved in the beginnings of the two-way immersion program at Francis Scott Key Elementary. Later, she coordinated the immersion programs at Oakridge and Abingdon Elementary schools and coordinated the design of the immersion program at Gunston Middle School. In 1997 she returned to Key Elementary as assistant principal for the next 18 years working on all areas of the program. In addition, she presented the program at several nationwide immersion conferences. Her relentless dedication and invaluable contributions ensured the program’s success for both Spanish- and English-speaking students.
Dr. Marjorie L. Myers, Principal of Francis Scott Key Elementary from 1995 to 2018.
Key School ~ Escuela Key is one of the most well-known and recognized Spanish-English Immersion Schools in the world. It is internationally recognized for its exemplary full-school dual language program. Key has hosted visitors from around the world. The message that having a bilingual educational experience is a special gift parents could afford their children was always prevalent. Dr. Myers ’dissertation showed that even children with special needs in the immersion schools outperformed special needs students in monolingual schools. Dr. Myers was recognized by King Felipe VI, Rey de España (the King of Spain) in 2018 for the outstanding work of running a successful bilingual school and promoting bilingualism in the USA. In 2019 the Immersion program was moved to the former Jackson then ATS building and the name was changed. Now it is just “Escuela Key”.
