San Jose-area Spanish immersion school adds Mandarin enrichment

This is an interesting model for a school with an existing immersion program.

Beginning in the fall of 2023, Randall Elementary School north of San Jose added Mandarin to its school curriculum. Randall is part of the Milpitas Unified School District

Randall is the only district school that offers a bilingual Immersion program. The ethnic distribution in the district is 50% Asian, 20% Hispanic, 17% Filipino, 5% White, 2% Black, and 6% other, according to the district.

When Randall asked its community about adding another language in 2023, 50% (376 responses) of respondents favored Mandarin compared to 26 percent (195 responses) for Vietnamese.

The Mandarin program kicked off in October 2023 and began with Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten. It will expand a grade level each subsequent school year.

The Mandarin program is not actually immersion.

Instead, “it is designed to provide exposure to the language through P.E., Art, and Music. It focuses on introducing students to the language and its culture meaningfully by performing activities that engage them. Our approach allows for a balanced integration of Mandarin into their existing educational routine. This method ensures that students can build a solid foundation in Mandarin while maintaining their proficiency in other subjects,” the school said on its website.

“We worked very hard to get as much wide-ranging community input as possible,” said Randall co-Principal Kristan Prolo, who was joined by Priti Johari, Executive Director, Learning and Innovation; Yvonne Sugimura, Coordinator II English Learners, Literacy & Intervention Services; and Claudia Cadenas, co-Principal, Randall World Language School in presenting their Randall World Languages Third Language Report.

In May of 2021, the MUSD Board of Education approved the integration of a third language at Randall World Languages School. The steering committee then completed the process of soliciting community feedback to determine the third language and came to the recommendation of Mandarin as the third language.