On left: William Arthur, Head of School, International School of Tucson. On right: Richard Alcorn, Executive Director, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School. (Jeff Wang/Asia Society)
Congratulations to The International School of Tucson and Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School
Two Asia Society Confucius Classrooms Network schools were named ‘Confucius Classroom of the Year’ out of more than 1,000 Confucius Classrooms worldwide. Ten schools were chosen for this honor, three of which were from the US, including Asia Society’s two honorees.
On December 6, 2015, a delegation of ten Confucius Classrooms Network representatives led by the China Learning Initiatives' Jeff Wang, Rob de Picciotto, and Yang Guo, attended the award ceremony hosted by the Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong in Shanghai. The two schools awarded from Asia Society’s network were International School of Tucson, where Mandarin has overtaken Spanish to become the most studied language in the school, and where its Early Age Mandarin Program is regarded as one of the best in Arizona; and Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, which was also
recently ranked the top-performing high school in the state of Massachusetts for the 2014–2015 school year.
“Asia Society has been working in the field of Chinese language capacity building and instruction for almost 10 years and we are thrilled to support schools around the country in growing their programs and expanding their impact,” said Jeff Wang, Director of China Learning Initiatives at Asia Society. “This global award for the International School of Tucson and Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School recognizes both the outstanding work of these two programs as well as the growing strength of Chinese language programs in the United States.”
The award ceremony is part of the annual Global Confucius Institute Conference. This year’s 10th annual Confucius Institute World Conference, held at the Shanghai World Expo Center, welcomed more than 2,300 attendees from 134 countries, including Confucius Institute center directors, university presidents, and diplomats. Yuan Guiren, Minister of Education for China, hosted the opening ceremony, and Liu Yandong, Vice Premier of China and Chairwoman of the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, provided keynote remarks.
Congratulations to our two Confucius Classrooms. To learn more about Asia Society Confucius Classrooms Network,
visit our website.
