It’s becoming easier to find Mandarin immersion preschools in many cities where there are Mandarin immersion school-age programs. But many parents wonder how well they work and what they should be looking for when touring preschools.

Thankfully, our friends over at the Chinese Early Language and Immersion Network (CELIN) at the Asia Society convened a meeting last February to look into the matter. Held in New York City with leaders of the early Chinese education schools, universities, and state initiatives, they have now released an excellent paper on what they found. It’s aimed more at educators than parents, but as with all the CELIN briefs, there’s a lot that will be interesting to parents.

Here’s the link to the report.

These are the questions they sought to answer:

1. Who are the providers of and key players in Chinese immersion preschool education in 2020–2021?
   What are the successes and common issues, needs, and challenges that they face?
2. What does a quality Chinese immersion preschool look like?
3. What does research inform us about the role and value of preschool education? How does Chinese immersion preschool education contribute to a child’s growth, development in bilingualism and biliteracy, and school achievement over time?

Also, definitely check out their other briefs here.

This is from last year, but as St. Michael’s Catholic Academy is one of only four religious Mandarin immersion programs I know of, it’s interesting to see what they’re up to.

As part of their celebration of Catholic Schools Week, students at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Flushing observed the Chinese New Year with a variety of age-appropriate lessons and activities in their classrooms on Friday, Feb. 12.

The activities included studying Chinese artwork, the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, cultural and food traditions, as well as crafting lanterns and making dumplings.

Please read more here.

By: Leah Pezzetti May 28, 2021

LAKESIDE, Calif. (KGTV) – A couple dozen of the seniors getting ready to graduate from El Capitan High School in June are not only wrapping up their high school careers, but a lifetime of unique cultural and language studies.

The Grossmont Union High School District partners with Lakeside Union School District elementary schools in a program called the Global Language and Leadership Program, which teaches children Spanish and Mandarin starting in Kindergarten, resulting in bilingual and trilingual high school graduates.

Please read more here.

The short answer is, we don’t really know all the way out to high school. I haven’t seen any national studies looking at how students do when they reach the end of high school.

Anecdotally, motivated students in districts with strong programs seem to do well, but how do students do overall? It’s the perfect project for someone getting a Ph.D. in education (hint hint) but so far I haven’t seen any studies on it.

Which makes this news snippet out of Utah all the more interesting. Parents in St. George (near Zion and Bryce Canon) are upset because too few of their high school are passing the Advanced Placement test for Chinese Language and Culture.

Harmony Vanderhorst, a local parent with three children involved in Chinese immersion classes, said the rate of students passing the 10th grade exams to demonstrate their Chinese fluency was extremely low.”

“The ball has really been dropped with the Chinese program,” Vanderhorst said. “There are some huge gaps that need to be addressed. I think the program has amazing potential, but it definitely needs to be readdressed.” 

See the full article from the St. George News here.

I’d be curious to hear how students in your school district do when they get to high school and take the AP exam. Feel free to comment below.

Read more here.

Avenues: The World School, which includes Mandarin and Spanish immersion strands, is opening a California outpost in San Jose. The for-profit school network has schools in New York, São Paulo, Brazil and Shenzhen, China. The San Jose school had planned to open this year but due to COVID-19 will be opening next year instead. It’s already purchased a building in the city and has hired much of its staff. It’s to be called Avenues: Silicon Valley, and the school plans to open in the fall of 2022.

SAN JOSE (KPIX) — A New York private school plans to launch a location in San Jose, raising the benchmark for expectations and tuition.

The Avenues, headquartered in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan, has finalized the purchase of 550 Meridian Avenue, a 77-thousand square foot, three-story office building in the midtown area of San Jose, in a $27 million all-cash transaction.

Read more here.

And another story here. And here. Here’s a story about the network’s flagship school in New York.

Language Immersion Elementary School Fostering Young Global Ambassadors

By Taylor Bruck Cleveland

March 16, 2021

CLEVELAND — Some native English-speaking children in northeast Ohio have the unique experience of attending school where all their work is in another language, and they absolutely love it. 

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What You Need To Know

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the United States, only about twenty percent of Americans are fluent in two or more languages
The Global Ambassadors Language Academy (GALA) in Cleveland is working to increase that percentage
GALA is started in 2016 and is currently a K-6 school but will expand with each graduating class until they become a K-8th grade school
GALA is currently enrolling students, you can learn more at galacleveland.org

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“On my mom’s side, there is my grandma and grandfather that do know Spanish and I want to continue learning so I can speak Spanish better,” said 7-year-old Ilana Little, who attends the Global Ambassadors Language Academy.

The school, also known as GALA, is the only Mandarin immersion school in Ohio, and the first dual language immersion school in northeast Ohio.

Please read more here.

I’ve updated my list of Mandarin immersion schools in the United States. We’re now up to 343 schools that are either open now or will open by fall of next year.

You can click this link to see the full list.

Here are school changes on the list, which I last updated in July:

October 2021 – ADDITIONS

California

Bell Tower School

K-8 Private, Alhambra, CA

Avenues: Silicon Valley, San Jose CA K – 12, opening 2022-2023

Minnesota

Lakes International Language Academy

K-12 charter school

Started 2004-2005, also has Spanish immersion track

246 11th Ave. S.E.

Forest Lake, MN 55025

Phone: 651-464-0771

https://www.mylila.org/about-lila

New Jersey

Maurice Hawk Elementary School, West Windsor, NJ.

Program launched 2018-2019 school year. Has now reached 4^th grade.

New York

Pine Street School

Private,K-5

2014-2015

25 Pine St.

Manhattan

New York NY 10005

Also has Spanish immersion track

Utah

Tooele Junior High School, Tooele, Utah

Program reached 7^th grade in the 2021-2022 school year.

The program will continue at Tooele High School in the 2024-2025 school year.

Wyoming

CY Middle School

Casper, Wyoming

Program progressed from grade school 2019-2020

CHANGES

E.E. Waddell Language Academy, a K-8 public school in Charlotte, NC, has changed its name to South Academy of International Languages (SAIL)

CLOSURE

Horseshoe Trails Elementary School

At the end of the 2020-2021 school year the Cave Creek Unified School District closed the Mandarin immersion program at Horseshoe Trails, which was founded in 2015. It has just gotten to middle school. More here:

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/parents-upset-over-school-districts-decision-to-cut-mandarin-chinese-language-immersion-program

Unable to open

CE Academy

This charter had hoped to open the fall of 2021 but COVID-19 proved too large a hurdle. There’s still some hope it might open for 2022 but unclear at this time.

Education