Immersion programs in MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am publicly totally pissed!!!!! I live in a shitty elementary school district, but all these rich white kids from Bethesda, where the schools are awesome, are filling up the language immersion in my district. It sucks!!!! I pay the same rate into MCPS from taxes as they do, but now I am faced with finding private school for my kids. This is BULLSH*T.

waitlist #198, by the way.

How do you know "rich white kids from Bethesda" got all the spots? It's a LOTTERY!
Your district? Bethesda is also in Montgomery County so it's their district too - they are just as entitled to attend the immersion programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:French told us they haven't accepted any first graders in more than 5 years.

Funny, because we know several kids who got into french for first grade within the past five years. Sligo Creek ES -- maybe you're doing Maryvale?

[Anonymous]

Although we entered the lottery knowing the chances were slim, the whole process still pisses me off. MCPS loves to tout its choice programs-problem is they are open to so few kids. Making it available through lottery also does not make it more fair. It's offering unique opportunity to a few kids that all of us have to pay for. They should make the program more widely available. They've had huge demand for years but aren't interested in expanding to accommodate the demand. It's bullsh*t. Every kid deserves the same opportunity, this is unequal education. Signed, #88 on the waitlist

[Anonymous]

OK so here's a question then: if you had to decide between your child going to the Takoma Park ES Magnet vs. the full Spanish or French Immersion programs, which would you choose and why?

[Anonymous]

Could someone please explain how the lottery system works?

We've been thinking about putting our child in Potomac Elementary for kindergarten. He already has some French, and we wonder if their FLES program will be enough. If we put him in a lottery program, does that mean that he'd commute to another school and attend there fulltime to get French immersion?

Obviously, I'm just starting to look into this so forgive my complete ignorance. I'll obviously check out the MCPS websites, but wow, are they hard to understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK so here's a question then: if you had to decide between your child going to the Takoma Park ES Magnet vs. the full Spanish or French Immersion programs, which would you choose and why?

I don't know anything about TPES magnet-who is eligible? What grades? How to apply? I would mostly likely choose full immersion because I want my kid to have strong language exposure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am publicly totally pissed!!!!! I live in a shitty elementary school district, but all these rich white kids from Bethesda, where the schools are awesome, are filling up the language immersion in my district. It sucks!!!! I pay the same rate into MCPS from taxes as they do, but now I am faced with finding private school for my kids. This is BULLSH*T.

waitlist #198, by the way.

How do you know "rich white kids from Bethesda" got all the spots? It's a LOTTERY!
Your district? Bethesda is also in Montgomery County so it's their district too - they are just as entitled to attend the immersion programs.

I'm not the PP. But to me what is not fair is that the schools in some parts of the county are so much better/more desirable than the schools in other parts of the county. If the schools were more equal, then I don't think any one would think that kids from Bethesda getting into immersion would be unfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although we entered the lottery knowing the chances were slim, the whole process still pisses me off. MCPS loves to tout its choice programs-problem is they are open to so few kids. Making it available through lottery also does not make it more fair. It's offering unique opportunity to a few kids that all of us have to pay for. They should make the program more widely available. They've had huge demand for years but aren't interested in expanding to accommodate the demand. It's bullsh*t. Every kid deserves the same opportunity, this is unequal education. Signed, #88 on the waitlist

ITA! Now Weast is making noises about closing down some of the boutique programs at the middle and high school levels. The arts MS program at Loiederman, the aerospace MS at Parkland, and who knows maybe the high school boutiques like the theater program at Northwood are threatened. Which means that all kids would need to take the high-stakes tests for the few remaining magnets, which only accept a few hundred a year. And if it's the magnets or the local schools, which vary in quality, the county will lose a lot to privates. We all know there are tons more bright, hard-working kids in MoCo who deserve a school that's good quality and tailored to their interests, whether art of science. We've had relative good success with lotteries and magnets, but I'm pissed too! Are you listening, Jerry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK so here's a question then: if you had to decide between your child going to the Takoma Park ES Magnet vs. the full Spanish or French Immersion programs, which would you choose and why?

