By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
Parents of students enrolled in the Glenwood Elementary Mandarin Dual-Language Program say they have had to fight every year to keep it from being eliminated.
This year they are going to have a much tougher fight.
On March 26, the district’s dual-language administrative team, comprised of school principals and district administrators, published a formal report with recommendations for the program, which included phasing out the Mandarin program.
“I was shocked,†said Hong Ying Li, who has two children enrolled in the program at Glenwood Elementary. “This program has helped our kids and has benefited both the Chinese- and English-speaking kids,†Li added.
Just one year ago the Mandarin dual-language program helped the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district make world headlines when it was featured on BBC America.
After the BBC story was released, parents said they felt a sense of relief, thinking it would be enough to convince the district to keep the program running. But this feeling was cut short when the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education received recommendations to cut the program.
“We have been threatened three to four times a year before, but never like this†said Chris Russell, who has a second-grader in the program.
“Our kids have 10 weeks until the end of school, and then it is gone. They are portraying it as a phase out, when it is really a termination,†Russell said.
The report released says the program is unsustainable because of low enrollment rates by native Chinese speakers, high attrition rates in middle and high school and the inability to find and retain enough qualified teachers.
“… [T]he district is making a significant investment per student in the Chinese Dual Language program. Administration questions whether this investment is equitable given the relatively small number of students in the program,†the report states.
Contributing to the program’s high costs is the need for work visas for many of the program’s teachers at the elementary school level.
Acquiring the visas can take a significant amount of time and requires attorney assistance, and the district estimates that over the past year attorney costs have exceeded $15,000.
“This program is good for the county and for the people, and to cancel it just to save a little bit of money doesn’t make sense,†Li said.
If approved, the dual-language administrative team’s recommendations would involve redistricting and would have different implications at each school level.
For those enrolled in K-5 in the Mandarin program at Glenwood, the program would end after this year, but those students would have the opportunity to take Chinese as a world language during the 2012-13 school year.
Middle school students in the program at McDougle would continue with the program until high school, where Chinese would be offered based on interest, meaning at least 15 students are enrolled and a qualified teacher can be hired.
Students enrolled in the Mandarin program originally assigned to a different school will be redistricted for the 2013-14 school year, with the only exception being the high school students.
A community forum focusing on the program will be held at the Glenwood cafeteria on April 17 from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and the school board will vote on the recommendations in May.
Our schools need to equip students with the skills needed to provide a competitive edge in the global economy. Students shouldn’t have to wait until college before they are exposed to Mandarin, which is more widely spoken than any other language in the world. The U.S. is increasingly interdependent with China. This is not the time to eliminate this vitally important program.