by Jade Chan
Before our children were born, the only thought my husband and I had given to their education was whether we were in a neighborhood with strong schools. When it came time to select a preschool for our son, I remembered a sign I’d seen in the Woodstock neighborhood for Yu Miao Chinese Immersion Preschool. After exploring our options, we realized that Yu Miao felt right. Fast-forward more than two years and my son is in Portland Public Schools’ Mandarin Immersion Program (MIP) at Woodstock Elementary, while his sister is at Yu Miao, following in her big brother’s footsteps.
For our family, the MIP is a way for our children to learn one of their heritage languages and cultures (they’re half Chinese and half Irish), expand their minds and learning abilities, and develop a more worldly view. Ask families in the MIP and they will echo these reasons or cite a desire for their children to learn a world language, study the language and culture of a rising economic power, or simply be exposed to Chinese, the most widely spoken language in the world. (“Chinese” may refer to any of the language’s many dialects, including Cantonese, but Mandarin is the national language of China and the one most people learn.)
Learning a second language benefits young minds in so many ways. Studies have shown that being bilingual can improve cognitive skills. Bilinguals don’t have to quiet one language in their mind to concentrate on the other; rather, their skills allow them to think outside the box and to assess challenging situations or issues and address them more efficiently.
Studies have also shown that English language learners pick up English more effectively if they’re also taught in their native language, which often translates to improved achievement in school. This is one reason why, in an effort to close the achievement gap, Portland Public Schools (PPS) is expanding its Dual Language Immersion programs.
Among its language immersion offerings of Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Vietnamese, PPS offers Chinese immersion beginning in kindergarten. Mandarin immersion began at Woodstock Elementary in SE Portland in 1998. The program grew to include Hosford Middle School (where eighth graders in the MIP travel to China on a two-week research residency in the spring) and Cleveland High School. In 2005 National Security Education Program awarded PPS and University of Oregon a grant that allowed them to establish an Oregon Flagship Program—the first K–16 Chinese Flagship program in the country and a national model.
Last year PPS expanded the MIP to King School in NE Portland, beginning with kindergarten and first grade. As the program at Woodstock did, the MIP at King will grow each year. PPS’s Department of Dual Language is proposing to expand the MIP to a third site in the 2016–17 school year, pending the School Board’s approval.
Entry into PPS’s MIP programs is by lottery. The lottery transfer cycle for the 2015–16 school year opens February 9 and closes March 6. Those interested in applying should visit pps.k12.or.us/departments/enrollmenttransfer/schoolchoice.htm for more information. When the lottery opens, the website will have more detailed information about the programs, such as dates of mandatory meetings and school tours and the number of spots available in each grade. (For the MIP, the lottery is typically only for the kindergarten class, but 1st grade slots were available last year with the opening of the MIP at King.)
One detail to keep in mind is category “buckets” in the MIP lottery. In an effort to align with PPS’s Racial Equity Policy and Plan, the lottery has been formatted to provide equitable access to native-speaking students. In the MIP, slots are reserved for native Chinese speakers (of any Chinese dialect) and non-native speakers. PPS defines native speakers as “children who have been listening and speaking with a Chinese speaking parent/guardian since birth. The intention of this definition is to capture students who have had limited English language development.”
Buckets are further divided into neighborhood families (those who live within the school’s boundaries) and transfer families (those outside the boundaries). For Woodstock’s MIP, there is a bucket each for Chinese-speaking families and non-Chinese speakers in the neighborhood, and a bucket each for Chinese speakers and non-Chinese speakers outside the boundaries, for a total of four buckets. In the 2014-15 lottery cycle, applicants for the King MIP were also divided into four buckets: students in the Mandarin program at a nearby Albina Head Start, native Chinese speakers, students already attending King and their siblings, and neighborhood and transfer students.
When the notification letters are sent 4–6 weeks after the lottery closes, families will know whether they’ve been granted a space in their desired school, wait-listed, or denied. All is not lost if your child is not immediately placed. Some families do decline placement, which opens spots for those on the wait list. Families can also use the petition process and be considered for placement after the wait list has expired, if there is room in the classroom, and if the child can demonstrate that he or she is at the same language level as the other students and can keep up with them. (This is the process our family went through.)
The lottery can be a very anxious time for many PPS families, but with the growing popularity and success of language programs—immersion or otherwise—be confident that you will find the right fit for your child.
Jade Chan is a freelance editor and the proud parent of two children. She herself is a product of Portland Public Schools (Grout, Hosford, and Cleveland) and is just tickled that her kids will attend two of the schools she did. She and her family live in North Portland.