We've done both, and we choose immersion for the second kid. Our experience is now a few years old, but we found the GTA program was great while it's at Takoma Park ES, but when it moves to Sligo Creek ES the school just sort of gave up. That was because a few years ago SCES was having trouble passing the NCLB test and moved a lot of resources to the kids who were on the cusp. My caveat is that maybe it's all different now. There's a separate thread on this if you google.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK so here's a question then: if you had to decide between your child going to the Takoma Park ES Magnet vs. the full Spanish or French Immersion programs, which would you choose and why?

We've done both, and we choose immersion for the second kid. Our experience is now a few years old, but we found the GTA program was great while it's at Takoma Park ES, but when it moves to Sligo Creek ES the school just sort of gave up. That was because a few years ago SCES was having trouble passing the NCLB test and moved a lot of resources to the kids who were on the cusp. My caveat is that maybe it's all different now. There's a separate thread on this if you google.

Do you really mean Sligo Creek ES? There's no GTA program there. Takoma Park flows into Piney Branch ES.

For OP who asked about TPES vs Immersions ... I'd think it depends on your child and what you want for them. If language is important to you and you think your child will do well with that kind of learning, then try for language. If you think your child is a fast learner and is more science/math oriented, TPES may be a better fit. I know people in both programs and all are very happy with their choices. Just remember both are lotteries. There's no guarantee of getting into either one unless TPES is already your home school.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP complaining about rich kids from Bethesda. Here's how we know they're not from these parts--- when you walk into the non immersion part of the school, it is all 70% black and latino. When you walk into immersion, it is all white. These are clearly not the demographics of the neighborhood, or MoCo as a whole.

This problem persists because MCPS does not publicize the immersion in a way other than (excuse me for being imprecise) Yuppie parents are the only ones who know to apply.

At the open house 2 years in a row I have seen french African immigrants trying to get their kids into immersion in first grade, because they didn't know about it in K. Ironic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK so here's a question then: if you had to decide between your child going to the Takoma Park ES Magnet vs. the full Spanish or French Immersion programs, which would you choose and why?

We've done both, and we choose immersion for the second kid. Our experience is now a few years old, but we found the GTA program was great while it's at Takoma Park ES, but when it moves to Sligo Creek ES the school just sort of gave up. That was because a few years ago SCES was having trouble passing the NCLB test and moved a lot of resources to the kids who were on the cusp. My caveat is that maybe it's all different now. There's a separate thread on this if you google.

Do you really mean Sligo Creek ES? There's no GTA program there. Takoma Park flows into Piney Branch ES.

For OP who asked about TPES vs Immersions ... I'd think it depends on your child and what you want for them. If language is important to you and you think your child will do well with that kind of learning, then try for language. If you think your child is a fast learner and is more science/math oriented, TPES may be a better fit. I know people in both programs and all are very happy with their choices. Just remember both are lotteries. There's no guarantee of getting into either one unless TPES is already your home school.

The TPES magnet is a lottery and test-in magnet for students whose neighborhood school is not TPES, correct? And admission to the TPES magnet is still test-in for TPES kids, right? I've heard, living in Takoma Park, that the magnet is really rather watered down these days -- like an hour a week or something -- and that it's worse at Piney Branch. Can you comment on that, based on your experience? Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm wondering if the magnets really mean anything at TPES and PBES now. I can't get much of an answer from Takoma Park parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please explain how the lottery system works?

We've been thinking about putting our child in Potomac Elementary for kindergarten. He already has some French, and we wonder if their FLES program will be enough. If we put him in a lottery program, does that mean that he'd commute to another school and attend there fulltime to get French immersion?

Obviously, I'm just starting to look into this so forgive my complete ignorance. I'll obviously check out the MCPS websites, but wow, are they hard to understand.

