全美中小學中文教師協會(Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary School-CLASS)乃是由來自各州中文老師所組成的一個非牟利學術組織,以推廣美國中小學華文教育為宗旨,致力將中文課程納入美國正式教育體系,使得中文成為中小學校外語正規科目。經過多年的努力爭取,目前美國差不多有將近兩萬多個中小學學生在各州各地的公私立中小學學習中文。但適合中小學生的中文教材普遍缺乏,各學區的中小學校更是急迫需要一套以美國國家外語學習目標為基準的中文課程標準,並符合各州教育廳制訂的州立外語教學大綱的要求。
The Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary School-CLASS is an academic organization formed by Chinese language teachers hailing from every state in the US. Its goal is to promote the teaching of Chinese at the elementary and secondary levels, and ensure that Chinese language courses become a formal portion of the American educational system as an official foreign language subject. Currently there are approximately 20,000 elementary and secondary students studying Chinese at public and private schools in the US, however appropriate teaching material is universally lacking. Thus it is also the goal of the organization to design a set of teaching materials that can serve as a standard for teaching Chinese as a foreign language courses.