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College Park, which has featured Mandarin for more than three years, received the funding from the federal Foreign Language Assistance Program.
“At a time when financing for schools is of concern, a grant like this is great support for our specialized programs,” district Assistant Superintendent Joan Rosas said Thursday.
Currently, College Park teaches Mandarin in preschool to third grade. The grant will help expand that instruction into the fourth and fifth grades and to Bayside STEM Academy middle school in the next few years, College Park Principal Diana Hallock said.
Bayside will have a Chinese language-arts class and a social-studies course taught in Mandarin, Hallock said.
Although the grant targets students in kindergarten to fifth grade and beyond, she said, preschool teachers will participate in training for the expanded Mandarin program.
The money will bring in a full-time specialist to translate information into Mandarin as well as create material for teachers to use in their lessons, she said.
“Having an expert to go to or to do research is extremely helpful,” she said.
read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
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