About Our Program

The Union County Public Schools Mandarin Immersion program began at Marvin Elementary in August 2012 with kindergarten. Each year a grade was added and will ultimately be a K - 12 program. Marvin Elementary immersion students continue their general and immersion education at Marvin Ridge Middle School and ultimately at Marvin Ridge High School.

Marvin Elementary offers what is referred to as a 'one-way, full immersion' program. Most of the students are native speakers of English who are learning Mandarin as a second language. Students learn all core academic subjects in Mandarin: language arts, math, science and social studies. Students receive English language arts instruction daily. The non-academic courses of Art, Music, Physical Education, Computers, Library/Media Center are instructed in English.

The Mandarin immersion teachers at Marvin Elementary are from China where they completed their university work. Union County Public Schools partners with Participate© that manages recruiting, visas, professional development training, curriculum support, student assessment in English and Mandarin, and program support.

Mandarin immersion teachers and students follow the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Standard Course of Study, state standards and state-mandated North Carolina English-language assessments. North Carolina is recognized nationally for its strong support of dual language immersion education and the number of DLI programs in the state. See http://bit.ly/NCDPIDLI for more information.

Union County Public Schools monitors professional development, teacher support, Mandarin assessments through the Office of College Readiness. More information on the UCPS DLI program can be found at http://bit.lyUCPSDLI

To enter the program, parents: 1) register their kindergarten student at their home school in Union County Public Schools, 2) register their students for the Dual Language Immersion lottery and the school of their choice. The lottery and lottery preferences are explained at http://bit.lyUCPSDLI Children must live in Union County, North Carolina, in order to attend at UCPS immersion program.

Late entry to the program is handled through assessment to determine if the child has the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as academic knowledge to be successful in the program. Interested parties can contact their school office or the Dual Language Immersion department at http://bit.lyUCPSDLI

Click here for the video from our DLI Parent Night held on February 24, 2022.