By Jeanne Cooper
Given its historic diversity of cultures and growing international workforce, the Bay Area boasts a wide array of private schools with language-immersion programs and coursework designed to meet global standards. But choosing which one is right for a particular child involves more than deciding which language — or languages — besides English are taught.
“Really, all independent schools are niche schools,” explains Deborah Dowling, executive director of the California Association of Independent Schools. “Each one has its own culture, its own program emphasis, unique facilities, opportunities and approaches.”
Bay Area immersion schools may vary not only in their language of instruction — Cantonese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish, as well as English — but also in their social and academic environment.
Some offer a curriculum designated as International Baccalaureate (IB), which includes elementary and middle school programs and an academically challenging, two-year high school diploma program that includes the study of other languages.
The French American + International School in San Francisco, for example, offers bilingual learning in the French national education system from pre-kindergarten to grade 8 and then a choice of tracks for grades 9 to 12: English international baccalaureate or French baccalaureate.
“Our mission puts academic rigor, diversity, critical thinking and cross-cultural communication right at the heart of the learning experience,” said Head of School Melinda Bihn. “Our students are pursuing world-class academic programs, in more than one language, in an international school community with students and teachers from across the globe. They are learning skills that will allow them to thrive anywhere.”
As San Francisco’s oldest bilingual school, founded in 1962, “our French roots run deep,” notes Bihn. Still, Gallic ties aren’t required to enroll, and incoming high schoolers who don’t speak French may enroll in the English IB program.
Language-immersion schools allow students to soak in other cultures
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Students work in a classroom at the French American + International School.
Credit: Evan Sung
“About 24 percent of our families are francophone, schoolwide, and many of our families are multilingual in other languages. But we also have non-francophone families who love the way our school develops cross-cultural learners in a vibrant, international community,” Bihn said.
La Scuola International School, a pre-kindergarten through grade 8 Italian immersion school in San Francisco, with a campus in East Palo Alto for ages 2 to 7, offers the IB primary years and middle school programs with a unique Italian twist.
Students learn through “inquiry in a beautiful environment inspired by the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy,” said Head of School Valentina Imbeni.
“Every day, the students at La Scuola ask challenging questions and we take those questions seriously. They lead — and embrace — their own ability to learn across languages, across cultures and across subjects. Because when children are open to the world and protagonists in their own education, there’s no limit to their ability to learn, find beauty in life and discover extraordinary answers,” Imbeni explains.
Only 30 percent of La Scuola’s multicultural student body hears Italian spoken at home, but “our school Italian culture revolves around human connections, affecting everything we do, from how we eat meals to how we resolve conflicts to how we greet each other with affection,” Imbeni notes. “We tell our families during open houses that if they don’t like hugs, La Scuola may not be the best fit for them.”
While pursuing an IB diploma can grant students access to universities worldwide, and prepare them well for U.S. college studies, language immersion offers benefits both in and outside the classroom, according to educators.
La Scuola International School is a pre-kindergarten through grade 8 Italian immersion school in San Francisco with a campus in East Palo Alto for ages 2 to 7.
Credit: La Scuola International School
“Early exposure to a second language enables more neural connections to form in a child’s brain, actually improving language skills in the first language. Our graduates are bilingual — many are trilingual — and as a result, have better control over their attention, decision making and planning than students who learn in one language,” Imbeni said. “Statistically, children who study a second language score higher on verbal standardized tests conducted in English, perform better in math and logic skills testing and are better at solving complex problems.”
Immersion and international programs can also affect students’ non-academic life, Bihn notes.
“Bilingual learning shapes the way you think; immersion in another language and culture shapes how you live,” she explains. “Our bilingual, baccalaureate education provides our students with rewarding relationships in a diverse, international community, and it primes our graduates for success in college and beyond.”
For Yalan King, executive director of the nonprofit Mandarin Institute in San Francisco, which advocates for the teaching and learning of the Mandarin language and Chinese culture, finding a bilingual school where her daughter, Alexa, could learn about Chinese culture and be prepared for a changing world was critical.
Now a junior studying pre-med at Georgetown University, Alexa graduated from the Chinese American International School (CAIS) in San Francisco, which offers preschool through grade 8, in 2016 and from San Francisco’s public academic powerhouse of Lowell High School in 2020.
A student works with a teacher at La Scuola International School, an Italian immersion school.
Credit: La Scuola International School
Shu Ren International School students examine a crab.
Credit: Shu Ren International School
King and her husband, Greg, “felt that we would be errant as parents if we did not provide Alexa with a bilingual education,” she recalls. “Mandarin was important to us because of my heritage, and at that time, China was becoming a force on the world stage, and we wanted her to have every advantage to participate in the global economy of the future. Also, there are significant studies that show the benefit to brain development of learning a second language and students in immersion programs generally score higher on standardized testing than their monolingual peers.”
