Dual language schools - reversal of lottery preferences still in effect?

[Anonymous]

It's also ridiculous to constantly bring up the demise story. Get over yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's also ridiculous to constantly bring up the demise story. Get over yourselves.

Really? So the moment someone defends Oyster by pointing out FACTS, the only response is "get over yourselves." Anyone who is interested can read dozens of threads on DCUM where Oyster is described as "not what it used to be," "living on it's past reputation," "a sinking ship," etc. As an IB Oyster parent I know that none of those descriptions are accurate, and I'm entitled to correct the record. I think that it's great that there are more dual immersion options available in DC. However, I'm not ok with boosters from other schools trying to tear Oyster down (with lies and distortions) in order to make their school look better. Focus on improving your school so that one day it is actually Oyster's peer--not a pretender to the throne.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And you PP post the "people have been predicting oysters demise...." Comment on every single oyster thread. And each time you are snooty.

Actually, I don't comment on every Oyster thread. I have other things to do besides monitoring every post that includes the word "Oyster." However, if I happen to come across a lie, I will say something. If that's what you consider snooty, then I'm guilty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like what Oyster-Adams has been doing for years. For pre-K lottery, sibling preference trumps everything else including language dominance, ethnicity, and boundary. But principal discretion had always trumped lottery and policy at the school. There are still quite a few siblings of OOB kids of non-Spanish speaking, non-Hispanic parents who were admitted under the previous regimes. But there is no way to guarantee that any student stays at the school. Some say Powell is the new Oyster and that it, along with charters, will siphon off a lot more bilingual students and Spanish-dominant families from O-A. It's already been happening, but the previous principal didn't seem to want to acknowledge it publicly. It's not clear if the new principal understands how defection has accelerated among the large population of OOB siblings. O-A maintains its capacity and reputation with a combination of IB lower elementary students who are mostly not from Spanish-dominant families, and have a high attrition rate, and OOB Spanish-proficient students entering 4th through 8th. That has not be a bad thing academically and socially in the recent past before the rapid spread of language immersion charter schools. But it's not sustainable in this day and age.

However things work out at Oyster-Adams, the good news is that there are more and higher quality language immersion options in the city.

Oyster has an ethnicity preference?

No. There is a language (Spanish) preference for OOB families. The pp is woefully misinformed on many accounts. Btw, envious people have been predicting Oyster's demise/diminished reputation/implosion for decades. Yet it still remains the gold standard by which all other public dual immersion schools (within DC and the larger DC Metro area) are measured. No one at Oyster is losing sleep over the proliferation of dual immersion schools in DC. I actually welcome it. Perhaps then, people will stop trying to lie, cheat and steal their way into Oyster. Please take those desperate schemes across town to other dual immersion schools that need a test score, reputation or enrollment boost.

Wasn't there a washpo article about a family choosing Powell over oyster not too long ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like what Oyster-Adams has been doing for years. For pre-K lottery, sibling preference trumps everything else including language dominance, ethnicity, and boundary. But principal discretion had always trumped lottery and policy at the school. There are still quite a few siblings of OOB kids of non-Spanish speaking, non-Hispanic parents who were admitted under the previous regimes. But there is no way to guarantee that any student stays at the school. Some say Powell is the new Oyster and that it, along with charters, will siphon off a lot more bilingual students and Spanish-dominant families from O-A. It's already been happening, but the previous principal didn't seem to want to acknowledge it publicly. It's not clear if the new principal understands how defection has accelerated among the large population of OOB siblings. O-A maintains its capacity and reputation with a combination of IB lower elementary students who are mostly not from Spanish-dominant families, and have a high attrition rate, and OOB Spanish-proficient students entering 4th through 8th. That has not be a bad thing academically and socially in the recent past before the rapid spread of language immersion charter schools. But it's not sustainable in this day and age.

However things work out at Oyster-Adams, the good news is that there are more and higher quality language immersion options in the city.

Oyster has an ethnicity preference?

