|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
recent posts
- Fourth grade Mandarin immersion students from Maryland sing for First Lady
- Utah’s Chinese Dual Language Immersion Program serves 12,000 students in 98 schools
- Chapel Hill NC superintendent wants to to disband 24-year-old Mandarin immersion program
- Wyoming’s only Mandarin immersion program going strong
- Chapel Hill Mandarin immersion program move stirs anger
about
-
-
Charter Schools Clarify Academics
State asks key questions to proposed Mandarin-immersion schools; decision expected in Sept.
Charter schools were asked to clarify their applications in several key areas over the summer as they await a decision by the state Department of Education.The state’s charter school office has before it 55 applications for new charters, including two Mandarin-immersion schools that would recruit students from Livingston and neighboring districts. The decision is expected later this month.
The proposed local charter schools were required to resubmit their financial statements and expand how they will assess academic success, according to addendas to their application posted on the Livingston Public Schools website. (See charter school informationhere).
The questions are in line with new directions coming from acting education commissioner Chris Cerf, who last week detailed steps that are intended to improve the oversight of new and existing schools. (NJ Spotlight has that story here). The rules spell out what’s expected for charter schools in the areas of student performance and state tests.
“We are committed to supporting the expansion of high-quality charter schools that serve unmet needs across the state,” Cerf says in the letter to charter leaders. “In return, we will require charter schools to demonstrate continuous academic achievement and a commitment to equal access.”
Questions aimed at doing just that were asked of Hanyu International Charter School and Hua Mai Charter School, the two applicants who propose to open schools locally next year.
Among the questions, Hua Mai is asked to clarify how it will measure proficiency for Mandarin language, and to clarify student progression grade by grade. Hanyu is asked how it will meet state standards in combination with Chinese instructions and evaluate teachers.
Please read more here.
-
Cayce, SC (WLTX) – The relationship betweenChina
and the United States continues to grow.According to the South Carolina
Department of Commerce, in 2009 China bought about $869 million in goods from our state, making them one of the top five export markets for South Carolina. The United States also competes with China for business. So what better way to work as friends or competitors than to know them?East Point Academy in Cayce is the first in South Carolina to offer a Chinese-language immersion program.
Inside the school well-known songs, such as “It’s a Small World,” sound a little bit different because these kids are singing it in Mandarin.
“We have students from all races, cultural backgrounds,” said director and founding principal Renee Mathews, “and it’s just a beautiful montage of children.”
Mandarin is a form of Chinese and is spoken by more than 700 million people around the world.
More of the story, and a video, here.
-
Williamson County schools set sights on developing bilingual kids
School district considers K-12 language program
1:17 AM, Sep. 12, 2011 |Maria Giordano | The Tennessean
Kindergartners in Williamson County could soon be on their way to becoming fluent in a second language.
It’s only a goal for now, but school officials in the district are working toward the idea and have narrowed down the language choice to Mandarin Chinese, German, Spanish or French. Ultimately, whatever is selected would be taught to students from kindergarten through 12th grade, much like students around the world are taught English as a second language.
“We’re one of the only countries in the world where students don’t walk away from their school experience knowing a second language,” said Director of Schools Mike Looney. “We want to make sure our graduates are globally competitive.”
The idea that high school graduates should be fluent in a second language was born out of several community meetings held last school year. Thousands of parents turned out for brainstorming sessions to create the district’s seven-year strategic plan.
Time and time again, parents said they thought their children should be fluent in a second language, said Pat Anderson, school board chairwoman.
But achieving the goal is turning out to be tricky. What language should they teach? How will it be implemented into the school day? What programs should they use? Anderson said there is a committee researching all the options, and Looney says it wouldn’t start until the 2013-14 school year.
read more here.
-
Bump in the road
Signups falter for Mandarin Chinese immersion class
BY REBECCA RANDALL
The Lake Oswego Review, Sep 1, 2011, Updated Sep 1, 2011
Starting last year with enthusiasm, the Mandarin Chinese immersion program has hit a bump — there are not enough children to fill its first kindergarten class.
The program would have been at River Grove Elementary School, but the Lake Oswego School Board chose to cut the program for this year. The district will still maintain its preschool, which has six students, and its pre-K, which has eight students, at Bryant Elementary School.
read more here.
-
Students in the test dual immersion program for pre-kindergarteners became an official kindergarten cohort with the start of the school year on Monday.
In January, the Walnut Valley Unified School District tested out plans for a dual language immersion program with around 40 pre-kindergarten students.
On Monday, the program went from test mode to official with the class of kindergarteners slated to be studied as a group through fifth grade enjoying their first day of school.
“That was to give them a taste of what dual immersion would be like,” said English Language Development Specialist Jenny Kwan-Hata of the pre-K class. “This is the first official cohort.”
The program, which the district has dubbed “Global Connections – Creating 21st Century Biliterate/Bicultural Children,” has been funded with a $1.2 million, five-year federal Foreign Language Acquisition Program grant.
The goal is to get the 48 kindergartens literate in both Mandarin and English by the fifth grade. The district was one of only eight to receive a grant for a Mandarin immersion program in the country.
More here.
