The somewhat surprise success of Californian Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD)’s federal language grant application has generated much interest. PAUSD has since published the abstract of the original application on Palo Alto Online News website:

Abstract of original language-grant application

Following is the original summary of the grant application that has turned up with a pledge of federal funds a year later. The high-school instruction was proposed an an advanced-placement class.

ABSTRACT – Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive K-12 Mandarin Chinese Program with a Dual-Immersion Elementary Component in Palo Alto Unified School District

TYPE OF PROGRAM: FLAP-LEA

SCHOOLS: Elementary School TBD, Middle Schools TBD, Henry M. Gunn High School,

Palo Alto Senior High School

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), Palo Alto, CA proposes to develop and implement a model K-12 Mandarin Chinese program beginning with elementary dual-immersion and culminating in Advanced Placement Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture. The program will begin in August 2006 with two classes of Mandarin Chinese Level I in each of the District’s two comprehensive public high schools and in August 2007 with two kindergarten classes of dual-immersion Mandarin Chinese/English to be located at one of the District’s 12 elementary schools.

PAUSD, located in the San Francisco Bay Area in close proximity to Stanford University, serves a highly diverse and internationally-oriented population. The District will partner with the California Foreign Language Project (CFLP) at Stanford University and the Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University for extended staff development, external evaluation, and cultural exchange. The program will also provide entry points for introductory Mandarin Chinese study at both middle school and high school which will lead to Advanced Placement Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture classes at the high school level.

By August 2012, the K-12 Mandarin Chinese program will serve 240 elementary dual- immersion students, and 500 secondary-level students. Students in the dual-immersion program will become bi-lingual, bi-literate, and bi-cultural, and will develop high levels of proficiency in both English and Mandarin Chinese. All students will demonstrate positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors.

The program will have a strong technology component across the grade levels K-12 which will facilitate development of communication links with children and teachers through sister school relationships to be explored with Beijing’s Number 171 High School and Nanjing Foreign Language School, Xianlin Branch.

The Mandarin Chinese program will provide intensive professional development activities for both program and site staff, and will contain a parent education component. Parents whose children are in the immersion program will be invited to participate in a Mandarin Chinese language evening class offered through Palo Alto Adult School and will preview their children’s curriculum so that they will be more confident in supporting their children’s progress.

– Courtesy of PAUSD Associate Administrator Marilyn Cook.