Schools — Teacher from China will come to district thanks to U.S. State Department

As one of 10 districts in the nation to receive a U.S. State Department grant through the Teachers of Critical Languages program, Newberg Public Schools are in exclusive company.

Perhaps more importantly, the district and Newberg High School will become unique in the state as one of the few schools to offer Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language.

The grant will pay for the district to host a teacher from China next year, hopefully laying the foundation for a permanent program.

“Especially students who go into any kind of business that connects internationally, there just aren’t enough people who can speak that language,” superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza said. “If we can give kids any kind of exposure, that’s a great head start for them.”

Having brought four Chinese exchange teachers into schools in her previous work in Colorado, LeBlanc-Esparza played a key role in the application process.

She also reached out to George Fox University, which will also launch a Mandarin Chinese program in the fall and provide support for the exchange teacher. That relationship was key to the application, district director of teaching and learning Stafford Boyd said.

Spanish professor and head of the foreign languages department Debbie Berho said that international students from China studying at George Fox could earn academic credit for being teaching assistants under the exchange teacher, who would also be able to observe college-level classes and take part in professional development opportunities.

LeBlanc-Esparza said GFU is known for providing excellent support for its international students, which includes a large number from China, and that the exchange teacher would be welcome in that community after arriving in August.

“We hope to connect the scholar to those things and also the kinds of cultural activities that we have on our campus,” Berho said. “If they want to go to one of our research lectures that we bring people outside campus or if they want to enjoy one of our plays or concerts or anything like that, we’re here as part of a community resource to let the Chinese scholar know what life in a small college town in the United States is like.”

Newberg will offer Chinese I in the fall, focusing on basic syntax, simple vocabulary, written characters and spoken tones so students can read, write and understand Chinese at a basic level.

That course, along with Chinese II, was approved by the school board at its April 14 meeting.

A middle school course on Chinese history and culture will be available to all students in the district, but held at Mountain View Middle School.

Part of the exchange teacher’s role is also to share Chinese culture with the entire school and broader community, a process that will be facilitated by Principal Mark Risen.

NHS Spanish teacher Kathy Villalobos will serve as a mentor teacher and will participate, along with Boyd and Risen, in a series of five webinars that will facilitate the establishment of the program, including the curriculum.

“Our goal is to apply for a second year and to offer level I and level II at the high school and build the program at the middle schools,” Boyd said. “We may apply to have two exchange teachers come to do that. Then by year three, because we will have the numbers, we will spend some time to recruit a full-time Chinese teacher that we fund through FTE and can sustain that district wide.”

LeBlanc-Esparza said that schools in her former district in Colorado built permanent programs through the grant program and that finding qualified permanent teachers was never a problem.

“It’s quite an opportunity for us and it’s sitting right here in our own back yard,” LeBlanc-Esparza said. “It’s fantastic that we’re going to be able to take advantage of it.”

Written by: Seth Gordon