Districts across the country grapple with how to best serve their emergent bilingual students, particularly those new to the United States. In response to this increasing need, Aldine Independent School District (ISD) took an innovative approach: they created La Promesa A Newcomer and Dual Language Experience High School, a specialty campus dedicated to supporting newcomer students.

Launched in 2021, La Promesa grew rapidly with a focus on strategically grouping students in small, heterogeneous cohorts to provide a sense of belonging to students entering the country and their school, while also ensuring ‘teaming’ of core content teachers with cohorts of students to provide targeted support. The school’s model includes several innovative features:

• Bilingual Core Instruction: Many core courses, including Geometry, Chemistry, and History, are taught in Spanish, allowing students to maintain academic progress while developing English proficiency
• Intensive English Support: Students receive double-dosing in English through paired core English courses and English Language Development (ELD) classes
• Career Preparation: All students participate in one of three CTE pathways: Digital Media, Education, or JROTC
• Community-Based Learning: Strategic student cohorting creates stable peer groups and support networks
• Increased Math Support: Certain math courses are double-blocked to boost proficiency

La Promesa’s innovative model has been a key priority for Aldine Independent School District. Dr. Adrian Bustillos, the district’s Chief Transformation Officer says “La Promesa is a shining example of our district’s focus on equity and student outcomes. It is about ensuring every student can thrive and giving them the resources, tools, teachers, and environment that works best for them.”

This charge came with many scheduling challenges but La Promesa was determined to not compromise on these priorities. Through scheduling enabled by Timely’s technology and support, La Promesa has created a uniquely supportive learning environment that balances academic rigor with targeted language development support.

“Creating a schedule that works for newcomer students is incredibly complex,” says Fernanda Flores-Bolivar, Founder and Principal of La Promesa High School. “Our students come to us with varied transcripts from their home countries, different levels of English proficiency, and diverse academic needs. We need a schedule that can accommodate all of these factors while still maintaining our core mission of accelerating English language development and preparing students for postsecondary success.”

La Promesa’s partnership with Timely has enabled several key achievements:

How La Promesa Used Strategic Scheduling to Enable Their Model

Step 1: Establish Clear Priorities

La Promesa’s leadership team identified several key scheduling priorities:

• Ensure all students receive complete schedules meeting graduation requirements
• Enable student cohorting, particularly for 9th graders
• Create manageable teaching loads, especially for English teachers
• Establish common planning time for core subject departments
• Maintain smaller class sizes for 9th-grade students

Step 2: Address Complex Student Needs

La Promesa faced unique scheduling challenges due to their students’ varied academic backgrounds. The school needed to:

• Evaluate and place students with non-standard transcripts from other countries
• Create flexible pathways to graduation
• Balance English language development needs with content mastery

Step 3: Implement Strategic Solutions

Working with Timely, La Promesa developed several innovative scheduling solutions that enabled their priorities and addressed the complexities of their students’ needs:

Grade-Level Specific Approaches:

• 9th grade: Through Timely’s cohorting feature, 100% of 9th grade students were placed in heterogeneous, small cohorts.
• 10th-11th grade: Timely’s cohorting feature also allowed for 10th and 11th grade students to receive core subject area cohorts with flexibility for individualized needs.
• 12th grade: Timely’s optimization technology increased course choice and individualization, ensuring seniors were able to meet all graduation requirements while receiving individualized schedules that incorporated student interests.

Teacher Support Structures:

• Daily common planning time for core departments was accomplished by adding shared department meetings to Timely and then allowing the optimization technology to find the best placement in teacher schedules, ensuring alignment of preps.
• Increased visibility into teacher schedules across the school allowed for structured prep periods for teachers with multiple preps.

La Promesa’s strategic scheduling approach, enabled by Timely’s AI optimization technology, produced several significant outcomes:

La Promesa High School’s results demonstrate how strategic scheduling can enable innovative educational models for emergent bilingual students. By treating the master schedule as a strategic tool rather than just a logistical challenge, La Promesa has created the conditions required for both students and teachers to succeed and feel confident in their educational journey.

The school’s partnership with Timely has shown that with the right technology and approach, schools can create schedules that support complex academic models while meeting the diverse needs of newcomer students. As districts nationwide seek solutions for supporting their emergent bilingual populations, La Promesa’s model offers valuable insights into how strategic scheduling can enable student success.