Since 2021, a Mandarin Chinese immersion program that has been a draw for Cambridge families has cut down on its Chinese instruction hours and changed its curriculum. Now, after months of debate between the school district and parents, the program is being renamed.
Parents of students at both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School and Putnam Avenue Upper School (PAUS) have been embroiled in conversations with school and district officials about changes to the immersion program’s curriculum and instruction hours. Parents say the program offers full immersion only from kindergarten to 2nd grade. After that, they say, the 50/50 split the program advertises becomes more like 33/67.
“They’re really just doing a disservice to the program by telling us we’re doing 50/50 immersion, and then not actually providing it to us,” said Amy Lee, a parent of a fourth grader in the program.
District officials have gone back and forth on whether it is an immersion program. In emails shared with a Cambridge Day reporter, the MLK school’s principal, Gerald Yung, wrote that the program was not at a “50/50 split due to the increased requirements of our English curriculums,” but students did receive between 42-48% Mandarin instruction.
Other requirements affect time
Yung explained in the email that cuts to the Mandarin instruction time were because of new curriculum, new district initiatives and the addition of a second recess.
The schedules included in the email showed the instruction time for grades three through five. The listed total instruction time for Chinese does not equal 50 percent for each grade.
For third grade, the instruction time in Chinese is 27 percent of the week. For fourth grade, Chinese instruction time was 28 percent of the week and for fifth grade it was 27 percent of the week.
The Mandarin-Chinese immersion program, which started in 2011 and is one of two in the state, is labelled on the school district’s website as a K-8 dual-language immersion program. MLK received a federal Blue Ribbon award in 2024 for narrowing performance gaps in part thanks to the Mandarin Chinese Immersion Program and its eight-hour school day.
Dual language programs fall under the category of English Learner Education. These programs are defined by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) as “promoting bilingualism” for “both native English speakers and [English Learners].”
Programs fall under one of two categories, two-way immersion and one-way immersion.
Two-way immersion programs, which MLK and PAUS fall under according to a document published by DESE, enrolls both English learners and students proficient in English before they start schooling. However, parents have classified the majority if not all of the students in the program as heritage speakers who come into school proficient in English.
Name change
In a recent email to parents, Yung acknowledged that the program does not fit the districts’ classification of dual language programs because it did not have “at least 50% of students” who were English learners. He wrote that the program would now be called Chinese Immersion World Language Program.
Parents argue that the program doesn’t count as immersion because it doesn’t hit the 50/50 Chinese and English instruction split. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told Cambridge Day that two-way immersion programs are classified as such depending on either the demographics of the student population or the instruction split.
Per DESE requirements, school districts must submit a self assessment of their immersion programs every six years. The assessments are part of a larger audit that DESE conducts to ensure that every program is meeting state and federal laws and students’ progression to English learning proficiency.
MLK and PAUS’ last review was in the 2020-21 school year. The schools’ will be reviewed in the 2026-27 school year to ensure that it meets standards for the LOOK Act, a law passed in 2017 that aims to give districts more flexibility for how they run language acquisition programs.
The curriculum has also changed in MLK to eliminate math instruction in Mandarin. The decrease in instruction time and the changes to the curriculum have thrown off students’ learning according to parents.
Andrew Low, a parent of a seventh grader and a ninth grader, said the changes have made students more unprepared for middle school because students aren’t finishing the curriculum.
“They’re not getting a proper foundation now,” Low said.
This leaves the middle school teachers to find a solution to keep students on track.
PAUS also switched instruction from Chinese to English for eight grade social studies and implemented “better immersion” for sixth graders, which parents say has impeded their children’s learning. Students were also told they’d be taking the STAMP (Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency) biliteracy test earlier.
The test was taken in June until this year, when it was moved to February for eighth graders and April and May for sixth and seventh graders. Parents argue this has made their students unprepared for the exam.
Rebecca Xiong, parent of an eighth grader in the program, said the curriculum changes affected her daughter, who should have a leg up because Xiong speaks Chinese at home. This year, her daughter was one point shy of passing the STAMP test.
“If my kid is having problems, imagine the other parents,” Xiong said.
Exam impact
The STAMP test also impacts where the students place in high school. Students who complete the immersion program are expected to have received the stamp of biliteracy and go straight into AP Chinese in ninth grade.
However, Low says that because of the disjointed learning, these options are no longer a guarantee. Xiong is worried that her daughter will be less prepared for AP Chinese in the coming year because of curriculum changes.
“I feel they’re not doing what’s best for the kids,” Xiong said.
Some parents have been able to offset some of the program’s deficiencies with supplemental learning such as tutoring and Chinese Sunday School. However, these aren’t good alternatives for most parents because of the cost, and they cut into students’ free time.
A few parents pulled their students from middle school as a result of the changes. However, many have stayed, listing their reasons being having bought or buying a house in Cambridge for the immersion program and considering it better than other alternatives even in its reduced form.
Cambridge Public Schools spokesperson Jaclyn Piques said via email that “All students receive high-quality instruction and materials within this DESE-approved framework. We are dedicated to offering this advanced Mandarin track that empowers students to think, analyze, and learn fluently in two languages. Just as importantly, we ensure all students are fully integrated into general English classes, building a truly unified school community.”
Karyna Cheung contributed reporting. This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
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