California Mandarin Immersion Program Sees Significant Growth

The Los Angeles Times (12/30, Stevens) profiles the Mandarin Chinese immersion program at Broadway Elementary School in Venice, California, in which "there is not a single English word on the walls" and "none of the students are aware that their teacher speaks English. ... Broadway Elementary last year joined the ranks of more than 200 schools across the state to offer a dual-language immersion program in which students learn in two languages with the goal of becoming academically proficient in both. In the school's '50-50' program, teachers who use Mandarin in the classroom and those whose instruction is in English are paired, and students spend half their day with each. Broadway began the program to help boost plummeting enrollment - the school had reached a low of 257 students in 2008-09." Now, the Times reports, the program has expanded to the point that its students make up nearly half of the school's student body.