No. There is a language (Spanish) preference for OOB families. The pp is woefully misinformed on many accounts. Btw, envious people have been predicting Oyster's demise/diminished reputation/implosion for decades. Yet it still remains the gold standard by which all other public dual immersion schools (within DC and the larger DC Metro area) are measured. No one at Oyster is losing sleep over the proliferation of dual immersion schools in DC. I actually welcome it. Perhaps then, people will stop trying to lie, cheat and steal their way into Oyster. Please take those desperate schemes across town to other dual immersion schools that need a test score, reputation or enrollment boost.

Wasn't there a washpo article about a family choosing Powell over oyster not too long ago?

NP here, there are two current Powell families who are choosing Oyster over Powell for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like what Oyster-Adams has been doing for years. For pre-K lottery, sibling preference trumps everything else including language dominance, ethnicity, and boundary. But principal discretion had always trumped lottery and policy at the school. There are still quite a few siblings of OOB kids of non-Spanish speaking, non-Hispanic parents who were admitted under the previous regimes. But there is no way to guarantee that any student stays at the school. Some say Powell is the new Oyster and that it, along with charters, will siphon off a lot more bilingual students and Spanish-dominant families from O-A. It's already been happening, but the previous principal didn't seem to want to acknowledge it publicly. It's not clear if the new principal understands how defection has accelerated among the large population of OOB siblings. O-A maintains its capacity and reputation with a combination of IB lower elementary students who are mostly not from Spanish-dominant families, and have a high attrition rate, and OOB Spanish-proficient students entering 4th through 8th. That has not be a bad thing academically and socially in the recent past before the rapid spread of language immersion charter schools. But it's not sustainable in this day and age.

However things work out at Oyster-Adams, the good news is that there are more and higher quality language immersion options in the city.

Oyster has an ethnicity preference?

No. There is a language (Spanish) preference for OOB families. The pp is woefully misinformed on many accounts. Btw, envious people have been predicting Oyster's demise/diminished reputation/implosion for decades. Yet it still remains the gold standard by which all other public dual immersion schools (within DC and the larger DC Metro area) are measured. No one at Oyster is losing sleep over the proliferation of dual immersion schools in DC. I actually welcome it. Perhaps then, people will stop trying to lie, cheat and steal their way into Oyster. Please take those desperate schemes across town to other dual immersion schools that need a test score, reputation or enrollment boost.

Wasn't there a washpo article about a family choosing Powell over oyster not too long ago?

Yes, and she's the co-President of the PTA. Let's see is this will still be the case next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like what Oyster-Adams has been doing for years. For pre-K lottery, sibling preference trumps everything else including language dominance, ethnicity, and boundary. But principal discretion had always trumped lottery and policy at the school. There are still quite a few siblings of OOB kids of non-Spanish speaking, non-Hispanic parents who were admitted under the previous regimes. But there is no way to guarantee that any student stays at the school. Some say Powell is the new Oyster and that it, along with charters, will siphon off a lot more bilingual students and Spanish-dominant families from O-A. It's already been happening, but the previous principal didn't seem to want to acknowledge it publicly. It's not clear if the new principal understands how defection has accelerated among the large population of OOB siblings. O-A maintains its capacity and reputation with a combination of IB lower elementary students who are mostly not from Spanish-dominant families, and have a high attrition rate, and OOB Spanish-proficient students entering 4th through 8th. That has not be a bad thing academically and socially in the recent past before the rapid spread of language immersion charter schools. But it's not sustainable in this day and age.

However things work out at Oyster-Adams, the good news is that there are more and higher quality language immersion options in the city.

Oyster has an ethnicity preference?

No. There is a language (Spanish) preference for OOB families. The pp is woefully misinformed on many accounts. Btw, envious people have been predicting Oyster's demise/diminished reputation/implosion for decades. Yet it still remains the gold standard by which all other public dual immersion schools (within DC and the larger DC Metro area) are measured. No one at Oyster is losing sleep over the proliferation of dual immersion schools in DC. I actually welcome it. Perhaps then, people will stop trying to lie, cheat and steal their way into Oyster. Please take those desperate schemes across town to other dual immersion schools that need a test score, reputation or enrollment boost.

Wasn't there a washpo article about a family choosing Powell over oyster not too long ago?

