Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Eugene Register-Guard in favor of Mandarin immersion

    Interesting that Eugene had the first Japanese immersion program in the nation.  And surprising that they haven’t added one in a generation.  – Beth

    Good time to add Chinese

    Eugene School District plans Mandarin program

    Dec. 28, 2016

    The Eugene School District was a pioneer in providing language-immersion programs to public school students, but hasn’t added to its current set of offerings — French, Japanese and Spanish — in a generation. That will change if the Eugene School Board approves a proposal to launch a Mandarin Chinese program next year. The board should move ahead. A fourth language immersion program would correct an imbalance in the district, and there has never been a better time to add instruction in Mandarin.

    A decade ago, the number of Mandarin language immersion programs in public school districts could be counted on one hand, according to Matthew Bacon, assistant director for the Department of Dual Languages in the Portland School District. One of these districts is in Portland, which started its first Mandarin school in 1998 and is preparing to open a third.

    Today, Bacon says, more than 200 Mandarin immersion programs have opened in public schools nationwide — a “virtual tidal wave” that has brought with it an increase in the quantity and quality of teaching materials. At the same time, teacher training programs in Oregon and elsewhere have geared up to meet the demand for teachers who are proficient in Mandarin. The Eugene district was a trailblazer with its existing language immersion programs, and the Japanese program was the nation’s first — but with Mandarin, Eugene can benefit from others’ experience.

    Please read more here.

  • Eugene School District’s next immersion program: Mandarin Chinese

    By Alisha Roemeling
    The Register-Guard
    DEC 26, 2016
    The Eugene School District will soon have a fourth language immersion program to offer students, pending Eugene School Board approval in the new year.

    The plan is to implement a Mandarin Chinese program in the Churchill High School region of the district, beginning at the Family School at Crest Elementary School. The school has four classrooms available, says the district.

    In a proposal to the school board, district officials said the middle school portion of the program would likely either take place at the Bailey Hill Instructional Center, or be split between the Crest site and Kennedy Middle School. The high school level of the program would be offered at Churchill High School.

    Please read more here.

  • Middle school set for Capistrano Unified Mandarin immersion program.

    cusd logoBy Allison Jarrell

    After months of uncertainty, families in Capistrano Unified School District’s Mandarin Immersion Program (MIP) finally got the answer they were eagerly awaiting—their students will matriculate from Marian Bergeson Elementary School in Laguna Niguel to Fred Newhart Middle School in Mission Viejo next year if they wish to continue in the immersion program.

    The decision, which was reached by CUSD’s Board of Trustees on Nov. 16, came after months of debate over whether MIP students should matriculate to Fred Newhart or Niguel Hills Middle School. The Mandarin immersion program is in its fifth year and allows students to become fluent and literate in Mandarin and English.

    The district’s initial recommendation in April was Fred Newhart, but that didn’t settle well with some South Orange County MIP families who favored the more centrally located Niguel Hills. After hearing concerns from those South County families about proximity, the board voted on April 13 to approve the program’s pathway from Bergeson to Niguel Hills.

    However, the topic came up again in May, when two trustees requested the middle school location be reconsidered, pointing to costly renovations—over $1 million worth—that would need to be completed in order to house the program at Niguel Hills. On May 25, the board voted unanimously to reconsider the MIP matriculation pattern no later than its November meeting.

    Please read more here.

  • Calling all Mandarin charter schools

    screen-shot-2016-11-09-at-1-36-16-pmAt least two new Mandarin charter schools are set to open in the 2017-2018 school year, PUC International Preparatory Academy in the Los Angeles Unified School District and Wei Yu International Charter school in West San Jose, Calif.

    I’ve got 21 existing charter schools on my list of Mandarin immersion programs in the United States and I wonder if there’s any sort of network of Mandarin immersion charters so where best practices and talk about how they go about creating a program.

    I realize charters are public schools and therefore function in many ways as all other public schools. But some of the new programs had asked if there was a network or at least an email list for charters.

    So I ask – does one exist? And if so, may I use this blog to get the word out about it to others?

    Thanks,

    Beth

  • Lack of teachers a rate-limiting factor for immersion programs

    City’s Dual Language Programs Struggle to Find Teachers, Experts Say

    By Amy Zimmer | February 23, 2016 9:54am

    Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina (left), Principal Victoria Hunt (center) and Queen Letizia (right) observe a kindergarten art class at the Dos Puentes Dual Language School, a dual language program in Upper Manhattan.

    Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina (left), Principal Victoria Hunt (center) and Queen Letizia (right) observe a kindergarten art class at the Dos Puentes Dual Language School, a dual language program in Upper Manhattan. View Full Caption

    Newsday

    MANHATTAN — The Department of Education has celebrated its expansion of dual languageprograms — recently awarding $10,000 to more than a dozen schools for multilingual instructional materials and ongoing professional development.

    But at many of the approximately 160 remaining dual language programs around the city, principals are struggling to fill the teaching spots amid a dearth of certified foreign language teachers, parents and experts said.

    In the Lower East Side’s P.S. 20, which includes a Mandarin dual-language program, it’s been so hard to find qualified teachers that its fifth-grade Mandarin teacher and fourth-grade English teacher had to flip flop between classrooms from one day to the next for months, parents said.

    Please read more here.

  • Scottsdale, Arizona plans Mandarin immersion program.

    Scottsdale School Plans Mandarin Immersion Program, Starting in Kindergarten

    By  Annika Cline,  Mark Brodie
    Published: Monday, December 5, 2016 – 3:30pm

    (Photo courtesy of Kristin Kinghorn)
    Desert Canyon Elementary School principal Kristin Kinghorn learns calligraphy with students at a school in China.

    Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken first language in the world, and fluency could mean more opportunities in the workforce. That’s why some parents here want their kids to speak it, too — even if they don’t speak it themselves.

    “It’s a little bit intimidating. But I do realize this is a changing world and we need to support our children. And if this is what’s the right thing for them in terms of their personal development, you’re willing to stretch,” said Maria Aldrich, who attended a recent meeting at Desert Canyon Elementary School in Scottsdale.

    She’s planning to enroll her daughter in the school’s new Mandarin Dual Immersion Program, which starts next school year.

    Students will spend half of each day being taught in Mandarin. That led parent Jennifer D’Costa to wonder what homework help will be like.

    Please read more here.

  • A look at a Manhattan Mandarin immersion program

    This is from a few years back, but information about New York City programs is hard to find so I thought I’d post it. – Beth

     

    Bilingual P.S. 20’s Principal Talks About Teaching in English and Mandarin

    By Serena Solomon | January 21, 2013 8:02am

    Principal James Lee heads up an elementary school that has a bilingual Chinese Mandarin program.

    LOWER EAST SIDE — There are plenty of surprises when it comes to James Lee, the principal at P.S. 20 Anne Silver School, one of only two in the city that run a bilingual program in Chinese Mandarin.

    Despite being Chinese-Japanese-American, Lee doesn’t speak the language many of his elementary students are learning, though he is fluent in Spanish.

    A degree in rhetoric with an emphasis on the persuasiveness of folk tales preceded his master’s in special education.

    After a year spent soul-searching in Peru, Lee’s science curiosity led him to work for the Prospect Park Audubon for two years before landing in the New York City school system.

    “I thought to be a good principal I need to gather some skills and experiences you might not be able to gain in the school system,” said the 45-year-old Lower East Side resident and San Francisco native.

    Please read more here.