Ladd Acres and Jackson Elementary Schools were recognized as two of the nine new sites offering Confucius Classrooms in Oregon in the 2014-15 school year.

The Confucius Classrooms program is administered by PSU’s Confucius Institute and is intended to expose students in the U.S. to Chinese language and culture and develop positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors.

Students in both schools will spend 30 minutes each week with their instructor. The teachers will also spend additional time with certain grade levels on a rotating basis to integrate appropriate and authentic real-world connections to topics already being studied in the classroom. 

The Confucius Classrooms are not part of the District’s Dual Language program, but they share some of the same goals of promoting world languages as an asset, and providing additional multicultural experiences to students, parents, staff and the surrounding community.

About the Confucius Institute at Portland State University

The Confucius Institute at PSU promotes educational exchange and cooperation between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China. The China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (HanBan) and PSU’s Office of International Affairs jointly established the Confucius Institute as a non-degree granting entity in 2007. Hanban provides a library materials grant and resources for hosting a visiting faculty member from Soochow University in Suzhou, PSU’s sister school in SW China. Hanban also provides support for community outreach and development of non-degree programs related to China and Chinese language studies.