The Massachusetts Board of Education approved a charter for a public Chinese language immersion school on Feb. 27, capitalizing on burgeoning demand that has manifested itself at Tufts and throughout the country.
Expected to open in the fall of 2007, the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School will enroll approximately 300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It will also be the first foreign-language charter school in the state, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Education told the Boston Globe.
Support for the school, which will be located in the Pioneer Valley of Western Mass., grew out of an increasing emphasis on teaching languages to help American students remain competitive in a global economy, according to Richard Alcorn, the chairman of the board of trustees of the new school. Because of China's emerging economy, Chinese has been a popular choice.
"There is a lot of public interest in world languages in general," he said. "There is a particular interest in Chinese."
Elizabeth Remick, an associate professor of political science at Tufts, said that knowing Chinese "will probably become an important tool for young people who are interested in international business or politics ... The more U.S. companies know about their partners and the more they are able to treat them as equals, the better off both sides will be."
Enrollment numbers for Chinese classes at Tufts indicate that students feel similarly. "Student enrollment has increased in the last few years," Chinese Lecturer Jinyu Li said.
While Li called the school a "truly pioneering project," she said that the founders will have to put a lot of work into the design of the curriculum given how difficult Chinese can be for native English speakers to learn.
"I wonder if the founders studied other foreign language immersion schools, because the proper design of the school is important," she said.
The school will teach both Mandarin Chinese and English in every grade level. As students get older, the amount of Chinese used will decrease. For example, in kindergarten through first grade, 75 percent of daily instruction will be in Chinese, then only 50 percent in second through fifth and finally 25 percent in six through eighth.
The subjects that to be taught in Chinese include math, science, history and Chinese language, arts and culture.
So far, parents of students living in the Pioneer Valley region have expressed strong interest in enrolling their children in the school. The school is currently oversubscribed, according to Alcorn.
