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The UO Chinese Flagship Program and the PSU Russian Flagship Program have received a new grant from the National Security Education Program to support increased collaboration with K-12 schools and community colleges in the Pacific Northwest. The funding will bring together Chinese and Russian classroom teachers, pedagogy experts, and curriculum designers at all levels to enhance program articulation and develop curriculum so that regional students have clear pathways to continue their language learning from kindergarten through their undergraduate degree programs.

With the new funding from the National Security Education Program, the two Flagship programs will work collaboratively with Portland Public Schools (both Flagship programs have a long history of collaboration with Portland Public schools and their dual immersion programs), Woodburn Public Schools, Anchorage Public Schools, and Portland Community College on four major initiatives: (1) a Strategic Planning and Advisory Board, (2) a K-16 Flagship Articulation Document for Russian and Chinese, (3) a Community College Network Plan, and (4) a Summer Teacher Professional Development Workshop. The overarching goal of these initiatives is to increase the number of students entering the UO Chinese Flagship Program and the PSU Russian Flagship Program with high levels of proficiency.

This project is particularly exciting because it is the only one of the six Language Flagship Linkages grants that reaches out to community colleges and includes them in discussions about language program articulation. Also, in involving public school districts, this project will serve a new critical mass of learners who have participated in immersion education in elementary and middle grades and have much different needs from their peers at the secondary level.

Excitement to begin this important work is swelling. Dr. William Comer, Director of the Portland State University Russian Flagship program states, “A major part of this initiative supports teachers in dual immersion programs to come together, energize their professional networks, and collaborate on sharing and developing materials for use in new and existing dual immersion programs.  Anything that we can do to support teachers enriches the classroom experience for students and makes language learning more engaging and durable.”