Billings Multilingual Academy

The BMA Advisory Board provides an important structure for stakeholder engagement and program oversight.

The board participates in discussions related to program development, the Multilingual and Indigenous Pathways, enrollment, accreditation, academic goals and measures, staffing, student needs, and coordination with neighborhood schools.

BMA meets regularly with its Advisory Board and communicates program information and progress to the Billings Public Schools Board of Trustees.

This structure helps connect stakeholder input, school-level decision-making, charter oversight, and district governance.

For our students in both pathways, BMA operates as a half-day program in which students spend approximately half of their school day at BMA and the other half at their neighborhood middle or high school.

This model allows students to benefit from specialized opportunities at BMA while remaining connected to their neighborhood-school communities.

District transportation is provided between BMA and neighborhood schools, and transportation and scheduling are coordinated to support students' movement between the two locations.

Morning and afternoon programming allow students to receive multiple instructional periods at BMA while attending their neighborhood school for the remainder of the day.

Consistent attendance is critical to academic growth and to students' ability to benefit fully from the specialized opportunities provided through both BMA pathways.

For multilingual learners, consistent attendance is particularly important because language development is strengthened through frequent opportunities to hear, speak, read, and write academic English.

BMA continues to examine attendance patterns and strengthen strategies that encourage consistent participation, including family communication, student supports, interventions, and potential attendance incentives.

Preparing students for opportunities beyond high school is an increasingly important component of BMA's work.

BMA is developing college- and career-planning and engagement opportunities so that students can connect their academic growth, strengths, and interests with meaningful plans for the future.

Students may benefit from explicit opportunities to learn about:

• Graduation requirements
• Colleges and universities
• Career pathways
• Career and technical education
• Financial resources
• Community resources and supports
• Postsecondary educational systems

Our goal is to help students understand the opportunities available to them and develop the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue their individual goals.

BMA is committed to continually evaluating and improving its educational model.

State accountability and performance data help the academy identify priorities for continued growth, including mathematics and English language arts achievement, subgroup performance, attendance, postsecondary readiness, and governance.

In response, BMA continues to refine academic goals, strengthen targeted interventions, and increase the use of multiple data sources to guide instruction.

Professional learning communities regularly review student progress so instructional strategies and supports can be adjusted based on demonstrated need, with an ongoing emphasis on academic growth, closing achievement gaps, and helping students move toward grade-level expectations.

Instruction within the Multilingual Pathway is intentionally structured around both language acquisition and academic content.

English classes emphasize academic English, and student placement and instructional decisions are informed by WIDA English-language proficiency information. Students are provided daily opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen in English, allowing language development to occur across all four language domains.

Students with stronger academic English skills, particularly students generally functioning at WIDA proficiency levels 3 and 4, receive continued support in developing academic reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

Newcomer students and students at emerging academic-English proficiency levels, particularly those generally functioning at WIDA levels 1 and 2, receive more intensive language support during their time at BMA.

Our goal is to respond to individual student needs rather than expecting every multilingual learner to receive identical instruction.

Community and family partnerships are fundamental to the BMA model.

The academy works to help students and families understand and navigate educational systems while building connections with resources throughout Billings.

Partnerships with organizations serving immigrant, refugee, multilingual, and Indigenous families help extend support beyond the classroom. Interpretation and translation support also assist families with enrollment, conferences, meetings, and school communication.

BMA's work involves collaboration among Billings Public Schools multilingual staff, neighborhood schools, community organizations, Indigenous partners, families, and the BMA Advisory Board.

BMA's centralized location at the Lincoln Center provides opportunities to extend learning throughout the Billings community.

We seek to use the community itself as an educational resource, helping students develop familiarity, independence, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

Community-based learning opportunities may involve organizations and locations such as:

• Billings Public Library
• Montana State University Billings
• Yellowstone Art Museum
• Western Heritage Center
• Moss Mansion
• YMCA
• ZooMontana
• Theaters and artists

Students can also develop practical skills such as navigating public transportation and accessing community resources.

These experiences allow academic learning, language development, cultural learning, career exploration, and community engagement to extend beyond the walls of the classroom.

BMA uses a comprehensive, data-informed approach to understand student progress, celebrate growth, identify areas of need, and guide instructional decisions. Because our students bring a wide range of academic experiences, language proficiency levels, and individual strengths to the classroom, we believe no single assessment can provide a complete picture of student learning. Instead, teachers use multiple measures of achievement and growth to better understand where students are, how they are progressing, and what supports or instructional adjustments may be needed.

Within the Multilingual Pathway, WIDA ACCESS provides an important measure of students' English-language development across the four language domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. WIDA information helps staff understand students' developing English proficiency and provides valuable information for planning appropriate language supports and monitoring growth over time.

