Children’s Chinese Competency Certification Test Held at Silicon Valley International School in April
Silicon Valley International School is an international school in Palo Alto in California with approximately 700 students, from preschool to 12th grade, spread across two campuses. It offers immersion language programs in Chinese, French, and German and an English track with a world language component for its high school students.
The school’s Mandarin Chinese-English immersion program began more than two decades ago, before the school adopted its current name. The Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco and the school have worked together for many years to conduct the Children’s Chinese Competency Certification (CCCC) tests to evaluate the students’ Mandarin Chinese proficiency. In response to the pandemic, the school taught in distance mode and had to cancel the tests last year.
The school has now reopened its campuses, teaching in a hybrid classroom/distance mode and plans to soon resume normal operations. It also once again worked with the Education Division and held the CCCC tests from April 26 to 28, although this time rigorous extra measures were taken to ensure the safety of the students and staff and prevent any spread of the pandemic. The classrooms were all disinfected, students’ seats were all spaced at least six feet apart, and students and staff all had to wear face masks.
The CCCC takes into consideration children’s specific cognitive and linguistic development, and it has 3 levels: Sprouting, Seedling, and Blossoming. A total of 118 students took the tests in April: 37 at the Sprouting level, 53 at the Seedling level, and 28 at the Blossoming level.