CHARTERS MAY MERGE AT WALTER REED (The DC International School, IB Diploma Programme)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY parent whose children are about half way up doubting that we'll be there (planning to go private, or move to Potomac for MS Chinese immersion) because we're already concerned about lack of rigor in English, particularly in reading. The most enthusiastic parents tend to be in the lower grades. I'm really disappointed that immersion experience will end in 5th - kids who don't speak Mandarin at home are going to forget a great deal of Chinese in MS, even with DCI teaching "advanced" Chinese classes. That's why Canada almost always does language immersion through 8th grade, as do some other US cities. Also, with most of the student body of DCI planned to lottery in, you're going to have the same old situation at other charters, not enough challenge/push for high-end kids. Teachers will have to focus on dealing with kids who test below basic or proficient in both reading and math, not on the advanced kids, unless there's considerable grouping/tracking. Where does that happen in a DC MS? How could things be any different? If my kids were in preschool I'd be cautiously optimistic, but they aren't, so I'm sadly erring on the side of pessimism. I'm sure the DCI planners/boosters are very well-intentioned, just not sure how realistic they are, at least for high-SES families. Talk to Latin and Two Rivers parents who leave for lack of challenge to cool your enthusiasm, folks.


This higher SES family is cautiously optimistic. The majority of our class, (entering 1st) probably would be considered the same way. I'm very grateful to the leading edge/founding classes for laying the groundwork, as I don't think we're having the same experience that you did.

[Anonymous]

We have a rising K student at YY and were sure we would be gone by middle school. With DCI, we will be staying for middle school and high school is a definite possibility. Like many families, we sent our child for Mandarin and there simply aren't any programs that can support it from middle school onwards. Other subjects, we can certainly support through middle school. By middle school, DC can be sent to language camp in China during summers. We LOVE the idea of an IB degree at the end too and consider it definitely on par with private high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At what grade does WIS move their students from the immersion model?

Full immersion through K
Dual immersion through 5th grade
Optional dual program for kids proficient in target language for middle school
Advanced language Upper (high school)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what grade does WIS move their students from the immersion model?

Full immersion through K
Dual immersion through 5th grade
Optional dual program for kids proficient in target language for middle school
Advanced language Upper (high school)

sounds almost what the DCI will be!!!

[Anonymous]

If it gets approved!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it gets approved!

But unlike at WIS, your kid is almost certainly going to be plonked in classes with others who can barely read or do basic math. It happens at Latin and Two Rivers and will happen at Basis. Remember that lottery admissions means that luck will be the sole admissions criterion, other than advanced proficiency in one foreign language for 6th graders coming in from feeder schools, and even that will not be in the cards for some of the immersion kids, (e.g. the YY kids coming off the non-immersion track).

Questions about ability grouping at DCI go unanswered and recent charter MS and HS history doesn't provide great cause for optimism. This means that earning the full IB diploma by the end of senior year in HS may or may not work out for your advanced kid. No DC charter is launching Ivy League careers yet people, and that may not be happening in a decade either. WIS takes high-end kids, period, and tracks to boot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it gets approved!

But unlike at WIS, your kid is almost certainly going to be plonked in classes with others who can barely read or do basic math. It happens at Latin and Two Rivers and will happen at Basis. Remember that lottery admissions means that luck will be the sole admissions criterion, other than advanced proficiency in one foreign language for 6th graders coming in from feeder schools, and even that will not be in the cards for some of the immersion kids, (e.g. the YY kids coming off the non-immersion track).

Questions about ability grouping at DCI go unanswered and recent charter MS and HS history doesn't provide great cause for optimism. This means that earning the full IB diploma by the end of senior year in HS may or may not work out for your advanced kid. No DC charter is launching Ivy League careers yet people, and that may not be happening in a decade either. WIS takes high-end kids, period, and tracks to boot.

Wow! That bile is really disfiguring you, poor thing!

The oldest DC charters are barely 10 y.o. and attempting to launch their students into the competitive collegiate application space. It appears that they have succeeded.

With all due respect, what the fuck is wrong with you that you can't recognize this? Do you suck at statistics in particular, or just in general as an underperforming human being?

[Anonymous]

^^You're being harsh and the obsenities aren't needed. This PP makes a good point. We pulled our middle schooler grader out of 2 Rivers for a private, although it was a friendly, happy school, because of the lack of ability grouping. We were concerned that he was not on track to be admitted either to the Ivies one of us attended for undergrad and grad school or the military academy the other attended. Our younger child is at a language immersion school and we' are also concerned about open lottery admissions at DCI. If you aren't concerned, great, but other parents are, and invalidating their concerns isn't reasonable.

