Immersion upheaval: immersion schools are changing throughout the county

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t rolling Terrace basiclly an immersion by default due to location? Not sure they have the option to not have everything in Spanish

No. The tragedy of RT has always been that the county is using a finite resource (bilingual accredited teachers) to benefit mostly native English speaking middle class kids. I'm sorry for the families currently in the program because it is a big change in a short amount of time, but this is almost certainly the right choice given the need to use resources wisely.

You are arguing a completely separate issue. There are dozens of schools with the demographics of RT and they are not being turned into dual immersion. Why screw over parents who signed up for the program in good faith?

Well....are there dozens of other schools that are:

1) Shockingly overcrowded;
2) Majority Hispanic;
3) Using bilingual teachers on native English speaking kids; and
4) Within 3 miles or so of yet another one-way immersion program?

I mean, I get it. This is a lot of change and it is unusual for MCPS to make a change this quickly. But I assume there will still be busing? So it is an inconvenience for sure, but it is also probably best for the majority of kids at RT.

The problem is not that they are converting to dual immersion. We all expected and even requested this. The problem is suddenly rlocating kids to NEC or burnt mills with no transportation. There already is no transportation to burnt mills so they knew ahead of time. The RT immersion families did not know. What’s unclear is why they are performing the temporary relocation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t rolling Terrace basiclly an immersion by default due to location? Not sure they have the option to not have everything in Spanish

No. The tragedy of RT has always been that the county is using a finite resource (bilingual accredited teachers) to benefit mostly native English speaking middle class kids. I'm sorry for the families currently in the program because it is a big change in a short amount of time, but this is almost certainly the right choice given the need to use resources wisely.

You are arguing a completely separate issue. There are dozens of schools with the demographics of RT and they are not being turned into dual immersion. Why screw over parents who signed up for the program in good faith?

Well....are there dozens of other schools that are:

1) Shockingly overcrowded;
2) Majority Hispanic;
3) Using bilingual teachers on native English speaking kids; and
4) Within 3 miles or so of yet another one-way immersion program?

I mean, I get it. This is a lot of change and it is unusual for MCPS to make a change this quickly. But I assume there will still be busing? So it is an inconvenience for sure, but it is also probably best for the majority of kids at RT.

The problem is not that they are converting to dual immersion. We all expected and even requested this. The problem is suddenly rlocating kids to NEC or burnt mills with no transportation. There already is no transportation to burnt mills so they knew ahead of time. The RT immersion families did not know. What’s unclear is why they are performing the temporary relocation.

Pp here, just got notice that there will be transportation and the new sites will be there own separate immersion programs. So I’m good with it. Nice to see they are bringing immersion to a new area (NEC)

[Anonymous]

The problem is not that they are converting to dual immersion. We all expected and even requested this. The problem is suddenly rlocating kids to NEC or burnt mills with no transportation. There already is no transportation to burnt mills so they knew ahead of time. The RT immersion families did not know. What’s unclear is why they are performing the temporary relocation.

They say they are looking at transportation for Burnt Mills and Page, and will let people know where bus stops will be before the decision needs to be made about intent to attend the program at these schools. And it's not a temporary relocation.

[Anonymous]

The two-way immersion is a positive for Rolling Terrace overall, and it appears this could ease the overcrowding at the school. However, giving current immersion parents so little say and extremely little advance notice is unfair. Even if there is bussing to the new schools, that would be a very long bus ride for elementary students to make twice a day. And I'm perplexed at how Page and Burnt Mills are going to be able to accommodate so many additional students. They're both already overcapacity according to MCPS info.

[Anonymous]

It's especially unfair to the students in fourth grade right now. Regardless of whether they stay at RT, return to their home school or go to Burnt Mills, this is a huge upheaval to make just one year before the major changes that come for middle school. It is not at all clear why they have to make this change so suddenly and give so little notice. It's also not clear why they couldn't institute the two-way immersion program in the grades above kindergarten next year. That seems like a win-win-win - new instructional model will get implemented, which benefits the whole school; current immersion students get to stay in the school and continue receiving Spanish instruction; no logistical accommodations necessary at any of the three schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy, unless they are building a larger, newer Burnt Mills I can't see how they can possibly increase their enrollment. They've got portables now and are busting at the seams in a very old building that looks like it was built in the 60s. This is not good news. Why can't they just build something new instead of uprooting people and communities and disrupting routines. Oh, and Burnt Mills does not have bus service for its immersion program, so I can see some of kids not being able to continue with immersion because there's no transportation to this school.

BMES has their Immersion parent meeting tonight. I’m not missing it. And yes, it’s totally overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's especially unfair to the students in fourth grade right now. Regardless of whether they stay at RT, return to their home school or go to Burnt Mills, this is a huge upheaval to make just one year before the major changes that come for middle school. It is not at all clear why they have to make this change so suddenly and give so little notice. It's also not clear why they couldn't institute the two-way immersion program in the grades above kindergarten next year. That seems like a win-win-win - new instructional model will get implemented, which benefits the whole school; current immersion students get to stay in the school and continue receiving Spanish instruction; no logistical accommodations necessary at any of the three schools.

