We are parents who are for Equitable Language Learning. We would like Sunnyvale School District (SSD) to include in-school language lessons for ALL students instead of the proposed Mandarin Immersion Program. Advocates for the Mandarin Immersion Program have said that the proposed immersion program will help our district meet the Global California 2030 initiative. Language learning for all students at a school is a much more equitable way to achieve the same goal of the Global California 2030 Initiative. For example, if language classes are offered for all students at Cherry Chase, they will include three times as many students than the proposed immersion program.

The purpose of the Global California 2030 Initiative is to help the majority of K-12 students in California become proficient in more than one language. At Cherry Chase, we currently have NO in-school language classes. The Sunnyvale School District’s June 2019 dual-language survey results indicated that Spanish was the most desired non-English language. Many Sunnyvale parents would love for their children to learn and become proficient in Spanish, even if they would not enroll them in an immersion program for it. We need a more inclusive, non-immersion option for students to learn another language in school

It is entirely possible to achieve proficiency through language classes if introduced at a young age. At the elementary grade level, we have the opportunity to do that. It has been projected that Cherry Chase will educate 18% of SSD elementary students in 2021-22. Cumberland will educate another 18%, and Ellis is projected to educate 17.5%. We do not know if these numbers will remain true after the pandemic is over.  But, if they do, then introducing language classes into these three schools alone would enable SSD to set 53.5% of its elementary students on a path to proficiency, thus achieving the primary objective of the Global California 2030 initiative. In contrast, an immersion program at maximum capacity would only reach only 7% of the district’s elementary students when it is fully rolled out to K-5 grades.  

We propose that Spanish classes for all students be rolled out as a pilot program at Cherry Chase. After that, similar programs can be rolled out in a phased approach to Cumberland, Ellis, and the other schools in SSD.  This will enable all K-5 students in our district to become proficient in more than one language. Language programs for all students at each school could then be enhanced in subsequent years to include additional languages of choice, such as Mandarin (the second language of choice from the survey). 

In addition, we propose that the language electives be expanded to all grades 6-8 at Sunnyvale Middle School and Columbia Middle School, instead of the current approach of offering Spanish only in grade 8. By doing so, SSD will provide all students a middle-school pathway for language learning and could potentially set 78% of its students on the path for language excellence. 

This year, the theme of SSD’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) is Equity. It is our understanding that some of the funding for the Mandarin Immersion Program will come from LCAP funding. How can a school where only one-third of the student body has an opportunity to learn another language be considered equitable? We ask SSD to embrace equity and provide language classes for ALL students.