St. Cloud school district looks to expand immersion program

By Dave Aeikens • daeikens@stcloudtimes.com • October 2, 2010

Sixteen third-graders in the immersion program at Madison Elementary School sang in Chinese with their teacher last week.

Almost three years from now they will leave Madison for middle school, ready for the next stage of the St. Cloud school district’s language immersion program.

Four years into immersion programs that provide instruction mostly in Mandarin Chinese at Madison and Spanish at Clearview Elementary School, efforts by St. Cloud school district and its partners are turning toward what happens when the children who have stayed in the programs hit middle school and high school.

“What the discussion needs to be is how is it going to run in the middle levels?” said Bob Huot, principal at North Junior High School, where Madison’s immersion students will go in three years. “We just need to find out what is the best programming for students.”

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