Over the past year and a half, Deer Valley Unified School District has welcomed 311 students from Taiwan at 19 of its 41 campuses in the growing North Phoenix region along the I-17 corridor where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s silicon chip plants are under construction.
The students relocated with their families from Taiwan directly due to their parent’s employment at TSMC. Many of them had never been to the United States prior to the move.
To help ease their transition into American culture and the academic environment here, DVUSD has a number of programs, supports and events in place aimed at making these students and their families feel at home.
Having an already established solid Mandarin Chinese Cultural immersion program already in place in the district has been a tremendous aid in terms of resources for overcoming language barriers.
“We are fortunate in DVUSD to have staff members who speak Mandarin fluently,” said Director of Student Support Services Dr. Melissa McCusker. Additionally, Student Support Services currently employs a psychologist intern who speaks and evaluates in Mandarin. “This is a great asset for our Taiwanese families both linguistically and culturally,” she said.
Stetson Hills School currently has the largest enrollment of Taiwanese students (75), followed by Sonoran Foothills School (47), Sandra Day O’Connor High School (45) and Sierra Verde STEAM Academy (44).
Students receive state-mandated English Language Learner instruction through a combination of in-person instruction by an English language expert, Zoom and classroom teachers who have a Structured English Immersion endorsement.
To provide support to the new students, a school administrator and staff member are assigned to the TSMC students to help them integrate. Once at their new school, students are paired with a buddy to help them acclimate in their daily routines, such as getting lunch, where to line up, and how to get books from the library, said Beverly Kerr, DVUSD English Language Coordinator. School counselors and English Language Learning staff work to welcome students and their families. And, English Language Learner teachers continue to work with classroom teachers to learn to grade, assess, and instruct students who have little to no English language skills.
Stetson Hills Principal Brittany Dyer-Hurdon said since their arrival last year, the students have integrated very well into the school community both academically and socially and their talents, perspectives and experiences have made for a more enriching classroom environment.
“They actively engage with their American peers and participate in a variety of extra-curricular activities,” Dyer-Hurdon said. “Their biggest hurdle has been the language barrier, but they are steadily acquiring English and using it in the school setting. They are dedicated and determined students, and language acquisition is very important to them,” she added.
At Sandra Day O’Connor High, teacher Melissa Mara started a SciTech/STEM
club to help the TSMC students form connections and friendships with other students who share common interests of science and technology.
“They helped me build bridges between our current students and our new Taiwanese students,” said Mara, adding that many of the students joined the STEM innovators club and learned how to build and launch rockets. “This year some of those students are now running the STEM innovators club. They have built bottle rockets, lego roller coasters and are working on plinko type games,” she said.
DVUSD Superintendent Dr. Curtis Finch couldn’t speculate as to how many more students the district can anticipate as the chip plants build out, but he told Valley Vibe in an email, “The announcement of the construction of a third fab will bring thousands of new families and students to our district family that we look forward to welcoming. These new chip fabs will sit in the epicenter of DVU\SD boundaries, and as a result our community will soon become a booming area of growth, development, and advancement thanks in large part to the investment of TSMC.
Schools With the Most TSMC Students
As of the 2023-24 school year these were the schools with the highest concentration of TSMC associated students:
Stetson Hills School 75
Sonoran Foothills School 47
Sandra Day O’Connor High School 45
Sierra Verde STEAM Academy 44
Legend Springs Elementary School 27
Norterra Canyon School 15
Mountain Ridge High School 14
Gavilan Peak School 8
Diamond Canyon School 7
Ridgeline Academy has roughly 15 students enrolled in grades K-12 and another 15 in its preschool program that have moved from Taiwan and have chosen to attend a charter school. These students enter into the school’s ELL program where they receive specific support especially in literacy. Ridgeline is working on hiring a translator for parents.
By Karen Goveia