Northwest Chinese Academy

Oregon's Only Full-time Preschool - 8th Grade Chinese Immersion School: NWCA provides a challenging and rewarding educational program, immersed in the Mandarin language, that fosters the total development and highest potential in each child.

Computer Lab, Smart Board

Music Lessons (Strings and Piano), Choir, Dance, Chess

Northwest Chinese Academy (NWCA) provides an outstanding educational foundation in the true immersion of Mandarin language, fostering the total development and highest potential in the individual child. NWCA immerses children in Chinese language and culture and provides bilingual and biliterate education that enables students to become responsible global citizens. The Academy provides a school environment that supports cooperation, creativity, resourcefulness and the love of learning. NWCA develops children who are creative, critical thinkers self-confident in who they are. The Academy encourages mutual respect, honesty and multicultural understanding.

At NWCA, the foundation of our philosophy starts with setting high academic standards and using individualized academic plans to help each student reach their own highest potential. Our goal is to achieve native level fluency in Mandarin Chinese while meeting and exceeding expectations in English literacy. The Academy offers a true 100% Chinese Immersion program in which all subjects including Art, Music and PE are taught in Mandarin Chinese. Our teachers speak Mandarin Chinese to and with our students in every subject except English literacy. They expect and encourage students to respond in age appropriate Mandarin Chinese at all times. One of our core beliefs is that, to achieve the high goals we have set for our students and staff we need small class room sizes so that teachers can spend quality, extended time with each student getting to know them better so they can tailor the classroom program to the small group in their care. In its short history the Academy has established itself as a premier learning institution that is focused on developing the leaders of tomorrow. At NWCA we focus on both academic excellence as well as leadership. Academy students are well known in Oregon for their contributions to the community through the sharing of Chinese language and culture. Academy students have introduced preschoolers at the local libraries and preschools to beginning Chinese, presented Chinese culture to the Beaverton, Portland, Salem and surrounding communities through specially tailored performances. They have brought joy to community elders by sharing Chinese New Year festivities with them, and been honored with the opportunity to sing the Chinese National Anthem at the Chinese Garden during the New Year celebrations. The Academy is proud of its contributions to the local community and looks forward to identifying new opportunities for our young leaders to build a bridge between the "East and the West."

The Northwest Chinese Academy was founded in July of 2008 under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Binny Arcot. The school began with one student and five teachers. By September of 2008 we had grown to twenty students and six teachers. After three sleepless months we opened our doors in a small 1800 sq foot building in Beaverton. Many of the parents and students spent most of the summer of 2008 making this possible. Our students spent recess and PE time at the public park across from the Beaverton library wearing yellow T shirts so they could be easily identified. Today it is hard to believe that we pulled off finding and outfitting the small building in three months as well as applying for our non-profit status and our E permit, registering with the state and so much more. Everything from the school name and logo to every form no matter how mundane was developed in those first few weeks. Those were exciting, though tiring times. Many thanks go to the core group of parents who volunteered their time and skills to enable the Academy. The city of Beaverton was incredibly supportive and helped to move the permit process forward in order to enable the project. By October of 2008 it was evident that we needed to move to a larger facility and after an extended and intense search that was packed into a few months the Academy leased our current location at 8565 Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy. This kicked off a flurry of activity with teams of parents volunteering to help convert the former office building into a warm and welcoming school. We began the 2009/2010 academic year at the new facility. In October 2009 we embarked on our first trip to China with our students from 2nd through 4th grade. It was a wonderful time to visit and students came back full of dreams and plans for a return visit. We received Candidate member status with the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools (PNAIS) by November 2009. It was a year of many firsts. Academy students have been taking the Chinese language proficiency test (HSK) since the first year. Our students have excelled at this test, setting records in most arenas and making all of us proud. Our students have also formally taken the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) tests with excellent results that are unmatched anywhere else thus demonstrating that the Academy's approach to individualized immersion education is highly effective. From July 2008 through July 2011, Dr. Arcot was the volunteer founding Head of School. In January 2011 the school's Board of Directors appointed Mrs. Stacy Payne, then Academy Communications Director, to the position of School Principal. Today, Mrs. Payne leads a staff of 12 (10 teachers, one Director of Operations and Admissions, and one Custodian). The Academy has grown from its humble beginnings and has made the decision to add middle school, which means the school will serve students in grades preschool through 8th. As we look around, we see that schools everywhere are cutting days and programs in order to make ends meet. Despite all the challenges the Academy Board has sustained our program without cutbacks. The Academy has actually added programs such as offsite PE and Spanish Language (grade three and up). We firmly believe that all children deserve the best and we have a community that works together to enable the best for all our students.

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