The Mandarin in Schools Committee holds annual conferences on promoting Mandarin learning in four school districts of Southern California. C-100 has encouraged students and teachers to gain greater knowledge of Chinese history, culture and language. The Committee worked closely with the Los Angeles Unified School District Board towards adopting a resolution entitled “Mandarin, Spanish and Other World Languages.”  The resolution set a direction for foreign languages as an academic requirement for six to eight years instead of two years.  Under the new direction, at least three feeder programs in elementary, middle and high school clusters now offer the teaching of Mandarin.

More and more Americans are recognizing China’s emergence as an international economic power and want to their children to have the advantage of developing Chinese language and cultural understanding through a regular school curriculum. According to Asian Society, there was a 100% growth of Chinese language programs in the United States in the last two years.

With demand for Chinese language instruction on the upswing, schools and school districts continue to face a shortage of highly qualified, California credentialed teachers for the Mandarin classrooms. Teachers who are employed are challenged with a shortage of appropriate textbooks, well developed curriculum, and mentors to help them with creating and sustaining high quality Mandarin programs.

In order to address the needs created by emerging Mandarin programs, the Mandarin in Schools conference was established in 2011. Teachers and administrators from all over Southern California will attend the Fourth Annual Mandarin in Schools Conference in November to exchange ideas about Mandarin instruction.”

To learn more about our upcoming conference, please click here.

If you would like to learn more about this program, please contact c100@committee100.org.