At English-Mandarin Public School, High Test Scores, but Also Strife
The Shuang Wen Academy on the Lower East Side received straight A’s on its city report card this year, but parents are in conflict.
By SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: November 1, 2010
When it opened in 1998, the Shuang Wen Academy was heralded as a new kind of boutique public school, rooted in a mission of cross-cultural understanding. Small and open to children of any background, it was billed as the nation’s first dual-language English-Mandarin public school, teaching fluency in both languages.
Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
Defenders of the school, including Gale Elston, second from right, at a news conference at the Golden Unicorn Restaurant.
Twelve years later, the school, on the Lower East Side, which runs from prekindergarten to eighth grade and has an enrollment of 660, boasts outstanding scores on standardized tests but is in turmoil.
The school is the target of nine city investigations stemming from allegations that it compelled families to pay for after-school instruction, tampered with the city enrollment process, mismanaged its finances and manipulated surveys on parents’ satisfaction with the school. In addition, a series of anonymous, threatening letters directed at the principal and parent leaders prompted the parents association to budget $20,000 for legal assistance and stepped-up security.
The parents association and other supporters say a few disgruntled parents are responsible both for the allegations, which are being investigated by the city’s Department of Education and by Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the school system, and for the threats.
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Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
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