Yes, that family chose Powell because (according to the article) it offered PK3. Oyster starts at PK4. After spending a year at Powell, and becoming very involved in the school community, they decided to stay at Powell. I have a friend who chose UVA law school over Harvard law because UVA offered her merit aid. That doesn't make UVA a better law school, just a more affordable one for her. In other words Powell works for this family. It is not, however, an objectively better school than Oyster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like what Oyster-Adams has been doing for years. For pre-K lottery, sibling preference trumps everything else including language dominance, ethnicity, and boundary. But principal discretion had always trumped lottery and policy at the school. There are still quite a few siblings of OOB kids of non-Spanish speaking, non-Hispanic parents who were admitted under the previous regimes. But there is no way to guarantee that any student stays at the school. Some say Powell is the new Oyster and that it, along with charters, will siphon off a lot more bilingual students and Spanish-dominant families from O-A. It's already been happening, but the previous principal didn't seem to want to acknowledge it publicly. It's not clear if the new principal understands how defection has accelerated among the large population of OOB siblings. O-A maintains its capacity and reputation with a combination of IB lower elementary students who are mostly not from Spanish-dominant families, and have a high attrition rate, and OOB Spanish-proficient students entering 4th through 8th. That has not be a bad thing academically and socially in the recent past before the rapid spread of language immersion charter schools. But it's not sustainable in this day and age.

However things work out at Oyster-Adams, the good news is that there are more and higher quality language immersion options in the city.

Oyster has an ethnicity preference?

No. There is a language (Spanish) preference for OOB families. The pp is woefully misinformed on many accounts. Btw, envious people have been predicting Oyster's demise/diminished reputation/implosion for decades. Yet it still remains the gold standard by which all other public dual immersion schools (within DC and the larger DC Metro area) are measured. No one at Oyster is losing sleep over the proliferation of dual immersion schools in DC. I actually welcome it. Perhaps then, people will stop trying to lie, cheat and steal their way into Oyster. Please take those desperate schemes across town to other dual immersion schools that need a test score, reputation or enrollment boost.

Wasn't there a washpo article about a family choosing Powell over oyster not too long ago?

A DCPS official (part of the central administration) left Powell and moved IB for Oyster this school year. No one at Oyster cares about this fact...so what's your point?!?

[Anonymous]

One vote for Cleveland dual language!

[Anonymous]

How does one lie, cheat, and steal into Oyster?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does one lie, cheat, and steal into Oyster?

Provide grandma's IB address.

Move IB for one year renting, then move back OOB and arrange with subsequent tenants to still receive your school mailings there.

Say your kid is spanish dominant when not and pray they pass the test.

Etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does one lie, cheat, and steal into Oyster?

Provide grandma's IB address.

Move IB for one year renting, then move back OOB and arrange with subsequent tenants to still receive your school mailings there.

Say your kid is spanish dominant when not and pray they pass the test.

Etc

Forgot one: provide the address of the IB condo you lived in prior to marriage and now rent out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does one lie, cheat, and steal into Oyster?

Provide grandma's IB address.

Move IB for one year renting, then move back OOB and arrange with subsequent tenants to still receive your school mailings there.

Say your kid is spanish dominant when not and pray they pass the test.

Etc

Exactly! I was going to write something similar, but you beat me to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does one lie, cheat, and steal into Oyster?

Provide grandma's IB address.

Move IB for one year renting, then move back OOB and arrange with subsequent tenants to still receive your school mailings there.

Say your kid is spanish dominant when not and pray they pass the test.

Etc

Exactly! I was going to write something similar, but you beat me to it.

Yes, and say your kids are Spanish dominant when they learned Spanish with the nanny. I actually met someone at the test who was in this group. I never found out if they entered it or not...probably yes.

[Anonymous]

...say your kids are Spanish dominant when they learned it with the nanny.

I'm not sure why you say this is "cheating." I spoke with Oyster about this very issue. If your child speaks Spanish fluently enough to pass the test, they are "dominant" for purposes of the box you check on the application form. That is per Oyster. They don't care how or where your child learned the language. Some children actually are "dominant" in two languages. It's kind of the point in raising bilingual children.