A woman and a girl stand on a pastel-colored landscape with a purple and pink sky. The woman is handing a small blue box to the girl, who is holding a larger blue box.

Forward! Pa’lante!

How Passaic Public Schools boldly aligned its curriculums across English and Spanish to drive student growth.
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DETAILS

Passaic Public Schools
Released Apr 23, 2026

SUMMARY

Passaic’s story offers important lessons on how to meet student needs without lowering expectations for the rigor and quality of instruction. Serving a mostly Latino student population, the district based its curriculum transformation on the requirements of its multilingual learners (MLLs) and sought curriculums with equally rigorous English and Spanish parallel versions. Sticking to that commitment wasn’t easy: “It was an eye-opening experience for us as a district to discover there are very few curriculums that come in both English and other languages and offer comparable experiences for students,” said one district leader. ”We weren’t willing to compromise on the quality.”

  • A two-page spread of a text-heavy document discussing educational strategies, professional development, and curriculum implementation.

  • A page from a publication discussing school district efforts to improve education through shared curricula, stakeholder engagement, building structures, and leadership training.

  • A data infographic about the impact of shared curricula on student reading proficiency from 2024 to 2025. It includes text, numerical statistics, and an illustration of two boys stacking colorful blocks.

“In Spanish, the sentiment behind the motto Forward! Pa’lante! means you're going forward, you're not looking back, not even for impulse—you're just going for it.” 

—Dr. Sandra Montañez-Diodonet, Superintendent
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