NWEA MAP provides another important source of information by measuring academic achievement and growth. MAP results help teachers identify student strengths, recognize areas requiring additional instruction, monitor growth over time, and make informed decisions about differentiation and intervention. These results can also help teachers better understand the range of academic readiness within a classroom and provide instruction that is responsive to individual student needs.

Formal assessments are only one part of the picture. BMA teachers also examine classroom assessments, proficiency toward priority standards, student work, projects, performance tasks, course progress, and other evidence of learning. This allows teachers to consider both standardized assessment information and what students demonstrate through their daily academic work.

Together, these measures provide a more complete picture of student learning than any single test or score could provide. BMA is interested not only in whether students have reached a particular benchmark, but also in the growth students make from their individual starting points. This is especially important in a school serving students with diverse educational and language backgrounds.

Student-achievement results have shown encouraging areas of growth while also helping BMA identify opportunities for continued improvement. Students have demonstrated progress in English-language development, literacy, mathematics, and social studies, with particularly encouraging performance in several secondary mathematics courses and evidence of meaningful literacy growth.

Most importantly, assessment information is intended to lead to action. Teachers and professional learning communities regularly review student performance to identify trends, determine which students may need additional support or enrichment, adjust instructional strategies, and monitor whether interventions are producing the desired results. This ongoing cycle of assessment, reflection, instructional response, and progress monitoring helps ensure that data are used not simply to measure students, but to improve the learning opportunities provided to them.

Through this approach, BMA remains focused on continuous student growth while maintaining high academic expectations and providing the individualized academic and language supports students need to be successful.

BMA is part of a broader continuum of multilingual services available through Billings Public Schools.

Depending upon student needs, families may select BMA, English Language Development instruction at a student's neighborhood school, or a combination of BMA and neighborhood-school ELD services.

Neighborhood-school ELD courses provide explicit development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills while allowing multilingual learners to remain connected to their home schools.

District multilingual staff, BMA personnel, neighborhood-school administrators, counselors, and teachers work collaboratively to coordinate services and provide continuity for students participating in multiple educational settings.

Billings Multilingual Academy is built around the understanding that students can develop rigorous academic skills while strengthening language, maintaining and celebrating cultural identity, and becoming increasingly connected to their schools and community.

Through small class sizes, specialized instruction, SIOP practices, proficiency-based learning, individualized supports, neighborhood-school partnerships, district transportation, community-based experiences, family engagement, data-informed instruction, and the Multilingual and Indigenous Pathways, BMA seeks to create an educational environment responsive to the academic, linguistic, cultural, and individual needs of its students.

Through the Multilingual Pathway, students are provided intensive opportunities to develop the academic English necessary for success while continuing to progress through secondary-school coursework.

Through the Indigenous Pathway with Crow, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet language instruction, students are provided opportunities to strengthen connections among language, culture, identity, and education.

Together, these pathways reflect BMA's commitment to creating a school community where diversity is not simply acknowledged but intentionally incorporated into teaching, learning, relationships, and opportunities for students to succeed.

BMA utilizes proficiency-based learning principles to evaluate student progress toward specific academic skills and competencies.

Assessments are aligned with academic learning objectives and, when appropriate, language objectives. Students may demonstrate their learning through a variety of methods, including:

• Traditional assessments
• Projects
• Portfolios
• Performance tasks
• Authentic applications of learning

This approach provides students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate what they know and are able to do while continuing to progress toward academic expectations.

BMA teachers use research-based Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) practices to make rigorous academic content accessible while simultaneously developing the language students need to understand, discuss, and demonstrate their learning.

Academic and language objectives are intentionally connected so that language development is not separated from academic learning but occurs throughout the instructional day.

Students have frequent opportunities to use academic language through discussion, reading, writing, collaboration, problem-solving, and authentic learning experiences.

Small class sizes are an essential component of the BMA model.

Smaller instructional groups allow teachers to differentiate instruction according to students' academic, linguistic, and individual needs while providing significantly more opportunities for student participation and engagement.

Within the Multilingual Pathway, students can be grouped according to language proficiency and instructional need. Teachers can adjust vocabulary, texts, questioning strategies, assignments, and assessments while maintaining appropriate academic expectations.

The smaller learning environment also gives students in both pathways opportunities to build confidence, take academic risks, participate actively in conversations, and receive immediate feedback.

Students' languages, cultures, experiences, and perspectives are treated as assets and are intentionally incorporated into the learning environment.

An important part of the BMA model is ensuring that students continue to have access to the opportunities available at their neighborhood middle or high schools.

Our Multilingual Pathway students primarily receive English, mathematics, and social studies instruction at BMA. Neighborhood schools provide access to additional courses and opportunities such as:

• Science
• Physical education and health
• World languages
• Fine arts
• Career and technical education
• Electives and other specialized courses

Students can therefore receive specialized academic, language, and cultural support through BMA without losing access to the broader secondary-school experience.