Push for another bilingual middle school

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/07/12/dc-parents-spanish-immersion/

When will DCPS recognize that these programs need to be city wide and not school-based. Sounds like another privileged family asking for something that will benefit them and not the majority of kids in DCPS that don’t have access to these programs because they don’t have the right address.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/07/12/dc-parents-spanish-immersion/

When will DCPS recognize that these programs need to be city wide and not school-based. Sounds like another privileged family asking for something that will benefit them and not the majority of kids in DCPS that don’t have access to these programs because they don’t have the right address.

DCPS’s approach to bilingual schools make you question their intellect and whether you can trust them to educate your children. Not only do they have immersion schools feed into English-only middle schools, they literally have English-only elementary schools feeding into what is supposed to be their immersion middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Did you read the article? Lower-income families aren't mostly interested in this. Which you can see in the data, because fewer than 10 students for both the pk-3 and pk-4 years even tried to gain access via the equity lottery to Shirley Chisholm this year.

But if what you actually mean is that your kids want this option, you'll be glad to know that Jefferson cleared its waitlist entirely already, so if they put a dual-language program there, you've got some chance of getting in even if you don't live in the neighborhood. It's a Title 1, 55% of the students are at-risk, and 10% of the students are doing math at grade level, but if your concern is really with privileged parents getting access to things that other families don't, that should all be a bonus for you.

[Anonymous]

Making a dual language program at Jefferson makes a ton of sense to me. I mean, why wouldn’t you? They’re right that families EOTR are much more likely to be willing to go to the Hill than to CHEC or MacFarland. The improvement in inbound buy-in at Hill middle schools has been much slower for Jefferson than the other two. People like immersion, there’s demand for it, especially from Chisholm students. It’s working well at MacFarland. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Anonymous]

I live on this Hill and oppose this because we need to focus on improving existing middle schools, no creating a new one. Create an advanced language program at the existing MS. Why would you create an entire immersion MS to serve one elementary? It doesn't make sense.

Stuff like this annoys me because so many parents in DCPS just want some bespoke program for themselves. That's not the strength of a public school system. We need to pool resources.

[Anonymous]

Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

At my kid’s school, 50% of the population was Spanish dominant, so delivering content like math in Spanish was a plus for kids who were behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

At my kid’s school, 50% of the population was Spanish dominant, so delivering content like math in Spanish was a plus for kids who were behind.

You cannot prioritize a language which is optional over a requirement which is proficiency in English, no matter what subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

At my kid’s school, 50% of the population was Spanish dominant, so delivering content like math in Spanish was a plus for kids who were behind.

You know these programs are not for the Spanish dominant kids by where the put them. If they were, they would have them in Brightwood and Columbia Heights. DC has Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations and large Anti-ICE protests in Columbia Heights, but can’t lift a finger to let them have a bilingual program.

[Anonymous]

i could see eventually making chisholm some form of a city wide. the boundary is small and close to lots of other capitol hill elementary schools. jefferson in southwest is right now the assigned middle school feeder for chisholm but it doesnt yet really have any form of a spanish program for them. it needs one. the PreK3-8 campus seems like the idea of parents with early elementary school kids.

[Anonymous]

I think we should look at the European model of language education. Most students learn 3 languages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

At my kid’s school, 50% of the population was Spanish dominant, so delivering content like math in Spanish was a plus for kids who were behind.

You know these programs are not for the Spanish dominant kids by where the put them. If they were, they would have them in Brightwood and Columbia Heights. DC has Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations and large Anti-ICE protests in Columbia Heights, but can’t lift a finger to let them have a bilingual program.

What do you think the CH in CHEC stands for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

At my kid’s school, 50% of the population was Spanish dominant, so delivering content like math in Spanish was a plus for kids who were behind.

You know these programs are not for the Spanish dominant kids by where the put them. If they were, they would have them in Brightwood and Columbia Heights. DC has Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations and large Anti-ICE protests in Columbia Heights, but can’t lift a finger to let them have a bilingual program.

What do you think the CH in CHEC stands for?

You mean DCPS’s dual language middle school with 0 dual language feeder elementary schools? Do you think makes any sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we should look at the European model of language education. Most students learn 3 languages.

Isn't that because European countries are tiny and you need to know a few other languages if you want to travel anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many low income kids are not even on grade level in ELA.

Why would you put them in an immersion program in another language when they can’t even get English proficiency?

Also immersion program in preK has zero English and later 50% less ELA.

Immersion is a niche and an option. It’s best suited for kids who are higher performing or are at least proficient in ELA.

Above is why immersion is not as popular with lower SES. Also they can’t support or supplement either if child is struggling in the language.

At my kid’s school, 50% of the population was Spanish dominant, so delivering content like math in Spanish was a plus for kids who were behind.

You know these programs are not for the Spanish dominant kids by where the put them. If they were, they would have them in Brightwood and Columbia Heights. DC has Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations and large Anti-ICE protests in Columbia Heights, but can’t lift a finger to let them have a bilingual program.

What do you think the CH in CHEC stands for?

You mean DCPS’s dual language middle school with 0 dual language feeder elementary schools? Do you think makes any sense?

It’s not like it was planned that way. Tukeva went rogue and then, since CHEC is far from the worst problem in the system, DCPS decided to make the best of it.