After waiting over a year for answers to the Chinese
immersion program, this is what I think I know
·
The board approved the Chinese Mandarin Immersion
program to begin September 2013.
·
The district has contracts with two Mandarin
Immersion teachers coming to our district.
·
All research I have read about the Mandarin
program has been mainly positive for students.
·
The Mandarin Immersion program will be taught
starting September 2013
o
Two classes will be taught in Mandarin
§
Math and Science (one hour each per day)
o
Year one, kindergarteners and first grade
students
o
Year two, kindergarteners through second grade
students
o
Year three, kindergarteners through third grade
students
o
Year four, kindergarteners through fourth grade
students
o
Year five, kindergarteners through fifth grade students
o
Year six, kindergarteners through fifth grade
students, sixth grade will be given one hour refresher per day
o
Year seven, kindergarteners through fifth grade
students, sixth through seventh grade will be given one hour refresher per day
o
Year eight, kindergarteners through fifth grade
students, sixth through eighth grade will be given one hour refresher per day
·
This program will be offered only to
kindergartners and first grade, so if you move into the district in the second
grade the program will not be offered
·
Kindergartner and first graders may either opt
in or opt out of the program
·
Children that opt in the program will be taught
math and science, in mandarin, in a separate classroom
·
Children that opt out of the program will be
taught traditional math and science in a separate classroom
·
All students will be taught together for the
remainder of classes with a traditional teacher.
·
On a fully implemented program, assuming K6-K8
can be taught at one time in one class room
o
The district will need six additional classrooms
for two hours per day
o
The district will need one additional classroom
for one hour per day
o
The district will require four? Mandarin
teachers to support the program. This is in addition to the traditional
teachers for each grade.
·
Funding
o
In year one, the program will survive entirely on a grant to pay for the first
teacher and the Naselle School District will pick up $13,000 to pay for the
second teacher.
o
Additional costs to run the program will be paid
by the Naselle School District
o
There is no guarantee that funds will be
available after the first year, in which case, all expenses will be paid by the
Naselle School District.
o
There will not be any additional funding by the
state to support this program
o
The McCleary decision, upheld by the Supreme Court,
mandates fully funded education by the state to be fully implemented by 2018.
This decision will have far reaching effects on our local control of education
and local levies. (Google McCleary decision, and read about levy swap)
o
If the grants run out, how will we pay for the program? Would
the district support a levy for this program? Would the McCleary decision even
give us that option?
o
If grants, state funding, or local levies are not an option,
the other option I see would be to grow our way out of this by hoping the
Mandarin program attracts enough new students to pay for the program. (each new
student currently brings along with them around $5700 per year)
·
Could the district offer the Mandarin Program
starting one hour before regular classes and one hour after the regular school
day and have the participating parents responsible for getting their child to
and from school? This would eliminate the need for additional classrooms as the
school would be mainly empty during these hours.
·
Will the school board be faced with
terminating the program after several years because the district cannot afford
to the program. What do we say to the children that are dropped in the middle
of the program? Will these children be, as Luke questioned, guinea pigs?
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
ReplyDelete― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This appears to be more of a bad plan than failure to plan.
1. Plan on not educating the community or letting them get involved. Why are parents given the option to opt in or out? They are not given the option to opt in or out of other teaching subjects. Should we have two classes for math? One for kids that don't want take math and one class for those who do. Two classes for English, two for history? That's stupid! We as a community want it or we don't. It could be incorporated into the classes like everything else.
2. Plan on not worrying how to fund the program after the first year. (special levy sound familiar)
3. Plan on dividing the kids instead of teaching the material to a full class. Divide may be a good idea to conquer, but do we really want to separate the kids, with each getting different educations?
4. Plan on needing more teachers without more money
5. Plan on needing more classrooms without building more rooms
From what I understand, the school board really did not understand the issues, or even knew there were issues. They trusted the superintendent and voted for this program.
I think the community should be given a chance to get involved. This could be a good thing for the kids, rather than a disaster. We should have the option to fix it or pull the plug.
Dennis Strange