Author: Elizabeth Weise

Uploaded: Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 7:44 am Entrepreneurial mom pairs Mandarin tutors with immersion students Palo Altan finds business opportunity in daughters’ educational needs by Elena Kadvany / Palo Alto Weekly Layla Al-Khafaji, 6, listens to PandaTree Mandarin tutor Hannuo Wu lead a game during a lesson via Skype at her Palo Alto home on July…

Chinese American International School To Debut New Middle School At Turk & Gough Did you know that the nation’s first Mandarin immersion school is located in Hayes Valley? Meet the Chinese American International School (CAIS), a private school for pre-K through 8th grades where classes are taught in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. CAIS opened on…

By Elizabeth Weise TAIPEI, Taiwan – Private schools are a rarity in Taiwan, and the number of schools that offer both English and Mandarin immersion in this island nation can be counted on one hand. I had the pleasure of touring one of the most academically rigorous of them this spring as a guest of…

From their site: The Broadway Mandarin Immersion program is a thriving LAUSD public school program. Because of its success, this program needs more room to grow. Rather than finding a way to support the thriving program by providing it with necessary space, on May 26, 2015 Superintendent Cortines made the unilateral decision to halt construction…

Here’s an example of a program that can work for Mandarin immersion students who finish the program in middle school but then face the prospect of no appropriate-level Mandarin classes for them at the high school level. This one was created with the help of Yalan King at The Mandarin Institute in San Francisco.  

College Park Elementary in San Mateo, Calif (in Silicon Valley) began its Mandarin immersion program in 2007, an outgrowth of the Mandarin classes it began offering in 2004. It’s a Gifted and Talented Magnet School as well, though all students are able to attend. In 4th and 5th grade the school has special day classes for gifted children: “The San Mateo-Foster…

Mark Twain Middle School in Mar Vista. Photo from Wikipedia “It’s really been an L.A. story,” said Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board member Steve Zimmer, who is in the middle of a classic Los Angeles conflict that reflects the city’s many cultures and tensions. The dispute is taking place in West Los Angeles,…