Realistically, how hard is it to get in to either Starr King or José Ortega’s Mandarin Immersion programs?
Well, not as hard as Clarendon or Rooftop, but not as easy as some others. The MI programs are both set up as two-way immersion. That means that one third of the seats in Kindergarten are saved for Mandarin-speaking kids, one third for English-speaking kids and one third for kids who are bilingual. The English-speaking kids can come from a household where any language is spoken, but must also be fluent in English. The goal is to have children from both language groups, so that they can teach each other. The ideal is peer matching, where it’s 33/33/33. On the lottery front, what that means is that there are 15 seats for incoming non-Mandarin-speaking kindergarteners at Starr King and 7 at José Ortega every year. The other 24 and 14 seats are reserved for Mandarin-speaking children. However, thus far, far fewer Mandarin-speaking families have applied, though the number increases every year. So the English-speaking seats are filled up in Round One of the lottery, and then the remaining se