At CAIS, elementary school students receive 50 percent of their instruction in English and 50 percent in Mandarin, a ratio that switches to 65-35 in middle school, said King, who also worked at CAIS for four years before launching the Mandarin Institute in 2011. The majority of CAIS students come from non-native speaking backgrounds, which is also true of most Chinese-language immersion programs around the country, King adds.
King said she particularly appreciated “multiple opportunities” for CAIS students to spend time in Taiwan and Beijing, including a program in which fifth graders spend two weeks with a host family in Taiwan, and in return host a student from the Taiwanese family in their Bay Area home.
“You cannot become proficient in a language without becoming proficient in a culture,” King notes. “Doing exchange programs and travel abroad enhances the cultural experience.”
At Shu Ren International School, which has a total of 185 students in a preschool through grade 5 campus in Berkeley and a preschool and elementary school campus in San Jose, Mandarin language is immersed within their International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme.
“Families choose Shu Ren because of its commitment to an inquiry-based program, its language immersion and its caring community,” the school’s co-head of school Deron Marvin said. “Despite having a few near-native Chinese speakers, our program is still geared for all learners to reach fluency in the language.”
Shu Ren students learn Mandarin through the whole curricular program with many of the specialist classes being taught in Mandarin, including performing arts and physical education.
“The immersive experience renders multilingual and culturally literate students,” according to the school.
With so many language and learning approaches, “finding the right match between a student and an independent school can be very individualized,” said
Shu Ren International School students celebrate the Lunar New Year in Berkeley in February 2020.
Credit: Shu Ren International School
Dowling of the California Independent Schools Association. “It’s a good idea to explore schools’ websites to get an initial feel for what is special about each school, then visit the top candidates for a tour or conversation.”
“About 24 percent of our families are francophone, schoolwide, and many of our families are multilingual in other languages. But we also have non-francophone families who love the way our school develops cross-cultural learners in a vibrant, international community,” Bihn said.
La Scuola International School, a pre-kindergarten through grade 8 Italian immersion school in San Francisco, with a campus in East Palo Alto for ages 2 to 7, offers the IB primary years and middle school programs with a unique Italian twist.
Students learn through “inquiry in a beautiful environment inspired by the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy,” said Head of School Valentina Imbeni.
“Every day, the students at La Scuola ask challenging questions and we take those questions seriously. They lead — and embrace — their own ability to learn across languages, across cultures and across subjects. Because when children are open to the world and protagonists in their own education, there’s no limit to their ability to learn, find beauty in life and discover extraordinary answers,” Imbeni explains.
Only 30 percent of La Scuola’s multicultural student body hears Italian spoken at home, but “our school Italian culture revolves around human connections, affecting everything we do, from how we eat meals to how we resolve conflicts to how we greet each other with affection,” Imbeni notes. “We tell our families during open houses that if they don’t like hugs, La Scuola may not be the best fit for them.”
While pursuing an IB diploma can grant students access to universities worldwide, and prepare them well for U.S. college studies, language immersion offers benefits both in and outside the classroom, according to educators.
Given its historic diversity of cultures and growing international workforce, the Bay Area boasts a wide array of private schools with language-immersion programs and coursework designed to meet global standards. But choosing which one is right for a particular child involves more than deciding which language — or languages — besides English are taught.
“Really, all independent schools are niche schools,” explains Deborah Dowling, executive director of the California Association of Independent Schools. “Each one has its own culture, its own program emphasis, unique facilities, opportunities and approaches.”
Bay Area immersion schools may vary not only in their language of instruction — Cantonese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish, as well as English — but also in their social and academic environment.
Some offer a curriculum designated as International Baccalaureate (IB), which includes elementary and middle school programs and an academically challenging, two-year high school diploma program that includes the study of other languages.
The French American + International School in San Francisco, for example, offers bilingual learning in the French national education system from pre-kindergarten to grade 8 and then a choice of tracks for grades 9 to 12: English international baccalaureate or French baccalaureate.
“Our mission puts academic rigor, diversity, critical thinking and cross-cultural communication right at the heart of the learning experience,” said Head of School Melinda Bihn. “Our students are pursuing world-class academic programs, in more than one language, in an international school community with students and teachers from across the globe. They are learning skills that will allow them to thrive anywhere.”
As San Francisco’s oldest bilingual school, founded in 1962, “our French roots run deep,” notes Bihn. Still, Gallic ties aren’t required to enroll, and incoming high schoolers who don’t speak French may enroll in the English IB program.