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What is your first choice bilingual program?
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Anonymous
I'm not. |
Anonymous
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(Different) YY parent here. YY was my first choice and I wouldn't change schools even if I won the lottery.
As for Chinese versus Spanish, I'll put my kid in Spanish immersion when I start seeing articles about the threat that Mexico or South America poses to U.S.'s position as the only superpower. |
Anonymous
Oh dear, you sound bitter. How about you support your school without trying to cast obviously incorrect aspersions on somebody else's? You'd come across much more like an adult, you know. |
Anonymous
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Not everyone can get into Yu Ying, not everyone has a child who would do well there. I'm fairly certain my (very bright) 5 year old who has trouble with writing due to a learning disability would do badly at Yu Ying. He has no problem in the Spanish/English immersion program that he is currently in, but I cannot imagine the struggle if he had to learn additional characters/alphabet.
I think learning a foreign language is important to build language ability in the brain, to teach kids that their language is not the only one and a bunch of other reasons. But, I think they "China will take over the world" concern is overrated. |
Anonymous
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I posted earlier about my choices. Didn't include YY because it doesn't have a PS3 program.
Immersion is very important to me, so I'm trying to get my kid into it now (for 3 yo programs). The question is - would we then apply to YY next year? To go from Spanish (presumably - unless Stokes) to Chinese, should we be lucky enough to get into one immersion program this year, and YY next year? |
Anonymous
| I thought Yu Ying was my first choice. But, my PS DD got into Stokes this year, and we are not moving. it is a lovely school. |
Anonymous
Good luck w/ both (meant sincerely, not being sarcastic). I'm a YY parent, but if we hadn't gotten into Yu Ying, Stokes would have been next on the list. I hear great things about the school, I think we would have been happy there too. I have high hopes for Mundo Verde. They have a steep learning curve, but it's being designed by families who are sending their children to the school, and that seems to be a formula for success. I think their biggest challenge will be finding a facility - that is getting much harder than it used to be. LAMB sounds like a neat idea, but I'm just not the Montessori type. It's a personal thing though, not a slam against the school. I have a less good impression of DC Bilingual, I have heard that the math curriculum is a weakness. In general I have a higher opinion of charter schools than DCPS for immersion programs, because the charter framework is a lot more flexible and I think that better supports the innovations inherent to good implementation of an immersion program. Having said that, Oyster has a good reputation and if we were inbounds I would be interested. (I've heard it's almost impossible for English-speaking families to get in OOB.) Of the other DCPS schools, I'd put Cleveland next on account of their test scores. The Tyler family I know chose to leave the school, and though we know a lot of inbounds-for-Bancroft families, none of them have chosen to attend the school. |
Anonymous
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Stokes does sound great, probably means a lot that their scores for non-English speakers are the best. But we're in-bounds for Bancroft, happy with the preschool program, and feeling positive (though realistic) about the next grades.
For us it's a matter of walking 2 blocks to school each day and having our child grow up with friends in the neighborhood, vs. driving halfway across town every day for the next 7 years. Just does not seem worth it. |
Anonymous
| How is YY doing with its native language Chinese students? I've heard they're leaving to go to Thompson (which is also bilingual with Chinese) 'cause they feel like their kids aren't learning English at YY. |
Anonymous
Actually, full biliteracy in any language combination is a stronger indication of academic achievement. Human beings are hard-wired to speak several languages at once. Full biliteracy and effective use of the target language is a much higher bar and much more challenging to achieve. For any underrepresented language to really stick, consider spending a significant amount of time in a geographic area with a higher concentration of native-level speakers and readers. The speed of achieving biliteracy and the depth of skills is very closely correlated to the volume of support in the target language outside the classroom. I don't mean to discourage anyone from immersion programs. But I know from professional and personal experience that parents who do not have second (or more) language skills need to make sure they have realistic expectations going in. Bilingual is a way of living. Not a class schedule. For test data analysts, DC is kind of fuzzy on what constitutes LEP/ELL. DCPS tags younger kids based on one test. If your 5 year old prefers to speak in Swedish that day because he's anxious about testing, bingo, he's ELL. It's not malicious on the DCPS Office of Bilingual Ed part. They've got to follow rules and make sure nobody who needs English support slips through the cracks. But there's no box for "already bilingual" so it takes a while to get your child out of the subgroup. Thus some schools end up with ELLs who are already well on their way to biliteracy and not just based on SES. Clear as mud, right? Take scores with mountains of salt. Or just ignore them. It will be interesting to see how YY evolves with DC-CAS results. Will Chinese-speakers (some of whom will be ELL) flee to 'burbs if scores aren't stellar? |
Anonymous
That is categorically untrue. Yu Ying has a high retention rate, and those families who do leave tend to do so because the academics are too challenging. The native Chinese families in the school community actually tend to very involved. One of them is the Mandarin voice coach of the Rosetta Stone language learning program, and she even teaches classes to the parents to help them learn Chinese and support their children's language acquisition. I did meet a family that left Thomson to come to Yu Ying though. |
Anonymous
I guess these speaks to different motivations for doing a bilingual program. I would love for my child to be in a bilingual program, not only because I think thoroughly acquiring a second language would be such an asset and a valuable educational experience, but because she has various ties to different parts of South America. And while I am not from there, I speak Spanish, I travel there, I have family who live there, I love the culture, etc. I think bilingual education in Spanish will not only reinforce the ties she has, but create a deeper appreciation for the language, culture, and heritage that she will already be exposed to. And I can reinforce this in ways that I can't with any other language -- French, Chinese, Swahili, whatever. |
Anonymous
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yeah, watching your child become bilingual and bilterate before your eyes is amazing. Even if they struggle a bit they are still amazingly open to words, language, ideas. My DC struggled for years but is now able to read/write/speak in an academic environment in two languages. I find that simply wonderful. LAMB parent here.
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Anonymous
I can agree with this. If the only language option available was Swahili, I think I'd still be interested. The more people we can talk to, the bigger and better our world is. |
Anonymous
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