Is Potomac your home school? Doesn't that get you priority in the Mandarin immersion program? I thought Potomac doesn't have to share it's immersion program with other schools. Otherwise you can do French FLES or try for a french immersion lottery, but good luck. In any case, if your child can learn Mandarin via immersion it ought to make learning french later in school an absolute breeze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK so here's a question then: if you had to decide between your child going to the Takoma Park ES Magnet vs. the full Spanish or French Immersion programs, which would you choose and why?

We've done both, and we choose immersion for the second kid. Our experience is now a few years old, but we found the GTA program was great while it's at Takoma Park ES, but when it moves to Sligo Creek ES the school just sort of gave up. That was because a few years ago SCES was having trouble passing the NCLB test and moved a lot of resources to the kids who were on the cusp. My caveat is that maybe it's all different now. There's a separate thread on this if you google.

Do you really mean Sligo Creek ES? There's no GTA program there. Takoma Park flows into Piney Branch ES.

For OP who asked about TPES vs Immersions ... I'd think it depends on your child and what you want for them. If language is important to you and you think your child will do well with that kind of learning, then try for language. If you think your child is a fast learner and is more science/math oriented, TPES may be a better fit. I know people in both programs and all are very happy with their choices. Just remember both are lotteries. There's no guarantee of getting into either one unless TPES is already your home school.

The TPES magnet is a lottery and test-in magnet for students whose neighborhood school is not TPES, correct? And admission to the TPES magnet is still test-in for TPES kids, right? I've heard, living in Takoma Park, that the magnet is really rather watered down these days -- like an hour a week or something -- and that it's worse at Piney Branch. Can you comment on that, based on your experience? Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm wondering if the magnets really mean anything at TPES and PBES now. I can't get much of an answer from Takoma Park parents.

Yes, TPES is lottery and test-in magnet for students whose neighborhood school is TPES. From what I hear from parents, a rather high percentage of neighborhood kids do test into the magnet. The school has the same curriculum as other MoCo schools. And the magnet has been watered down to be an hour per week rather than much more focus that had been there before. But kids also have the opportunity to be in math classes at more levels than at some other elementary schools. They've got 1st graders doing 2nd grade math (which we have at my elementary school as well), but they also have 1st graders doing 2nd and some 3rd grade math -- something that's not available at my neighborhood elementary school. Since I'm not in the school, I don't know the details of whether it really means much to be in the same school as a regular neighborhood kid vs. being in the magnet. The magnet "extra" projects are really pretty cool, from what I've seen and heard.

One mom who is there now (I know 2) said that it was the right choice for her child b/c the child's neighborhood school was so focused on worksheets and bringing other kids up to county standards, that the school had told her they couldn't offer this woman's child the acceleration the child needed. The child is getting that at TPES. Folks who've been there in the past told me that if my elementary school was supplying enough acceleration to meet my child's needs, then it isn't worth moving to the magnet.

As for PBES, I've heard from multiple parents that the advanced work hasn't always been available there, though I've also heard that PBES has added higher level math classes for the TPES magnet students. I believe many parents try to lottery their children into the gifted centers for 4th grade, so some of the magnet students go from TPES to PBES for 1 year to center for the highly gifted.

Hope all that helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although we entered the lottery knowing the chances were slim, the whole process still pisses me off. MCPS loves to tout its choice programs-problem is they are open to so few kids. Making it available through lottery also does not make it more fair. It's offering unique opportunity to a few kids that all of us have to pay for. They should make the program more widely available. They've had huge demand for years but aren't interested in expanding to accommodate the demand. It's bullsh*t. Every kid deserves the same opportunity, this is unequal education. Signed, #88 on the waitlist

I think this is a totally valid complaint. Montgomery County LOVES to tout the quality of its schools but the reality is that there are way too many sub-par situations and you wouldn't know it from all the hype. It's really two completely different school systems that have only the name and the administration in common. The quality and the selection of options? Might as well be anywhere else in MD and parts of DC. Why pay extra for something that doesn't (for all practical intents and purposes) exist?!