Yinghua Academy Chinese Immersion Charter School

In kindergarten and first grade, 90 percent of content is delivered in Chinese, with designated areas where English may be spoken. (Jennifer Hakes/Yinghua Academy)
Signage and labeling in Chinese classrooms is strictly in Chinese, and use of authentic materials is emphasized. (Erin Spector/Yinghua Academy)
Local and Chinese scenery are combined in volunteer-painted “We Are Yinghua,” a mural funded through the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. (Erin Spector/Yiinghua Academy)
Mathematics at Yinghua is always taught in Chinese—in kindergarten through eighth grade. (Jennifer Hakes/Yinghua Academy)
Yinghua students transition to a 50/50, Chinese/English, model in middle school and begin learning science in English. (Alan Sandau/Yinghua Academy)
Each middle school class annually completes a large-scale collaborative painting based on a master work such as Roy Lichtenstein’s Woman with a Flowered Hat. Students use a grid system to proportionately enlarge an image. (Jennifer Hakes/Yinghua Academy)
A Music Conservatory based at Yinghua provides lessons for more than 160 students on Western instruments as well as the Chinese erhu. (Erin Spector/Yinghua Academy)
Robust athletics programming and a heart-safe/body-safe approach to Physical Education are hallmarks of Yinghua’s K-8 program, which makes full use of Northeast Park, adjacent to the school. (Yinghua Academy)
Chinese culture is a focus during Lunar New Year with traditions highlighted in costumes, dance, music, and drama. (Fisher Chu/Yinghua Academy)
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education named Yinghua Academy a National Blue Ribbon School. (Jennifer Hakes/Yinghua Academy)
Enlarge Hide captions

Yinghua Academy Chinese Immersion Charter School

Serves students in grades K–8
www.yinghuaacademy.org

Watch an excerpt from Yinghua’s 2016 Lunar New Year production of The Monkey King (logo and production by idream.tv)

Program Leaders

Luyi Lien, Ph.D., Academic Director
Susan M. Berg, Executive Director/CEO

Program Description

Yinghua Academy, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 2006, as the first Chinese immersion public charter school in the United States and the first Chinese immersion school of any type in the Midwest. Yinghua serves students in grades K–4 with a full immersion curriculum. Introduction of English language teaching is delayed until grade 2. In grades 5 through 8, instruction switches to a 50 percent Chinese, 50 percent English model. Older students have the opportunity to travel on a 15-day trip to China, which includes home stays in Inner Mongolia.

Yinghua's unique program and consistent academic success have enabled the school to enjoy robust growth, with 742 students and 53 teachers in 2016. A significant building addition in 2014 doubled the school's square footage. The new state-of-the-art facilities include a middle school wing, music classrooms, an art studio, a science lab, and a full-size gymnasium.

Program Features

Since its founding ten years ago, Yinghua has produced an annual Lunar New Year show highlighting Chinese culture in song, dance, and drama. Every student participates in the costumed production held at Benson Great Hall, which seats more than 1,700 people. Yinghua filled nearly every seat at two showings in 2016. In addition, during the Spring Festival weeks, students sample dumplings and receive apples, oranges, and candy-filled red envelopes from their teachers.

The school's study abroad program for students in grades 6–8 has grown steadily, with 26 students planning to travel in the summer of 2016. Students are expected to speak Chinese during the entire 15-day trip and meet weekly with the Academic Director in the three months prior to travel to participate in trip planning and etiquette training. Students report that the homestays with families from Hohhot Middle School Number 8 in Inner Mongolia are a highlight of the trip. In 2015, the 15 student travelers were a hit at a Beijing Hanban summer conference, a gathering devoted to preparing new Chinese teachers to work in the United States.

Families of Yinghua students live in 97 different zip codes in the Twin Cities and arrive via 8 Yinghua school bus routes. With such a large area that is served, after-school programs have become an essential aspect of Yinghua culture. Approximately half of the student body participate in athletics; homework-completion sessions; enrichment courses; and a Music Conservatory that offers private lessons in erhu, piano, percussion, guitar, flute, voice, and Western stringed instruments. Programs that end around 6:00 p.m. daily help working families, many of whom travel great distances to reach Yinghua, and students deepen their friendships despite not living near one another.

