Portland Mandarin program to get stand-alone school, but it’s complicated

In general, Mandarin immersion programs do better when they’re in a whole school environment rather than a strand within a school. That said, the Woodstock Elementary Mandarin immersion program is one of the oldest and most popular in the country and families have been moving to the Portland neighborhood for decades to take part, so the move is causing concern among among families.

Portland Public Schools rebalance compels ‘immersion diversion’ from Woodstock School

The Bee

David F. Ashton December 26 2020

When the totally-rebuilt Kellogg Middle School opens at 3330 S.E. 69th Avenue, on Powell Boulevard, in the fall of 2021 – some students, now enrolled in other middle schools in Inner Southeast, will be diverted to make up its student body. That much is clear.

The Portland Public Schools (PPS) administration calls this process “rebalancing” the student load of the schools. Providing input for this process has been a group of parents and administrators that PPS calls their “Southeast Guiding Coalition”. You may have heard about this; it’s been in the news around town. But what you may not have heard about yet is what its effect will be on two celebrated PPS programs in Inner Southeast – programs that people have moved here to participate in. The news is not good.

As part of this rebalance, the Mandarin Dual Language Immersion (MDLI) programs at both Woodstock Elementary School and Hosford Middle School are to be moved, in their entirety, to a different school, about four miles north – quite some distance where those students and their parents live now.

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