Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

The MIPC middle school committee met on March 31st.  Here is a summary of that discussion.

Some History

The committee considered the history of the Mandarin immersion program to date, and how that’s likely to play out for middle school.  Mary Jue led the discussion…

• The parents played a much smaller part in the decision making process than they expected they would.
• The district picked the first site (Starr King).  This turned out fine, but there was initial disagreement among the parents about this location.
• The process was very fast, 3 months from the initial request to a site being chosen.
• The Goal was to have site chosen first by May so that it could be approved by the Program Placement Committee and Board of Education, put in the enrollment guide which goes to print over the summer, and marketed, all the year before the program was to start.

The middle school selection process is likely to follow a similar pattern. Our best approach is to understand the district’s priorities and work with these to help shape the final outcome.

Site Exploration

Katie Olson brought enrollment data for this year so we can see capacity and the range of existing middle schools. Some areas/themes that arose included:

• Considerations for site may include start time, strong principal with experience with language programs, staff buy-in, ability to bring together diverse communities, time to plan with existing community, plus all the other things that parents look for in a good middle school. Some initial ideas were DeAvila, Paul Revere, and a new Immersion MS in China Basin (rumor?).
• Choice of site may largely depend on the district’s priorities and schools with available space. History has shown that proximity to residence of current families is not a strong factor (e.g. CIP, SIP). Other immersion programs will also soon feel the crunch with increasing demand for secondary spots (new DeAvila CIP, numerous SIP elementary programs with only Hoover and Lick as MS options)
• Curriculum needs to be clearly articulated K-12. Does the fact that we’re functioning more as a 1-way model, rather than 2-way, make a difference?
• Integration of the Mandarin immersion program into the existing middle school community is important for cross-benefit.

Next Steps

• Working to get clarity on the district’s process for starting the middle school program
• Meeting with Margaret Peterson before reporting back to parents, or soliciting parent input.
• Identifying middle schools with space, and understand what the district is thinking about physical facilities