Phoenix, Arizona getting a Mandarin immersion public school

The Phoenix, Arizona school District is launching a 50.50 Mandarin immersion program in the Whispering Wind Academy. The school’s site says its  mission “is to cultivate, lead, and inspire ALL students to become innovative thinkers and life-long learners through a challenging, meaningful, and engaging curriculum emphasizing Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Global Geography. ”

The school’s name in Chinese is 鹰 风 小学, which means Eagle Spirit Primary School. Though they should have called it 凤凰风 小学 and then it could have been Phoenix Spirit Primary School!

You can read more about the school here. It will open in the fall, for kindergarten and first grade. It’s a 50/50 program using Simplified characters.

Interestingly, the school is officially charter but calls itself a “district-sponsored charter school.” This is something public school districts in Arizona do to get more funding per pupil, while remaining what’s effecitvely a regular public school. You can read more about how that works here.