Mandarin Immersion Parents Council
Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
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N.Y. / REGION | February 15, 2012
Affluent, Born Abroad and Choosing New York’s Public Schools
By KIRK SEMPLE
Affluent foreign-born parents in New York City are sending their children to public schools in much greater proportion than native-born parents with the same incomes.please read more here.
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Lake Oswego School Board members proposed and approved a bridge scenario for offering a first grade Spanish immersion class next year. The board is supportive of long-term development of an immersion program but did not commit to a K-5 program quite yet. Instead, it put a number of conditions on the potential expansion to first grade.
Please read more here.
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The Lake Oswego School District looks poised to offer transfer spots at its high schools next year, as board members on Monday unanimously approved continuing to develop a strategy implementing a new open enrollment law.
Under House Bill 3681, school districts must decide by March 1 whether to allow out-of-district students to freely transfer into their schools. Districts can decide which schools and grades can accept students.
Some districts consider the bill, which now prohibits districts from refusing to allow a transfer out of its schools, a financial gamble. If a district refuses to open its borders and offer open enrollment spots, students may still transfer into their schools through inter-district agreements.
Lake Oswego Superintendent Bill Korach has mentioned offering open transfer spots in Lake Oswego and Lakeridge high schools, which could help balance out the disproportionate populations among the two buildings.
Please read more here. (the mandarin bit is at the end)
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PRINCETON AREA: Local educators weigh in on both sides of charter schools billsDATE POSTED: Monday, February 13, 2012 4:37 PM ESTBy Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
Two controversial charter school reform bills are working their way to the full Assembly after the Assembly Education Committee approved them at a Feb. 2 hearing.
The first bill would require a public referendum before the establishment or expansion of new charter schools.
The other would increase charter school educational and financial accountability. It would address the fact that New Jersey charter school students do not represent the demographics of their sending districts and would include a provision that would sign up all district students in a charter school’s admission lottery.
Many public school districts support these bills, particularly the law requiring local approval for a new charter school. Under the current law, local communities have no say in the charter school approval process even though the schools are funded from public school budgets.
Princeton schools spend almost $5 million annually on the Princeton Charter School. They would have to pay an additional $250,000 if a proposed Princeton International Academy Charter School, a Mandarin immersion school, is permitted to open in South Brunswick.Princeton Board of Education president Rebecca Cox disagreed with making Princeton taxpayers fund these schools and said such schools should need the approval of the public they are affecting.
Please read more here. -
Keira Idumi, a kindergartner at Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School in Point Loma, claps during the Barnard Chinese New Year, Year of the Dragon celebration. The new year celebration began on Jamuary 23, and continues for 15 days.
POINT LOMA HEIGHTS —
It isn’t every day that an official from a major Chinese metropolis pulls up with a busload of children to see a performance at what just a few years ago was a struggling San Diego school.
Nor is it common to find Superintendent Bill Kowba taking time out from dealing with yet another daunting budget deficit to watch a dance routine by a group of kindergartners in a crowded multipurpose room.
But Barnard Elementary, also known as Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School, isn’t just any campus. And when it celebrated the Chinese New Year, it drew a crowd that not only included Kowba and the city councilman from Chongqing, but also several leaders from San Diego County’s Chinese community.
Please read more here.
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Prince George’s adds Chinese immersion at elementary school
By Ovetta Wiggins, Thursday, February 9, 6:48 AM
The Prince George’s County teacher lifted a foam object from an orange bucket in her lap and waited for someone in the kindergarten class to identify its shape. Not in English. Not even in Spanish. Instead, the answer came in another language gaining popularity in American classrooms.
“Yuan xing!” shouted a little girl in a blue-and-white uniform who wears tiny cornrows in her hair. “Yuan xing!” the others, sitting on the floor in front of the teacher, echoed in unison.
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 