Janney vs Yu Ying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard good things about her and that the review is still in progress. All the 1st year principals are being reviewed -- it's not a sign that there has been a problem.

[Anonymous]

In case you are not a regular on this board, there are a lot of Yu Ying 'boosters' on this board, or maybe one person who posts alot. A bit like all the crazy Beauvoir people - those who love it and those who hate it! I rarely read anything rational about either of those two schools on this board! So you should really decide for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got accepted at both Janney and Yu ying. Do the two schools compare? We live in Nw, is Yu ying worth the 30 mn drive?

I think that they are two very different programs. Do you want your child to be fluent in Mandarin, be in an IB program, to have an interest in China, etc? If so then I would go with Yu Ying. Do you want your child to be in a neighborhood school, in a traditional program. If so, then I would go with Janney. For me the play dates on the other side of town is a sacrifice I am willing to make for the opporunity for my children to be fluent in Mandarin, but I do know that it is not for everyone. I think that there is also some risk in going with a new program versus staying with an established one, but again it is calculated risk that I am willing to make. HTH.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you free this weekend? There will be a Spring Fest event on the grounds of Yu Ying this Saturday from 12 - 3pm. It would be a great opportunity for you and your DC to meet current Yu Ying families. You can ask general questions about the school and the program, and also specific questions about the commute. Maybe you'll meet someone from your neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

To the family who's choosing between Yu Ying and Janney -- our family is in that same wonderful situation, and in fact, we have connected with a few families in that same predicament. Like you, the commute to Yu Ying from Tenleytown/AU Park seems daunting, but given the # of Yu Ying families clustered in Ward 3, we know that there are enough families for a carpool and perhaps even an organized shuttle to take the kids to and from Yu Ying. We plan to have our child be picked up from Yu Ying everyday after school so she can do after-school activities (church, dance, sports) in our neighborhood and keep up her friendships with families here.

My spouse and I speak Mandarin with our kids so Yu Ying is appealing on many fronts. However, most families (including a few World Bank families in our neighborhood) have no familial or personal experience with Mandarin, but still nonetheless see the value in having their kids learn Mandarin, given the growing importance of Mandarin both within and outside the U.S.

If you haven't already, I would encourage you to visit Yu Ying and observe both the Mandarin and English classes. The students alternate days between Mandarin classrooms and English classrooms, to ensure that they are learning in both languages (similar to Oyster bilingual schedule). When I observed the pre-K class, I was stunned to see how the majority of kids were speaking and singing in Mandarin; only one pre-K student comes from a Mandarin-speaking family. So this is a testament to the power of immersion at early age. I have also been impressed by the principal, executive director, school personnel, etc.

The big issue facing Yu Ying is where it's permanent location will be. Since it's in its nascent/incubator stage, it's presently located in a refurbished facility in Brookland near Providence Hospital. Unlike Janney, Yu Ying is not an easy walk to the metro so public transit options from Ward 3 are not easy. The permanent site for Yu Ying could be anywhere in DC, and many school families have different interests as to where the final location will be (will need to be decided by end of 2009). Our family hopes the permanent site will be closer to downtown DC within easy walking distance of the red line. But there are no assurances as to where the school's permanent home will be.

If commute is the only obstacle to Yu Ying, I would encourage you to contact me (244-1202) so we can discuss carpool options. Ultmately, you could try Yu Ying and if you find the commute too taxing or the community appeal of Janney more important (which we certainly understand), then you have the fortunate default option of being able to enroll your child at Janney as your neighborhood school. We feel the tug to Janney every day as we walk our child to nursery school amidst the sea of families migrating to Janney. An excellent school situated in a vibrant community.

In short, a win-win for your family. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Janney is due to break ground on its new facilites in December 2009, with completion of the project scheduled for the end of the 2010-11 school year, I think. Current plan (logistics not worked out) is for the kids to "swing in place" -- i.e. stay on campus during construction rather than be bussed to another school.

[Anonymous]

My two cents here. I would definately go with Janney. Yu-Ying is very new and to be honest there are still much to b desired with the administration. The leadership and staff are young and inexperienced. It is still a work in progress. Janney on the other hand is a leading school in the District grounded in years of strong leadership, great resources and a fantastic PTA. If you got into JAnney through a lottery system. Please don't be foolish. Keep your spot as it is highly improbable that you would win this spot again in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Charters do sometimes suffer from management concerns, since by law they have to shut down if they are insolvent after 5 years. You might just ask what their revenue plan for the next five years is. If they can make it on their per pupil allotment + rent allowance, that's great. if they are using some non-renewable grants for day to day expenses, that's a red flag.

