Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Utah won’t cut funding to its renowned immersion programs

    SALT LAKE CITY — A legislative committee is recommending no change to how Utah’s dual language immersion program is funded.

    During a meeting Thursday of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee, the chairs announced they recommend retaining the roughly $7.3 million funding for the program that allows students to learn languages such as Chinese, French, German, Spanish and Russian.

    This comes after former state Sen. Howard Stephenson, the original sponsor of the dual language immersion program, had warned lawmakers were considering defunding it by reallocating the money in a way that would “decimate the DLI program as we know it.”

    Please read more here.

    But some Utah Mandarin immersion programs are struggling

    BRIGHAM CITY — The Box Elder School District is going to remove the Chinese immersion program for new students, citing “declining interest.” Still, some parents are urging them to reconsider.

    The Chinese dual immersion program at Golden Spike Elementary School is ideally supposed to have 60 new kids each year to make up two classes. Instead, its enrollment is about half of that amount. Despite the low enrollment, parents who have seen the program work say it’s too valuable to drop.

    Please read more here.

    And here Blue Valley is also cutting its program.

  • DeSantis suspends scholarships to Florida schools with ‘ties to the Chinese Communist Party’

    What’s interesting about this for Mandarin immersion parents is that the Spring Education Group, which owns more than 220 schools in 19 states, runs Stratford Schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco. One of those San Francisco schools offers a Mandarin immersion program. I had not realized Stratford was part of such a large, for-profit network of schools.

    Spring Education Group consists of 28 “school brands” at least two of which, Stratford and L’Etoile French Immersion School in Portland, Oregon, offer immersion.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) office announced Friday the suspension of school choice scholarships to four schools over their alleged “direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”

    The Hill, by Tara Suter, Sept. 23, 2023

    “Through a thorough investigation, [the Florida Department of Education] has determined that Lower and Upper Sagemont Preparatory Schools in Weston, Parke House Academy in Winter Park, and Park Maitland School in Winter Park have direct ties to the CCP and their connections constitute an imminent threat to the health, safety, and welfare of these school’s students and the public,” reads a news release from the governor’s office.

    The release also noted a bill DeSantis signed into law in May barring private schools in the state from “participating in an educational scholarship program” if they are “owned or operated by a person or an entity domiciled in, owned by, or in any way controlled by a foreign country of concern or foreign principal.” The law then references a different law that lists China as a “country of concern.”

    Please read more here.

    Schools respond after FDOE suspends scholarships over accusations of “Chinese Communist Party” ties

    Story here.

    Caught in the middle: Chinese scholars targeted by new Florida laws that take aim at China

    Story here.

  • Mandarin immersion programmes persist in American schools despite high-level US-China tensions

    • From Utah to Michigan, half-day programmes in which regular classes are taught entirely in Chinese find fervent support among parents
    • Desire for children to get global perspective and life opportunities drives demand

    Bochen Han in Washington

    South China Morning Post 27 Dec, 2023

    What does Washington, DC, have in common with Provo, Utah? Or Greenville, Michigan? Or Overland Park, Kansas?

    All are home to publicly funded Mandarin immersion programmes, where kids as young as three years old spend half of each school day taking their regular classes – like math, science or physical education – entirely in Chinese.

    Most of the programmes began during a period of American engagement with China under the administration of Barack Obama, when Mandarin was increasingly seen as a language of global business, optimism for bilateral cooperation was the norm and federal grants for Chinese language learning were more abundant.

    In 2015, Obama pledged that by 2020, 1 million American students would be learning Mandarin.

    Please read more here.

  • Some shows for middle and high schoolers

    K-dramas out of Korea get all the press, but there are popular ones in Chinese as well. Here’s a nice list of high school and college-age-focused dramas, all romances (are there any other kind?)

    To watch them it looks like one might have to get an account on Rakuten Viki, which is an Asian-focused streaming service that costs $5.99 a month as far as I can tell.

    The one thing I like about Asian shows is that they don’t feature high schoolers having steamy sex every other second. The thing I don’t like about Asian shows is that too often the female characters are long-suffering while the men get to be jerks. But thankfully that seems to be less common than it was a decade ago.

    And yes, our family did watch all 16 episodes of Crash Landing on You. Some, and I won’t name names, watched it several times. It’s total fluff and requires a fair amount of putting aside reality (life in North Korea is not in fact simply an austere version of Green Acres). But then, I grew up enjoying Hogans Heros, and I of course now realize life in a German POW camp wasn’t a laugh-riot either.

    Here are a couple of ideas for your kids as they’re at loose ends over the holidays.

    12 Chinese School Dramas to Add to Your Watch List

    Looking for something new to watch? These Chinese school shows might be worth it.

    BYASHLEY HAJIMIRSADEGHI

    MovieWeb SEP 9, 2023

    Like many other international dramas, Chinese-language shows are having a moment on the global stage. While they may not have achieved as much attention as, for example, Korean historical shows or Japanese romances, Chinese shows have been creating a solid niche for themselves in the international network of drama fans. Some of the most famous television series from mainland China include historical dramas and fantasies, many of which draw on the rich cultural history of the country and regions surrounding it. Those familiar with television shows from the area are able to note how they implement elements of Chinese mythology and costuming to create extravagant sets in historical periods.

    Please read more here.

  • Anaheim Elementary School District adds Mandarin dual language immersion program with support from community

    OCDE Newsroom, Education News from Orange County and beyond

    By Vicky Nguyen, Feb. 16, 2023

    Students in the Anaheim Elementary School District as young as transitional kindergarteners will soon be learning and speaking Mandarin.

    Anaheim Elementary School District logo

    With the Board of Education’s stamp of approval and support from district families, the school district is expanding its dual language immersion program with the addition of the Mandarin Chinese language in the 2023-24 school year. Students in the district are already learning Spanish and Korean, depending on which campus they attend.

    “Studies have shown that a new language creates a strong foundation for academic success and career opportunities later in life,” said Superintendent Dr. Christopher Downing. “We cannot wait to have Mandarin spoken in our classrooms.”

    Mandarin ranks second in the top 10 most spoken languages in the world. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

    The district designated Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School as the inaugural campus to bring the program to students.

    Please read more here.

  • Oklahoma loses its only Mandarin immersion program

    I just heard from a teacher who had taught in the Jenks Public Schools Mandarin immersion program that the district is phasing it out and no new Kindergarten classes have begun since the 2021-2022 school year.

    The program was established with great fanfare in 2010. It launched at Southeast Elementary School in Jenks and fed to the Sino-Trojan Academy at East Intermediate School.

    It began with a $1.5 million award through the US Department of Education’s critical language program in 2009. The program was meant to continue through high school and on to the University of Oklahoma’s Chinese language program.

    The Jenks Mandarin immersion program was the only one in the entire state of Oklahoma.

    Does anyone have information about why the program is being phased out? I can’t find much online.

    Jenks is a suburb of Tusla, Oklahoma, one of the fastest-growing cities in the state

  • Kansas Mandarin immersion program faces problems due to staffing issues

      Lucie Krisman   

    Blue Valley task force nearly finished analyzing Chinese Immersion program

    A group of parents, teachers and administrators tasked with helping determine the fate of Blue Valley’s Chinese Immersion program is nearing the end of its work.

    For months, the group has been working toward a solution to the sustainability concerns the district raised about the six-year-old immersion program earlier this year.

    The task force will come back to the Blue Valley Board of Education with a final recommendation this fall.

    Please read more here.

    Blue Valley District page on Mandarin immersion.

    More on this issue.

    A possible Board of Education meeting on the issue is scheduled for November 13.