Ward 6 and Miner ES: Grassroots Movement for Dual Language (Mandarin) Program

[warrenox]

Apologies, some of the posts above are mine, but I didn't realize I wasn't logged in... I'm sure people will be able to identify my posts from others though.

I'd encourage others to log in and not post anonymously as well.

[warrenox]

Anonymous wrote:

warrenox wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

warrenox wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid question- does it HAVE to be Mandarin?

I believe that DCPS will choose the language by what is available to them. DCPS knows that Yu Ying has extensive waiting lists for their Mandarin program.
It will not be Spanish because they already have immersion schools for Spanish.

I have had reservations about Mandarin as well, but after reading and understanding that Elementary kids can soak up Mandarin as easily as French or Spanish at that age, then my uneasiness was alleviated.

The benefits of a child being exposed to Mandarin at such a young age is that they are learning a Level 6 language (language difficulty ranking based on learning a language as a adult). If you learn a higher level language, it becomes immensely easier to learn a lower level language later in life. So if you wanted your kid to learn French or Spanish, he/she will have a easier time with it because of their exposure to Mandarin at the Elementary level.

I agree with everything you're saying, BUT, I don't see how people will be drawn to AND STAY IN a school with a 20% proficiency rate across the board when the language is Mandarin. Honestly it's hard enough to support the Spanish language in a place where so many kids have access to spanish speakers. I can't imagine how that would even be possible with Mandarin.

The language would start only at the earlier grades. It's impractical to start at every grade. So you would have Pre-K and Kindergarten as your beginning Mandarin students. As these kids move up through the school, the Mandarin education would move up with them until it reaches all grades at the school. I agree that you don't start introducing Mandarin to kids who haven't been exposed to it at the pre-K or Kindergarten level.

I don't understand what you mean by support? Does every child learning Spanish at school have Spanish speaking parents? I highly doubt that. Do you mean support groups that help parents? Here's one...

http://paassc.com/ - African American parent group for children learning Chinese

What I mean by support is that children need more than just school to truly learn a language. Yes, I know that the prevailing wisdom on DCUM and maybe DC in general is that you can just dump your kid at your immersion school and your child comes out speaking perfect Spanish/French/Hebrew/Chinese. But the reality is that children really DON'T become truly fluent unless families REALLY try. That means hiring a babysitter/au pair/family member who speaks the target language to speak to the child. That means interacting with that particular community to better understand the culture and language. Every child I've ever spoken to without this sort of support does not really speak the language. Yes, they can understand and put some words together, but that's not fluency.

Are you also prepared for the fact that parents can't help kids with homework unless they speak mandarin? And yes, I realize that a good many subjects will also be taught in English, but Mandarin taught ones will be out of the reach of parents. And frankly, in a school with 20% proficiency, parents NEED to be a part of the picture. They can't feel that they're not able to help their kids.

Look I live near Miner, and I WANT THEM TO SUCCEED. I want Miner to be the amazing school it definitely can be. But I really don't think Mandarin immersion is the way to achieve that.

Do I believe every child that would attend an immersion program at Miner would become fluent in the language? Of course not. Then why do it? Because of this right here....

http://www.bhlingual.com/brain-benefits-bilingual-infographic/

Cognitive skills.. A child learning another language has their mind mapped a different way that sharpens their cognitive skills; makes them better multitaskers and strengthens their memories.

Even if a child doesn't become fluent, they have had that learning experience in earlier years which helps shape their brain and allows them to be more flexible learners in life. That's the biggest benefit, not what language is learned.

As far as homework, I cannot help them if they speak Mandarin, French, Spanish, or any other multitude of languages. Am I prepared for that? Yes. How? Because like any homework, my job shouldn't be to show them a new concept; they already should have the concept, homework is just practice. It's probably scarier for the parent than it is for the child grasping this idea. Here are some ideas for helping with homework. A local immersion program would also involve the parents and help them understand what kind of homework a student should expect and how a parent can help.

http://www.carla.umn.edu/immersion/acie/vol3/Dec1999_Homework.html

Finally, the 20% that you throw up isn't an assessment on the kids who would be starting in an immersion program. Do parent's need to be a part of the learning for those kids with the 20% proficiency? Absolutely. But I'm not a parent of a child with 20% proficiency, so I cannot change the home environment for that child or help that child with their homework. Why do you think there is only a 20% proficiency currently? And how do you translate that number and assume that would mean kids going into a immersion program will only be 20% proficient?