One of our best friends is a teacher at Latin. She talks openly about problems associated with putting low-performing and high-performing kids into the same classrooms (Latin only differentiates for 8th grade algebra in MS). She doesn't think that Latin's HS is on the road to "launching Ivy League careers" because that's not the orientation of the school. The administrators, guidance counselors (the most senior of whom is a Mt. Holyoke grad) and teachers aspire to see graduates attend small liberal arts colleges (e.g. Hamilton), not Ivies, top technical schools like MIT and CalTech, or military academies. Will Basis DC be different? Who knows.

Unfortunately, SWW and Wilson aren't as different from Latin as we'd like. We'd love to see one high-powered public HS in the city emerge. Will DCI be it? Hard to imagine open lottery admissions doing the trick.

[Anonymous]

+1. Open lottery admissions without MS ability grouping won't work for every language immersion parent and child, and everybody should have appealing PS choices past ES! If the charter board won't allow selective admissions to its schools, now or ever, why not serious ability grouping?

I want to know what kind of ability grouping DCI plans as a barometer for how serious the HS would be about graduates going on to top colleges (consult the US News and World Report "Most Competitive 100 for Admissions" colleges list).

DC just doesn't do very well at planning to get kids into the most selective colleges (the top quarter on the USNWR list), it only pretends that it does. Call me names for pointing this out, too.

[Anonymous]

They said at the meeting that there will be different levels of courses for different kids. It usually starts with math in 6th grade. Then, some kids will be taking content courses in their 2nd language and some who lottery in will take them in English. At the top levels, the 3 possible tracks are ability grouped with the IB Diploma and the required courses to support that being the highest.

[Anonymous]

It is impossible to know how this will work until the school actually exists. The answer is a couple of years away. Carry on. . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^You're being harsh and the obsenities aren't needed. This PP makes a good point. We pulled our middle schooler grader out of 2 Rivers for a private, although it was a friendly, happy school, because of the lack of ability grouping. We were concerned that he was not on track to be admitted either to the Ivies one of us attended for undergrad and grad school or the military academy the other attended. Our younger child is at a language immersion school and we' are also concerned about open lottery admissions at DCI. If you aren't concerned, great, but other parents are, and invalidating their concerns isn't reasonable.

One of our best friends is a teacher at Latin. She talks openly about problems associated with putting low-performing and high-performing kids into the same classrooms (Latin only differentiates for 8th grade algebra in MS). She doesn't think that Latin's HS is on the road to "launching Ivy League careers" because that's not the orientation of the school. The administrators, guidance counselors (the most senior of whom is a Mt. Holyoke grad) and teachers aspire to see graduates attend small liberal arts colleges (e.g. Hamilton), not Ivies, top technical schools like MIT and CalTech, or military academies. Will Basis DC be different? Who knows.

Unfortunately, SWW and Wilson aren't as different from Latin as we'd like. We'd love to see one high-powered public HS in the city emerge. Will DCI be it? Hard to imagine open lottery admissions doing the trick.

Hope so. That's the good thing about a school of that size (target = 1,000 students), there will be a large enough population so that the advanced students will be able to have the advanced classes necessary for an IB Diploma.

[Anonymous]

Yes--They were specific at the meeting that their will be ability grouping, and different types of IBO diplomas vs. certificates, etc. that kids can work towards.

[Anonymous]

As I understand the IB diploma requirements DCI would have to have some sort of ability tracking. The question will be if they have enough of a cohort to offer the diploma. If enough families with advanced kids stay--DCI could work. Of course, most of this discussion is pointless because there is no charter approval yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

One of our best friends is a teacher at Latin. She talks openly about problems associated with putting low-performing and high-performing kids into the same classrooms (Latin only differentiates for 8th grade algebra in MS). She doesn't think that Latin's HS is on the road to "launching Ivy League careers" because that's not the orientation of the school. The administrators, guidance counselors (the most senior of whom is a Mt. Holyoke grad) and teachers aspire to see graduates attend small liberal arts colleges (e.g. Hamilton), not Ivies, top technical schools like MIT and CalTech, or military academies. Will Basis DC be different? Who knows.

Unfortunately, SWW and Wilson aren't as different from Latin as we'd like. We'd love to see one high-powered public HS in the city emerge. Will DCI be it? Hard to imagine open lottery admissions doing the trick.

An IBO program by definition does ability tracking, with the IB degree at the end - the highest level - so we're not particularly worried but happy there is a public middle/high school option that we can consider over private school. We're not interested in Basis or Latin.

I had no idea the senior guidance counselor was from Holyoke! I'll be just as happy if DC attends Amherst, Williams, Swathmore, etc. over the Ivies, DH and I attended...