OAKLAND, CA (Sept. 27, 2019) — Yu Ming Charter School was recognized yesterday as a 2019 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
The coveted National Blue Ribbon Schools award honors public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on a school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Yu Ming was recognized as an “Exemplary High Performing” school, being one of California’s highest performing schools.
Yu Ming will be honored alongside 361 other schools across the nation at a recognition ceremony held November 14-15 in Washington, D.C. The Mandarin immersion charter school is one of 30 schools in California to receive the Blue Ribbon award this year; one of 18 charter schools nationally; and one of only a handful of immersion schools to ever receive the award.
“We are so very proud of all of our students and our dedicated faculty and staff who work so hard to ensure every Yu Ming student is prepared to succeed and lead,” said Sue Park, Yu Ming’s Head of School. “We believe that our diverse, multilingual, compassionate, and connected community is key to our success.”
Yu Ming is a nonprofit, tuition-free public charter school authorized by the Alameda County Office of Education. Located in Oakland, CA, Yu Ming is open to all California residents. Founded in 2011, now enrolling 488 students in grades K-8, Yu Ming is the first Mandarin immersion charter school in the state. In addition to a full immersion bilingual curriculum, Yu Ming’s model is centered on data-driven academic excellence and includes personalized, project-based, and social-emotional learning to develop self-directed, purposeful, and empathetic learners.
The Blue Ribbon award builds upon Yu Ming’s list of honors. In spring 2017, Yu Ming was profiled by the Center for Global Education at the Asia Society as a notable Chinese language immersion program. Niche, in its 2020 Best Schools in America ranking, named Yu Ming as #1 in Best Charter Elementary School in California and #1 in Best Charter Middle School in California.
To select National Blue Ribbon Schools, the U.S. Department of Education requested nominations from the top education official in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and the Bureau of Indian Education. The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) nominates private schools.
A complete list of the 2019 National Blue Ribbon Schools is available at https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/awardwinners/index.php.