The Chinese Immersion Program at Elder Creek Elementary School creates an interactive and engaging learning environment where students will achieve bilingual proficiency in both English and Chinese.  Students will reach high levels of academic achievement in both languages and become cross-cultural ambassadors for our school, community and society.  The program uses an immersion method of instruction in which English-speaking students and Chinese-speaking students are placed together in the same class.  Students in this program will receive instruction in English and Chinese while having equal access to the academic core curriculum.

Beginning in kindergarten and first grade, instruction is provided using the 80/20 model:  80 percent Cantonese and 20 percent English. In second grade, it is 70 percent Cantonese and 30 percent English.  In third grade, students are taught 60 percent of the time in Cantonese and 40 percent in English.  Beginning in fourth grade, the students will be introduced to Mandarin, but still primarily taught in Cantonese.  In fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, students are taught 50 percent of the time in Cantonese and 50 percent in English.  Students will then be prepared to further their learning of Chinese in junior high and high school.