This is a big concern. Potomac, MD and now San Francisco have problem MI programs, problematic to failing... And one of the areas that is a huge one is this area of developing critical thinking skills.
I'm not sure how Potomac has fixed their program, if at all. And it is little known that they had problems. But if you search hard enough (I will see if I can dig up the link again), you'll find out that they had really disappointing outcomes. Supposedly the problem was one of not having a sound curriculum. SFUSD certainly has had that problem and who knows if and when they will fix it. But SFUSD's problem with MI is that they don't have the right student body ratios. The majority of families and kids who are Chinese-speaking households in SF are Cantonese. So when people talk about a "Chinese immersion" program that is working, they are talking about the Cantonese programs, not the Mandarin programs.
Even if you have a curriculum, if you only have one teacher and 22 kids who are from 80-100% non-Chinese speaking households, then you won't have the variables in place to reach high for anything.
You might get random vocabulary and some basic sentence structures/patterns. The kids will be able to sing songs, recite poems and tell you what they had for snack and lunch. They might even be able to tell you what they did during recess.
But ask them one question about an academic topic? Yah... not so good when the instructional time ratio for the model is 90/80/65/50/50, or even 80/70/60/50/50. The thing is, during that huge chunk of time in which they are receiving instruction in a language that they barely understand, they are not developing enough critical thinking skills in their brains.
My child is currently in a 50/50 instructional ratio program. The majority of the kids are not from Chinese-speaking backgrounds. This means the overall education is not a disaster. The kids get enough really high quality critical thinking development in English, from pre-K through elementary, that their brains have something to hold onto while they struggle their way through Chinese. Having enough intellectual development in a language that they do understand then helps them develop some thinking that can be pushed to learning in a language for which they are developing at a lower and slower pace, but that their brains do more translating.
Are the outcomes the best they can be? I doubt it. But overall, the outcomes are better than the former.
I hear the Cantonese programs are doing quite well, all things considered. It's unfortunate that there is not more open sharing about curriculum and their standards. But I did see some of the instructional materials being used for the Cantonese programs. They were so much higher than what was being used in the Mandarin programs that I knew we had to leave that awful program. The kids were simply not taught to a high level - geezes, they weren't even taught at their own grade level - simply because too many of the kids didn't know the language and one solitary teacher could not change that around. The District was at fault for having let the program continue. The parents were at fault for not raising the money to supplement their crippled program with more supports (too busy raising money for soccer to realize that they didn't even have the bare minimum going on in the classrooms).
But I digress. Does developing critical thinking matter? That is up to you, the parent. But don't say no one ever told you what is at stake. Knowing how to ask questions, how to break down a topic into discernible parts, how to analyze and appreciate what you are experiencing in a learning process... These are precious skills that can be and should be taught as a basic component of education, even at elementary school. Without sufficient intellectual development, your kid can end up depressed or misbehaving, or both, and losing his/her sense of being curious about the world and life. It can also mean starting out Middle School (6th grade here in California) behind, not knowing how to navigate, and then having a ton of material thrown at you for which you have no foundation or basis from which to begin. Whether you are in public or private school, the "game" at middle school changes. Your kid can get tracked in a way that might have turned out differently had you done all-English, or had you done a good language immersion program (regardless of the foreign language).
The more "successful" your kid is during elementary years, then it is a critical foundation for middle school. Middle school then becomes a critical foundation for high school. And so on. Can you make up the critical thinking difference during the middle school years? I've heard many parents say that they had to "catch up" at that time because they weren't paying attention or they realized things were not working out for their kid. I've heard this from parents whose kids did language immersion and parents whose kids were just in a "regular" school. They do all kinds of things like switch to private, move to a different district, etc.
If your kid is in a Mandarin Immersion program wherein the development of critical thinking is not sufficient in English, then you had better beware and ask what the trade off is. What are the critical thinking skills that they are developing in Mandarin? Watch the teacher's or school official's reaction. They might hesitate uncomfortably before answering. They might roll their eyes, take a deep breath, or even outright scoff. After all, how can a child develop critical thinking in a language for which s/he is only beginning to develop basic skills and basic expression?
Well, that's your answer. The difference had better be made up during English time, or you are in for a lot of pain come 6th grade...
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