Charter application under review — Florida Charter School Review Commission · decision expected November 2026 · no opening date yet · join the interest list

For Middle School Leaders

Bilingual education in Broward shouldn't stop at eighth grade.

This page is written for principals, assistant principals, world-language department heads, and dual-language coordinators. What follows is a set of modular add-ons — each one optional, each one standing on its own — that fit an existing middle school without converting it into anything.

Where the pathway ends today

Three facts about bilingual education in Broward County.

It ends at eighth grade.

Broward County's dual-language programs stop at the end of middle school. A student who spent years in a dual-language classroom has no bilingual high school continuation to enter.

39 campuses, then 32.

The district's own dual-language program has contracted — from thirty-nine campuses to thirty-two. The pathway is not widening; it is narrowing.

No core content in Spanish.

No Broward middle school teaches core academic content in Spanish. Where Spanish exists, it exists as a course — not as the language a student does mathematics, science, or history in.

Every world-language teacher in this county knows what happens next. A student finishes eighth grade able to read a text, argue a position, and write a paragraph in academic Spanish. In ninth grade that student is placed in Spanish 1, or in a Spanish 2 section built for a beginner, and spends a year re-covering ground already covered. Proficiency that took six years to build begins to come apart in one.

Global Citizenship Academy is proposed as the other end of that pathway: a four-year bilingual high school where the work continues instead of restarting. Our charter application is under review with the Florida Charter School Review Commission, with a decision expected in November 2026. We are not an approved school, we have no opening date, and we are not enrolling anyone. Nothing on this page is a promise of seats, and nothing here should be read as a school recruiting your students.

Four Modules

An add-on, not a conversion.

None of what follows replaces a program, displaces a teacher, or reorganizes a school. Each module is independent: it works on its own, it works alongside the others, and it works with the staff you already have.

Registrar action

Course-credit upgrade

Your existing Spanish course, taught by your existing teacher, offered under the high-school course number so that it carries full high school credit on the student's transcript. Same instruction, same teacher, same room — with a transcript consequence attached.

Course numbering and scheduling are the district's decision, not ours. What we can contribute is the alignment read and the exit profile; the coding sits with your district office.

What it costs the school — nothing. No new staff, no new curriculum, no schedule change.

Assessment pathway

The proficiency-exam pathway

Florida already attaches high school credit to demonstrated proficiency, and it is worth reading in the rule's own words rather than in a summary.

A student who did "not enroll in, or complete, foreign language courses, shall be awarded four (4) foreign language high school course credits" — upon reaching the Silver Seal of Biliteracy level of proficiency on an approved assessment.

Rule 6A-1.09951(4), Florida Administrative Code · quoted language shown in quotation marks

An honest caveat The rule speaks to a student who did not enroll in or complete foreign language courses. The timing of the credit award for a student who reaches the Silver Seal level on an approved assessment while still in the middle grades is something we are confirming with the district; we are not going to tell you it is settled when it is not. When the district confirms it in writing, we will publish what they say — including if the answer is unfavorable.

For a student who has genuinely built academic Spanish across the middle grades, the Silver Seal level is a realistic target rather than an aspirational one. Where that student is eligible, four foreign-language credits attach to something they can already do — and the ninth-grade conversation changes from "which level do we put them in" to "what do they take with the time they just got back." That is true regardless of which high school they attend.

What it costs the school — nothing instructional. Identifying candidates and arranging an approved assessment, no change to what is taught.

After school, family-paid

After-school enrichment cohort

A small after-school cohort preparing students for an approved proficiency assessment and for high-school-level Spanish. Participating families pay for it. The school hosts it if it wants to and carries no cost, no budget line, and no staffing obligation.

If your language teacher wants that work, they are the first person we would ask. This module is entirely optional, families opt in individually, and a school that would rather not host it loses access to nothing else on this page.

What it costs the school — nothing. Space after hours, if the school chooses to offer it.

When you are ready — or never

Optional content-in-Spanish course

One academic subject course taught bilingually — a single section, chosen by the school, staffed by the school. This is the module that most resembles what a bilingual high school actually does, and it is deliberately last, because it is the only one that touches the master schedule.

We can contribute curriculum alignment and planning support at no cost. Whether to do it, when to do it, and who teaches it are entirely yours. A school that never adopts this module is still a full partner in the other three.

What it costs the school — one section of schedule, whenever the school decides it is ready.

A school can adopt one module or all four, with its own staff, on its own timeline — nothing is displaced, nothing is required.

The Frame

What an articulation partnership actually means.