STARTALK programs for students and teachers are a hallmark of Yinghua summers. In cooperation with the Minnesota Online High School, an advanced Chinese summer program was developed for Chinese immersion middle and high school students. Students may begin Advanced Chinese 1A and B and 2A and B during a three-week summer course and continue these courses for high school credit at any Minnesota high school.

Yinghua ranks in the top 10 percent of all Minnesota schools based on the Multiple Measurement Rating data compiled, analyzed, and released by the Minnesota Department of Education each year.

Funding includes a U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant in 2009, to support the development of the middle school program and a 2007 World Language grant from the State of Minnesota to support the development of the elementary school program.

Awards and Recognition

In 2014, Yinghua was one of 5 schools out of more than 800 worldwide to receive a Confucius Classroom of the Year award. In 2015 the U.S. Department of Education awarded Yinghua National Blue Ribbon School status, which few immersion programs have achieved.

Press coverage about Yinghua includes a Sunday New York Times feature article in the U.S. and International editions.

Program Contact

Susan Berg
Yinghua Academy Executive Director/CEO
susan.berg@yinghuaacademy.org
612-788-9095

Other Featured Program Profiles

  • First-graders holding the Chinese Spring couplet on the Lunar New Year day
    profile

    Maryknoll School

    Maryknoll School is the largest K–12 Catholic, co-educational institution in Hawaii. The school follows a 50/50 immersion model for students in grades K–3, with 50% of student instruction in Mandarin and 50% in English.
  • Proud students at the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade
    profile

    West County Mandarin School

    West County Mandarin School is a public Mandarin immersion school in Richmond, California. The school currently serves students in K–3 (soon to Grade 8). The school follows a 50/50 immersion model in all grades.
  • Students from Sister School in China visit Logansport High School
    profile

    Logansport Community School Corporation

    Logansport Community School Corporation (LCSC) is located in Logansport, Indiana, and serves approximately 4,200 students in Kindergarten through grade 12.
  • Students are immersed in Mandarin in the classroom
    profile

    Batesville Community School Corporation

    The Batesville Community School Corporation in Indiana began in 2016 with kindergarten classes. It has expanded to 50/50 Mandarin immersion through Grade 4, and will add one grade each year until classes are offered through Grade 12.
  • Mandarin literacy Grade 4
    profile

    HudsonWay Immersion School

    HudsonWay is a preschool through Grade 7 Mandarin and Spanish immersion program in Stirling, New Jersey and Midtown West, New York City. The school now serves over 200 students and plans to expand to Grade 8 in 2021.
  • Kindergarten students enjoying a book together.
    profile

    Pine Street School

    Pine Street School is a Green Ivy School in New York City. It serves 170 students from nursery school (age 2) to Grade 8 in an International Baccalaureate program. Instruction is 50-60% Mandarin immersion.
  • Shu Ren upper-grade PYP students collaborating on a science project
    profile

    Shu Ren International School

    Shu Ren International School is an independent school located in Berkeley, California. It is the first Mandarin immersion, International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP) school in the state.
  • Avenues Immersion
    profile

    Avenues: The World School

    The Early Learning Center at Avenues: The World School, in NYC, starts at age 2 and supports almost 400 students, up to age 5, when students move into Kindergarten. Students follow a 50/50 Chinese/English immersion model in the ELC.
  • SLA Mandarin Program
    profile

    Science, Language & Arts International School

    SLA is an independent school in downtown Brooklyn, New York, featuring hands-on science, arts, and math, and committed to providing children with a rich and rigorous multilingual education in Mandarin and French.
  • Student blowing bubbles on the playground during our annual Water Play Day
    profile

    Chinese American International School (CAIS) Preschool

    CAIS is a private, independent school in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood. The preschool currently supports 72 students and is staffed by 4 lead teachers and 4 teaching associates.

All Profiles