Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Lousiana

By William Taylor Potter

April 6, 2023

About a dozen students from Corporal Michael Middlebrook Elementary School wowed attendees at Wednesday’s Lafayette Parish School Board meeting when they recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Why was their recitation so awe-inspiring? They did it in Mandarin Chinese.

The students were part of the Lafayette Parish School System’s Chinese immersion program, one of the three language immersion programs the district offers. The Chinese program is at Middlebrook Elementary, while other schools in the district host French and Spanish programs.

Click here to see the students at the meeting.

School board member Kate Labue said she and Superintendent Irma Trosclair have been working to find ways to showcase the work the immersion programs have been doing during the board meetings. They invited Middlebrook Principal Courtney Breaux to tell the board and attendees about how the program has benefited the students involved.

Please read more here.

Stonebrae’s Mandarin Dual Language Immersion Program

MANDARIN DUAL LANGUAGE IMMERSION STONEBRAE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

The Stonebrae Mandarin Immersion Program started in 2007–2008 school year.  We offer a 50/50 instructional model from kindergarten through 6th grade.  Students spend half their day learning in English and the other half learning in Mandarin.  

Please see the video here:

West County Mandarin School (WCMS) is a Mandarin immersion, International Baccalaureate (IB) school located in Pinole, California.  WCMS is the first Mandarin immersion public school in California to earn the acclaimed authorization as an IB school.  WCMS opened on August 21, 2017 with three kindergarten classes, and it will grow to K-6 by adding a new grade each year.  Additionally, a Mandarin/IB program will continue in middle school. WCMS will have grades K – 5 in the 2022/2023 school year.  

 The WCMS immersion model is one-way; students are not required to know any Mandarin prior to attending.  Even so, nearly a quarter of the students are intermediate to advanced speakers, and they enthusiastically help the novice students.

West County Mandarin School is the culmination of a collaboration between parents and community members and the West Contra Costa Unified School District.  It is the first Mandarin immersion school in the WCCUSD and the first whole school Mandarin immersion program in an East Bay Public School District.  Students from all over the District attend WCMS.  Our community is bonded by the desire to provide a quality, multilingual education that will prepare our students to become critical thinkers, leaders and problem solvers in our increasingly globally connected world.

See the kids giving testimonials about their school here.

SCHOOL NEWS – New principal takes over at Barnard Mandarin Magnet Elementary School

 

by San Diego NEWS staff

 September 29, 2022

Kinglsey Chao moved from New York to San Diego in August to become the principal of Barnard Mandarin Magnet Elementary School. Chao said he and his older brother are “first generation Chinese Americans.” His mother is originally from Shanghai and his father is from Beijing, China.

Chao grew up and attended New York and Long Island public schools. He credits key teachers from his elementary, middle, and high school years for his interest and passion in music, the arts, and performance. “Through 15 years-plus of piano lessons, and countless visits to Broadway stages, music has shaped my perspective on life and fueled my creativity,” he said.

Chao graduated with a bachelor of arts in music from Stony Brook University. “I always knew I wanted to become an educator and inspire students the way my teachers did in me,” he said. After graduating from Hunter College on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with a master’s of science in childhood education, he began his teaching career.

Please read. more here.

Students at Orion Alternative School (formerly John Gill Elementary) in Redwood City, California took home prizes in this year’s Chinese Bridge Competition. The speech, poetry reading and talent competition is sponsored by the Chinese Consulate of San Francisco and took place in June.

You can see some of the award-winning performances here.

As school district fight post-COVID student losses, dual language immersion programs can be a powerful force to attract families, even from other districts. According to the article below:

From the very beginning, the program began to attract students from outside the district. This year, 39 students from outside the district are enrolled in the Vietnamese dual-immersion program, making up about 1 in 12 students in the school.

From the very beginning, the program began to attract students from outside the district. This year, 39 students from outside the district are enrolled in the Vietnamese dual-immersion program, making up about 1 in 12 students in the school.

In Glendale Unified, in Los Angeles County, nine of the district’s 20 elementary schools offer dual-immersion programs, and 25% of the students enrolled in those programs live outside the district. 

From: EdSource, August 29, 2022 By Zaidee Stavely

When 6-year-old Mia Truong started reading and writing in Vietnamese in addition to English, her parents knew they had made the right decision for kindergarten.

Mia’s family lives in San Jose, within the Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District. But her parents decided to send her to a different school district, Franklin-McKinley, so that she could attend a Vietnamese dual-immersion program.

“I’ve done my research. Especially us being Vietnamese parents, I wanted my daughter to learn Vietnamese,” said Mia’s father, Chuong Truong. “My daughter will have knowledge of two languages for the future. Just the creativity in her mind to think in both languages, it enhances her ability if she takes a trip to Vietnam and sees her second cousins, but also in English.”

Please read more here.

The Music, Math Multilingual Christian Academy opened in Greenville, South Carolina this year, offering Mandarin immersion for Kindergarten through 5^th grade.

The school’s website says “We equip students to become competent global leaders who strive for academic excellence, moral character, community involvement, and love for Christ.”

This makes it only the second Christian, Bible-based Mandarin immersion program in the United States, that I’m aware of. The first was Zeeland Christian School in Holland, Michigan, which launched its program in 2012. That program continues at Holland Christian High School.

The South Carolina school began as Charis Learning Center in 2019 and was revamped as a Christian Mandarin immersion school in 2022.

There are also three Mandarin Immersion Catholic schools in the country; St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Flushing, New York, All Souls Catholic School in Los Angeles and the Maryknoll School in Honolulu.