Articulation is an old, ordinary idea in curriculum work: two schools sit down, compare what students can do at the seam between them, and agree where those students should land. It is a professional conversation, not a legal instrument — and it is the frame the four modules sit inside.

What it is

Non-binding. No memorandum of understanding is required to begin. No contract, no exclusivity, no obligation on either school, and either side can stop at any point.
No cost. No fees, no shared staffing, no facility commitment, no purchase of materials, no budget line.
About placement, not recruitment. The goal is that a student who completed a middle-grades bilingual sequence begins high-school Spanish at the level they actually reached — not at Spanish 1.
A curriculum conversation. What can your eighth graders do — interpretive reading, interpersonal discussion, presentational writing — and where does that land them in a Grade 9 sequence?
Two-directional. An honest alignment read on your own sequence is useful to you whether or not this school ever opens.

What it is not

Not an enrollment agreement. No family is directed anywhere, and no student is signed up for anything.
Not a promise of seats. If the charter is approved, admission is by open lottery under Florida law — an articulation conversation gives no student priority.
Not a feeder arrangement. Your graduates go wherever their families choose.
Not an endorsement. We will not describe your school as a partner, list it publicly, or use your name in the charter application or in any material.
Not contingent on approval. If the application is denied, the alignment work still belongs to you.

A Fair Objection

“We already have a Spanish teacher.”

Good. That teacher is the natural leader of this conversation, and nothing here is designed to go around them or over them. What we are describing is not a language class — you already have one — and it does not replace anything you are doing.

Three concrete differences are worth putting on the table, because each one makes an existing Spanish teacher's work count for more, not less.

The course itself can carry more weight

High school credit, taught in your building. Module 01 upgrades the course your teacher is already teaching so that it carries full high school credit on the transcript.
More valuable, not redundant. The same instruction, the same teacher, the same room — now with a transcript consequence attached to it.
An honest limit. Course numbering and scheduling are the district's call. We can show you the alignment; the coding sits with your district office.

Two things a classroom course cannot do on its own

The proficiency-exam pathway. Module 02 runs through an approved assessment, not through instruction. No course, however good, awards those four credits by being taught — and most middle schools have never been shown that the pathway exists.
Content-based instruction. Teaching biology, history, or mathematics bilingually is a different category of work from world-language teaching. It is not a better version of a Spanish class; it is a different thing, and it is what a bilingual high school is for.
Where your teacher fits. In this design the existing language teacher is the person who makes it work — because they already know which students are ready.

Why It Matters Beyond the Transcript

South Florida is the business gateway of the Americas.

Biliteracy is not only an academic outcome here; it is a regional labor-market asset. International business, healthcare, law, media, and diplomacy in this part of the country are conducted in two languages every working day, and the graduate who can read a contract, take a history, argue a case, or run a meeting in both is operating in the region's actual working conditions rather than translating into them.

That is what the name means. Global citizenship is not a slogan about attitude — it is a description of what a graduate can do, in two languages, in the place where they live.

The Process

What a first conversation looks like.

Thirty minutes, by phone or at your school. Educator to educator.

You describe your bilingual sequence: which courses, which grades, how much instruction is actually delivered in Spanish, and what proficiency data you already collect.
We describe the two Grade 9 tracks in the proposed program — the preparatory track and the full bilingual track — and where your graduates would most likely place. The full sequence is on the academics page.
You tell us which modules, if any, are worth a second conversation. One is a complete answer. Zero is an acceptable answer.
We write the alignment down in plain language: this exit profile maps to this entry point. One page. No signature, no letterhead, no commitment.
If the charter is approved, that alignment becomes a working placement pathway for families who choose it. If it is not approved, you have spent half an hour and gained a written outside read on your own program's articulation.

Who you would be talking to

Cemran Biricik, M.A., founder of Global Citizenship Academy. Thirty-plus years teaching Spanish and Italian. Sixteen years as World Language Department Head at Lincoln High School in Jersey City. Five recent years at a Broward County charter middle school. Earlier career: teaching Turkish and Spanish at the United Nations International School, and English at Uceda Institute. M.A. in School Administration from Saint Peter's University, with New Jersey principal certification. Languages: English, Spanish, Italian, and Turkish at a native or professional level; conversational French.

That is the whole résumé that is relevant here — a career world-language educator who has run a department, written curriculum, and sat on the receiving end of exactly this articulation problem.

Start the Conversation

If you lead a middle school with bilingual students, write to us.

One email is enough to begin. Tell us your school and your bilingual sequence — and, if you already know, which module you would want to hear about first. In English or in Spanish.

[email protected] See the Grade 9 Tracks