San Francisco Schools Connect to China and its Chinese Community

The Alice Fong Yu Alternative School

The Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, one San Francisco School, is the first Chinese immersion school in the United States. The school is designed as a two-way Chinese/English instructional environment. The school provides an outstanding educational experience for children of all backgrounds. All students at Alice Fong Yu develop competency in the Cantonese and English languages and use the two languages actively in the content curriculum. The school aims to have all students to be able to converse in and become literate in both English and Cantonese by 5th grade. The Mandarin language is added after the fifth grade. The Mandarin/English program is similar in scope and function to the Cantonese/English program. The program is intended to vigorously include the staff, parents, and students in cultural and language education. The Alice Fong Yu school uses parents and volunteers in a variety of enrichment programs such as, Performing Arts Workshop, Poets in the Schools, and science and library consultants.

The Alice Fong Yu Alternative School