Hangzhou Foreign Language School officials visit Minnesota Department of Education

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Published on Thursday, 01 December 2011 16:49

Over the years, the Minnetonka School District and Minnesota have had a relationship and teacher agreement with Hangzhou Foreign language school, located about 108.5 miles southwest of Shanghai, China. On October 27th, a delegation of six education officials from China visited the Minnesota Department of Education to renew the Minnesota-China Teacher Exchange Program Agreement. The success of the Teacher Exchange Program over the last 25+ years provided the foundation for Minnetonka to become the state's leader in Mandarin Chinese Education at the K-12 level.

Over the years, the Minnetonka School District and Minnesota have had a relationship and teacher agreement with Hangzhou Foreign language school, located about 108.5 miles southwest of Shanghai, China. On October 27th, a delegation of six education officials from China visited the Minnesota Department of Education to renew the Minnesota-China Teacher Exchange Program Agreement. The success of the Teacher Exchange Program over the last 25+ years provided the foundation for Minnetonka to become the state's leader in Mandarin Chinese Education at the K-12 level.

The dignitaries from China were:
Mr. Liu Xiping  -  Commissioner of Zhejiang Education Department
Mr. Xu Zhiping  -  Director of Zhejiang Institute of Science and Technology;
Mr. Cai Yuanqiang -  Director of Zhejiang Wenzhou University;
Ms. Ge Weiming  -  Director of Zhejiang Testing Institution
Mr. Bian Xincan  -   Director of planning section in the Testing Institution
Mr. Du Jian  -  Contact person and interpreter, Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs Office in Zhejiang Provincial Education Department

Twenty five years ago, the Minnesota School District of Minnetonka started teaching Chinese in High School. Today, many schools in Minnesota  teach Chinese including a handful of Chinese immersion schools; Minnetonka's two immersion schools, Scenic Heights and Excelsior as well as the Yinghua Academy in Minneapolis and XinXing Academy in Hopkins.

Unfortunately due to their tight schedule, the delegation from China had to cancel a planned visit to Scenic Heights Elementary School, one of Minnetonka's immersion schools.

The Minnetonka School District now has 20 teachers in its Chinese programs with 397 children enrolled in the immersion schools now running from Kindergarten through fifth grade.  Chinese as a class for traditional learners is also available in middle school and high school as well.  This year, Jenny Zhong is an exchange teacher at Minnetonka from China. 

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