(St. Paul) At the close of this school year Yinghua Academy, the first Chinese immersion public charter school in the U.S., will celebrate the completion of its second year of serving students.  Yinghua Academy opened in the fall of 2006 with 75 students in kindergarten through 3rd grade and will end this school year with more than 150 students in kindergarten through 4th grade.  The interest in Chinese language programs continues to grow dramatically.  This coming fall Yinghua Academy will expand to having three kindergarten classes and expects to have a total of 235 students in kindergarten through 5th grade.

Successfully Managing Growth of Yinghua Academy

The board of directors of Yinghua Academy and the school director, Betsy Lueth, are focused on managing this growth successfully, balancing the many dimensions of operating and growing a strong school.  Yinghua Academy has added and will continue to add licensed teachers and other staff.  Even though there are many challenges with finding highly-capable teachers who have native quality fluency in Mandarin Chinese and who have the right to work in the U.S., Ms. Lueth has brought together a strong staff that includes people from Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.  Ms. Lueth is always looking for staff who have native quality fluency in Mandarin Chinese and who have a variety of backgrounds.

The board and Ms. Lueth are also dedicated to managing Yinghua Academy’s finances effectively.  A particular financial challenge is that Yinghua Academy offers tuition-free, full-day kindergarten, even though the State of Minnesota provides funding only for half-day kindergarten.  Through their extensive research of language immersion programs Ms. Lueth and the board were convinced that full-day kindergarten offers students a significantly stronger introduction to another language and decided to find a way to manage the school finances so that this would be possible.  Through careful management and through funding provided by several grants, including a Federal Charter Schools Program grant, Yinghua Academy is in a strong financial position, with a fund balance of more than 15%.

Another challenge in managing growth is ensuring that Yinghua Academy has a facility that meets the school’s changing needs and that the school can afford.  Since Yinghua Academy’s growth rate has exceeded the original expectations of the board, Yinghua Academy is already outgrowing its facility.  In addition, after several months of research the board has voted to seek the approval of the school’s sponsor, Friends of Ascension, and the Minnesota Department of Education to become a kindergarten through 8th grade school.  Yinghua Academy currently has a charter to operate a kindergarten through 5th grade school.  The board has formed a Facilities Committee, which has begun a search for a new building.  The board, the staff, and the families of Yinghua Academy hope to find or develop a suitable building that is in a very central location in the Twin Cities, just as the current building is.

Nurturing Student Growth

Probably the most important growth going on at Yinghua Academy is the individual growth of its students in both overall academic achievement and in the development of their Mandarin language skills.  “We have a Chinese AFS teacher staying with us; and it’s amazing to see my son communicate with her,” notes first grade parent Abigail Pribbenow.  “He also practices reciting Chinese stories on the phone with a classmate.  They talk and talk to each other in Chinese.  It’s hard to get them off the phone!”  Ms. Lueth comments: “It’s been wonderful to see all of our staff’s hard work translate into the accomplishments of the students.  Many of our parents have moved from worrying about whether their child will learn Mandarin to worrying about whether their child will be able to continue to study and learn Chinese at a very advanced level after the child graduates from Yinghua Academy.  This was a critical consideration in the board’s decision to pursue growing Yinghua Academy to be at least a kindergarten through 8th grade school.”

Developing and Sharing Best Practices in Mandarin Immersion Teaching

As the first Chinese elementary immersion program in the Midwest, Yinghua Academy is becoming a leader in Chinese immersion throughout the state of MN and beyond.  “As we continue to develop and learn about effective practices for Mandarin immersion teaching, we very much want to share and collaborate with other Mandarin programs,” notes Ms. Lueth.  In October 2007 the State of Minnesota awarded to Yinghua Academy one of five World Languages Pilot Program Grants.  Yinghua Academy is using this grant to produce content-based instruction, lesson plans, curriculum maps and literacy assessment in Mandarin for use in either immersion or FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary School) models throughout the state.  In June 2008 the school will initiate a mentorship program, open to any Minnesota Chinese language teacher. Mandarin teachers who are new to teaching in America will be paired with an experienced immersion teacher who will help the new teacher with classroom management strategies, parental relationships, cultural differences and differentiated instruction strategies.

Yinghua Academy has also recently submitted, in collaboration with several departments at the University of Minnesota and all other Chinese immersion elementary programs in Minnesota, an application for a federal grant that would bring nearly $1.5 million to Minnesota over the next five years.  This grant would be used to create the Minnesota Mandarin Immersion Collaborative and would be focused on a K-16 Mandarin articulation program and elementary language assessments as well as a teacher licensure program for language immersion teachers.  Yinghua Academy, the U of M, and the other collaborators will be notified by June 30, 2008, whether or not the Minnesota Mandarin Immersion Collaborative will be granted funding.

Yinghua Academy is the first K-5 Chinese elementary school in the Midwest and is located in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The mission of Yinghua Academy is to provide a challenging and comprehensive learning environment that will nurture students' natural inquisitiveness and will prepare them to be engaged and productive global citizens. Students will develop intellectual curiosity and critical-thinking skills as well as a broad and deep knowledge in language arts, mathematics, world and American history and culture, science, and fine arts.  Yinghua Academy is a tuition-free charter public school. For more information  contact 651-379-4112 or visit http://www.yinghuaacademy.org.