You and I do have something important in common; we both want to see Miner succeed.

[Anonymous]

20% PROFICIENCY. Not "efficiency." Only 20% of the kids at Miner are scoring at a "proficient" level on math and reading tests. They are not measuring the percent efficiency (whatever in the world that means) of individual students.

With all due respect, you are not inspiring a lot of confidence if you don't even understand this most basic measurement of student achievement.

[Anonymous]

Miner will benefit from having a more diverse student body and parent community. One if my friends is a Miner preschool parent. She tried to donate new scholastic books to the classroom and met with resistance from the classroom teacher. Brent and Maury get so many donations from parents. Miner doesn't know what to do with involved parents. I would totally have sent my kids to a Mandarin program at Miner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Miner will benefit from having a more diverse student body and parent community. One if my friends is a Miner preschool parent. She tried to donate new scholastic books to the classroom and met with resistance from the classroom teacher. Brent and Maury get so many donations from parents. Miner doesn't know what to do with involved parents. I would totally have sent my kids to a Mandarin program at Miner.

Thats a problem at a lot of gentrifying schools unfortuantely. There is an attitude to recruit, recruit, recruit new families (ie High SES) to the school but any effort to make changes is met with an attitude of "your new hear and thats not how we do things"--and then people get huffy when high SES families with their high achieving kids bail by 1st, and 2nd grade and the original recruiters accuse the families of being racist and classist. Mandarin isn't going to fix that dynamic anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

^ LT on repeat.

[warrenox]

Anonymous wrote:20% PROFICIENCY. Not "efficiency." Only 20% of the kids at Miner are scoring at a "proficient" level on math and reading tests. They are not measuring the percent efficiency (whatever in the world that means) of individual students.

With all due respect, you are not inspiring a lot of confidence if you don't even understand this most basic measurement of student achievement.

I perfectly understand the measurement and was typing quickly and didn't proofread. You aren't suddenly showing brilliance by pointing that out. When an anonymous poster is suddenly the grammar police on the internet, it's often because they are losing the argument otherwise.

BTW, what are you doing for Miner besides being the grammar police on the internet? Please let us know so that we can get behind you and support your actions.

[warrenox]

Anonymous wrote:Miner will benefit from having a more diverse student body and parent community. One if my friends is a Miner preschool parent. She tried to donate new scholastic books to the classroom and met with resistance from the classroom teacher. Brent and Maury get so many donations from parents. Miner doesn't know what to do with involved parents. I would totally have sent my kids to a Mandarin program at Miner.

Can't disagree with your post. Miner is in desperate need of a more diverse student body and parent community.

I hope your friend will become involved in the PTO at Miner. There is a wonderful President of that organization and I think she could help find a use for those books.

[warrenox]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Miner will benefit from having a more diverse student body and parent community. One if my friends is a Miner preschool parent. She tried to donate new scholastic books to the classroom and met with resistance from the classroom teacher. Brent and Maury get so many donations from parents. Miner doesn't know what to do with involved parents. I would totally have sent my kids to a Mandarin program at Miner.

Thats a problem at a lot of gentrifying schools unfortuantely. There is an attitude to recruit, recruit, recruit new families (ie High SES) to the school but any effort to make changes is met with an attitude of "your new hear and thats not how we do things"--and then people get huffy when high SES families with their high achieving kids bail by 1st, and 2nd grade and the original recruiters accuse the families of being racist and classist. Mandarin isn't going to fix that dynamic anytime soon.

Again, totally agree. Mandarin as a language isn't going to fix that problem.