Also, I think learning a language is great for children and really enhances brain development and verbal skills. I would not, however, try to predict which languages will be important economically in the future. I had quite a few friends in college who took Japanese and Russian faithfully, only to discover that economic and political forces had made most of the jobs that required those skills evaporate shortly after we graduated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charters do sometimes suffer from management concerns, since by law they have to shut down if they are insolvent after 5 years. You might just ask what their revenue plan for the next five years is. If they can make it on their per pupil allotment + rent allowance, that's great. if they are using some non-renewable grants for day to day expenses, that's a red flag.

Also, I think learning a language is great for children and really enhances brain development and verbal skills. I would not, however, try to predict which languages will be important economically in the future. I had quite a few friends in college who took Japanese and Russian faithfully, only to discover that economic and political forces had made most of the jobs that required those skills evaporate shortly after we graduated.

Your friends didn't understand demographics very well, did they.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My two cents here. I would definately go with Janney. Yu-Ying is very new and to be honest there are still much to b desired with the administration. The leadership and staff are young and inexperienced. It is still a work in progress. Janney on the other hand is a leading school in the District grounded in years of strong leadership, great resources and a fantastic PTA. If you got into JAnney through a lottery system. Please don't be foolish. Keep your spot as it is highly improbable that you would win this spot again in the near future.

The OP's in-bounds school is Janney though, so it's always there as a fall back. Whereas Yu Ying is a one-time offer: if you don't start Mandarin Immersion in Pre-K, there aren't other options out there. Plus, the school has incredible energy, experienced leadership, a dedicated Parent Association, and it's the only elementary school in the District other than WIS to offer the I.B. program.

[Anonymous]

My two cents here. I would definately go with Janney. Yu-Ying is very new and to be honest there are still much to b desired with the administration. The leadership and staff are young and inexperienced. It is still a work in progress. Janney on the other hand is a leading school in the District grounded in years of strong leadership, great resources and a fantastic PTA. If you got into JAnney through a lottery system. Please don't be foolish. Keep your spot as it is highly improbable that you would win this spot again in the near future.

Just a comment, my child is at Yu Ying and I don't look at the school through rose colored glasses because it has had some issues like any other school. However--one thing that is inaccurate in the above post is that the entire staff and administration is young and inexperienced. My child's excellent teacher has been teaching for something like 7 or 8 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The students alternate days between Mandarin classrooms and English classrooms, to ensure that they are learning in both languages (similar to Oyster bilingual schedule).

I thought that the research indicated that that was the least-promising bilingual model since it enabled kids to basically wait a day and learn an unrelated subject in their native language.

Doesn't mean I wouldn't give Yu Ying a try, especially if the issue is PreK-K and we're talking about the next two years. Just that this model isn't a selling point for Yu Ying, at least where kids who are monolingual outside of school are concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The students alternate days between Mandarin classrooms and English classrooms, to ensure that they are learning in both languages (similar to Oyster bilingual schedule).

I thought that the research indicated that that was the least-promising bilingual model since it enabled kids to basically wait a day and learn an unrelated subject in their native language.

Doesn't mean I wouldn't give Yu Ying a try, especially if the issue is PreK-K and we're talking about the next two years. Just that this model isn't a selling point for Yu Ying, at least where kids who are monolingual outside of school are concerned.

I've done some Immersion Language research and concluded the opposite as a "Best Practice." The challenge in many partial immersion models when both languages are taught to young students (elementary level) during the same day is that the students are tired for the second portion of the day. This risks either A) fatigue during the target language (TL) instruction which minimizes TL acquisition or B) fatigue during the home language (HL) portion which minimizes content acquisition. The way around it is to switch TL and HL portions of the day back and forth, which is in essence the model Yu Ying is following. And because of the close co-ordination between English and Chinese classrooms, the students are actually learning entirely related content in both languages to reinforce the content and expand the language acquisition.

As for the comment above that the staff is inexperienced, that's quite simply not true. I wonder how the PP made that up. One of the school's founders is a professor at George Mason. The Board of Trustees includes the former Head of WIS. Yu Ying's Principal was recruited from the Western Academy of Beijing where her previous experience and responsibilities included administering the IB PYP program. The teaching biographies are available on the school's website as the school is justifiably proud of its faculty, their backgrounds are extensive. I'm unaware of any other DC school - public or private - that has so little to hide. The lead teachers all have Masters degrees and the Chinese teachers are all native speakers. It's quite simply incorrect to assume that because the school is new that the administration and staff are somehow novices.

[Anonymous]

To the OP and other poster that got lucky in both lotteries. They are great choices and you are lucky you have them. Others did not get so lucky with the lotteries and are on waiting lists for both schools (24 in-boundary students are on the Janney pre-K waitlist). I would ask that you make a decision sooner rather than later so that other families now on the waiting lists will have the opportunity to decide whether to attend before they have to sign a contract for a private alternative.

Just a thought. Thanks.