Pasadena, CA Mandarin immersion program reaches high school

Pasadena’s Mandarin immersion program launched in 2010 at Eugene Field Elementary. By the In the 2019 -2020 school year, it served students from Kindergarten through fifth grade with 484 students enrolled.

The district also offers Spanish and French immersion. And because Pasadena has a significant Armenian community, it has recently added Armenian immersion.

 Pasadena Unified School District has more than 15,350 students in a 76-square mile area that includes Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. The district was formed in 1874. 

In 2015 the program advanced to a newly-constructed Sierra Madre Middle School. It contains a neighborhood school program as well as a Mandarin immersion strand.

In 2018 the program continued to Pasadena High School, the district’s largest comprehensive high school. The school is also home to a Math Academy where students from the district’s highly advanced middle school math program have the opportunity to pursue college-level mathematics courses.

In high school, one or two advanced courses in Mandarin are offered each year, including AP Chinese Language and Culture, Chinese Business & Cinema, and work-based learning opportunities. 

The first class of Mandarin immersion students graduated on June 3, 2022.