Looking for info on John Adams Elementary in Alexandria

[Anonymous]

Can anyone share their experiences with John Adams Elementary in Alexandria, and in particular with the English-Spanish immersion program there?
We bought a townhouse in the John Adams district before we had kids, then moved overseas for many years. Now we are likely to be moving back when our kids will be going into 1st and 2nd grade. My kids will have had 3 years as the only gringos in a Chilean school, so they speak excellent Spanish that I would love for them to maintain.

Also, anyone know if it will be difficult for the kids to transfer into the English-Spanish immersion program? Since we live in the Adams district and they're already bilingual, I'm hoping it won't be an issue.

Many thanks for any comments/experiences/tips,

Jennifer

[Anonymous]

I've heard that is isn't a great program. Some friends, who are bilingual, transferred their child out of the program in first or second grade because they didn't feel that the quailty of the Spanish instruction was appropriate. Another monolingual friend has her child in the program (Kinder this year) and thought it was just okay--she wasn't particularly impressed with the amount of Spanish used daily in the classrom but that might have been specific to the teacher.

Overall, based on my research and observations, John Adams isn't one of the greatest schools in Alexandria but that's a subjective impression. The immersion program at Mt. Vernon gets good reviews, but it is difficult to get in, even within boundary, and the school has a year round calendar.

Can you consider moving to Arlington or Fairfax?

[Anonymous]

John Adams Immersion program now has a cadre of very involved parents who are working with teachers to make the program better. As the enrollment in the program grows, grade levels have two classrooms per grade level for the immersion program. The students spend about half their day in an english classroom and half their day in the spanish classroom. This is more along the lines of the program Mt. Vernon has, and research says it gives students better results. In addition, John Adams is also a CETA school. This means that it is a school that partners with the Kennedy Center to provide arts integration to their students. It is a very diverse school with students from many countries.