Albuquerque Public Schools
APS International High School
APS International High School: Language acquisition for multilingual learners
APS International High School
APS International High School
Opening August 2025
Mission: APS International High School’s mission is to leverage the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of students to create a collaborative, intellectually engaging, and emotionally supportive community, equipping students to become independent and active members of society who are college and career ready.
Vision: Our dream is to build an equitable, intercultural, multilingual and democratic future with students, families, communities, and society as a whole.
Students Served: Recently-arrived Multilingual English Learners (ELs) across the district.
Essential Practices:
- Instructional Approach: Relevant project-based, rigorous, content courses where language and content are integrated in a heterogeneous classroom.
- Asset-Based Community Culture: Cultural, language affirming, celebratory spaces and purposeful activities create a school culture rooted in the strengths and needs of multilingual learners and their families.
- Staffing & Ongoing Staff Learning: All staff members have the desire, competencies, and commitment to continuous professional learning necessary to implement these student-centered structures and practices.
- Structures & Programming: Schools and classrooms are heterogeneous and use interdisciplinary collaborative structures that build on the strengths of each member of the school community to optimize learning.
APS International Welcome Center
The APS International Welcome Center (IWC) will be co-located with APS International HS. The goal of the Welcome Center is to provide a welcoming, culturally, and linguistically responsive streamlined process for new families to navigate APS and local community resources. The IWC will increase family engagement among ELs, boost student retention in APS, and reduce educational interruptions, improving both student academic achievement and social-emotional learning.
Key Components:
- Multilingual staff dedicated to assisting families with school registration, academic assessments, and resource referrals while supporting family engagement.
- Partner with city, county and local nonprofits to provide referrals and/or their programs and services on site.
- Provide cultural and family engagement and educational activities e.g., ESL classes.
- Training hub for serving newcomer ELs and families throughout the district.
Contact Justin Trager (principal) for more information.