Starr King Elementary School

A diverse, welcoming public elementary school in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood.

Mandarin immersion

Donate now!The Mandarin immersion program at Starr King Elementary School started in 2006 with two classes of kindergarteners. Each subsequent year an additional grade is added. This will go on until there are six grades, Kindergarten through fifth. When the rollout of the Mandarin immersion program is completed in 2011, a total of 240 students will be enrolled in the immersion program.

Students of all backgrounds are represented. Families are drawn to the program from all over San Francisco, including Potrero Hill, the Mission, Noe Valley, Nob Hill and the Sunset. The program is designed for students who are native English speakers and for students who are bilingual or native speakers of Mandarin. Some of the students speak other languages as well.

Starr King’s immersion program builds on a proven track record for immersion education in San Francisco. The city’s two public Cantonese immersion programs are consistently among the best performing schools statewide, in math and English as well as Chinese. San Francisco’s Spanish immersion schools are similarly well regarded. San Francisco’s Board of Education and Mayor have committed to immersion education as a long-term priority for the city.

Mandarin Immersion in the San Francisco Unified School District

  • The first Mandarin Immersion Program in the SFUSD opened with 2 kindergarten classrooms in Fall 2006.
  • Instruction is “90:10 2-way immersion.” 90% of the day in kindergarten is taught in Mandarin.
  • 50% of the class is English-proficient and 50% of the class is Mandarin-proficient.

Why Mandarin immersion?

Language immersion is a powerful tool for teaching children a new language. An immersion education gives students an opportunity to expand the ways they communicate and think.

Here are a few of the benefits of an immersion education:

  • Proficiency in both English and the target language
  • An increased understanding of a culture other than the dominant culture
  • Strengthened brain development
  • Improved overall school performance and problem-solving skills
  • Higher scores on standardized tests (e.g. SAT)
  • More career choices
  • Fun!

For more information about the benefits of language immersion, try these resources:

Language requirements

This program is designed for students who are native English speakers and for students who are bilingual or native speakers of Mandarin.

  • Students entering Kindergarten with English as their home language need no prior exposure to Mandarin.
  • Students in 2nd grade and above must complete a language proficiency test in Mandarin.
  • Students entering all grades with Mandarin as their home language must arrange for a language assessment test.
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