Parents that will invest in an immersion program and the school will fix that problem. So it will require involvement in the school, becoming tone deaf to the obstructionists who always are there to complain "that's not how we do things"... Getting a good core of those parents/students who are invested in the program will change the school culture.

Just to let you and anyone else that didn't know, there was a group of about 30 parents who have potential inbound students that met in a informal gathering that was organized through word of mouth of friends. That is parents who most do not even yet have a child old enough to attend Miner. This was friends and friends of friends. People who just know each other as neighbors in the community. That will tell you there is some momentum building to change the school. That was a big eye opener and there was encouragement to join the PTO, to attend functions for Miner and to get involved. If that community spirit and involvement starts spreading to other local families, to the teachers at the school looking for parent involvement, to the neighbor down the block with young children, or the parent(s) who have a child in Miner and looking for allies to help the school raise academic standards and test scores, then that will change the school.

[Gimbiya]

Anonymous wrote:I have read on other posts about Yu Ying that it takes quite a bit of parental commitment for their children to succeed at Yu Ying. If the parents at Miner are not willing to make the investment in their children's education with a single language track, what makes DCPS think that these same parents will make the commitment to see their kids flourish in Mandarin?

From my front porch, I can see parents bringing their children to Miner ES school in the mornings. The vast majority of these children are showing up on time and DCPS statistics about attendance and truancy rates support this observation. The children-students are in tidy uniforms, carefully groomed, and seem excited to be going to school. Many of these families are also out-of-bounds, meaning they have chosen Miner -- taken the time to lottery as a way of actively seeking an option that could be better than their in-bound school. It also means that many are committed to getting their kids to the school each day even though it may be a bit of a commute.

So, I would like to honor the commitment of parents who are trusting DCPS and Miner ES with their children 5 days a week -- many for two meals with the school providing free breakfast and lunch for all students -- and into the evening with the subsidized aftercare option that many families utilize. Ideally, the after-school programs could be tailored to provide the additional support with language studies as well as other forms of homework. The school has so much time and so many opportunities to engage and stay engaged with it's students that it could help compensate for the ways that families may not be able to provide the homework help/tutoring/support that we traditional see as part of family "commitment" to school in any program option it chooses to invest in.

So often, we rise to our best selves when we are challenged: So, I am hoping that a new challenge --one that reflects a cutting-edge, unique, exceptional learning opportunity-- at Miner would excite, refocus and recommit the whole community of the school (teachers, administrators, families, DCPS, and our neighbors) on the experiences and success of students.

[Anonymous]

I applied to Minor this week- I am waitlisted at number 35. Congratulations to the parents who got their kids into this school, I am still hoping to be lucky enough to get a spot!

[warrenox]

Anonymous wrote:I applied to Minor this week- I am waitlisted at number 35. Congratulations to the parents who got their kids into this school, I am still hoping to be lucky enough to get a spot!

Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

Minor is a bridge too far for us, way too far. How many high SES/white kids in K this past year - 2? How many in 1st-5th, zero? What percentage of the catchment area is high SES/white now - 60%? Simply put, the arrangement is criminal. DCPS could easily give the gentrifiers a fighting chance of using the school, or Payne. Mandarin immersion won't do the job, folks. Nice try.

[Anonymous]

Mine is definitely a school that is secretly on the rise. They recently beat out some other rising schools both DCPS and charter for an award from The Achievement Network, for their ability to use data to drive student success. There are some stellar teachers and I hope the new teachers add to the momentum Miner has developed

[Gimbiya]

Anonymous wrote:Miner will benefit from having a more diverse student body and parent community. One if my friends is a Miner preschool parent. She tried to donate new scholastic books to the classroom and met with resistance from the classroom teacher. Brent and Maury get so many donations from parents. Miner doesn't know what to do with involved parents. I would totally have sent my kids to a Mandarin program at Miner.

If your friend still has books to donate -- please have her reach out to me. I am in touch with a Miner teacher who would be excited to receive such a donation!
I can be reached at [e-mail] or through Facebook "Immersion for Miner" page.