Not a parent at the school but I agree that it sounds like an awful situation. So sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's especially unfair to the students in fourth grade right now. Regardless of whether they stay at RT, return to their home school or go to Burnt Mills, this is a huge upheaval to make just one year before the major changes that come for middle school. It is not at all clear why they have to make this change so suddenly and give so little notice. It's also not clear why they couldn't institute the two-way immersion program in the grades above kindergarten next year. That seems like a win-win-win - new instructional model will get implemented, which benefits the whole school; current immersion students get to stay in the school and continue receiving Spanish instruction; no logistical accommodations necessary at any of the three schools.

Not a parent at the school but I agree that it sounds like an awful situation. So sorry.

+ 1. Very poorly done MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's especially unfair to the students in fourth grade right now. Regardless of whether they stay at RT, return to their home school or go to Burnt Mills, this is a huge upheaval to make just one year before the major changes that come for middle school. It is not at all clear why they have to make this change so suddenly and give so little notice. It's also not clear why they couldn't institute the two-way immersion program in the grades above kindergarten next year. That seems like a win-win-win - new instructional model will get implemented, which benefits the whole school; current immersion students get to stay in the school and continue receiving Spanish instruction; no logistical accommodations necessary at any of the three schools.

RT parent here: I believe the reason why they are not instituting two-way immersion above the K is resources--MCPS does not have enough bilingual teachers. Because they want to expand the program at Burnt Mills and create a new program at Tyler Page, they need some or all of the RT immersion teachers to transfer to those schools. That would limit hiring for the K grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does dual immersion mean that the kids white Silver Spring/Takoma Park residents have to actually be in classes with Hispanic students? They applied to immersion programs to avoid that. the horror!

Why are so many people posting ignorant, hateful comments? I hope this isn't representative of the community at large. Also, there are many hispanic children in Spanish immersion programs.

People are terrible, but it is also true that the immersion program was much whiter and more Anglophone than the general student population at Rolling Terrace. It is also true that there was tension between the immersion families and the academy families, much of which played out at the level of the PTA. All of this, of course, culminated in the Atlantic article a few years ago in which RT was held up as the poster child for white families taking over PTAs at majority minority schools in ways that worked to the detriment of the minority kids. I'm not sure how MCPS could have avoided making changes at Rolling Terrace after that article came out, honestly.

[Anonymous]

Minimizing immersion programs, running sub scale gifted and magnet programs, elminating tracking by ability all whilst maximizing esol and title 1 programs is what MCPS is all about. At least be honest about it. And don’t pretend to know who I voted voted for. I actually have worked for Hillary Clinton.

Don't you mean maximizing immersion? They are adding full Spanish immersion at Page, changing Burnt Mills to full immersion, and will have dual language for the entire Rolling Terrace student body. This is better overall for the district (especially considering that we have people here who would refer to a child as "illegal"), but it is unnecessarily disruptive for families going through the change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other schools are also being made two-way immersion for K in 2018. So there are many families who don't particularly want an immersion school who will be getting one without being asked, and now looks like there are families who did want an immersion school who will be kicked out. I'm not asking for total school choice but parents have had zero input on this. It looks like they could change my local school to a STEM focus or arts focus or Russian immersion or anything and we would have no choice but to send our kid there or move.

Which other schools are changing?

In believe they are announcing it at PTA meetings tonight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t rolling Terrace basiclly an immersion by default due to location? Not sure they have the option to not have everything in Spanish

At what point does a school that changes to Spanish become a problem. 50%,60%,70%,80%??? And then how much right do they have to complain about being in a poor and all Spanish school when they made it that way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Minimizing immersion programs, running sub scale gifted and magnet programs, elminating tracking by ability all whilst maximizing esol and title 1 programs is what MCPS is all about. At least be honest about it. And don’t pretend to know who I voted voted for. I actually have worked for Hillary Clinton.

Don't you mean maximizing immersion? They are adding full Spanish immersion at Page, changing Burnt Mills to full immersion, and will have dual language for the entire Rolling Terrace student body. This is better overall for the district (especially considering that we have people here who would refer to a child as "illegal"), but it is unnecessarily disruptive for families going through the change.

yes, I’m all for Immersion and have a child in the program. I also think dual-Immersion is brilliant and should be in most mcps schools especially since Hispanics make up the largest demographic, my concern is with the resources and infra-structure. What are the doing to address this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t rolling Terrace basiclly an immersion by default due to location? Not sure they have the option to not have everything in Spanish

At what point does a school that changes to Spanish become a problem. 50%,60%,70%,80%??? And then how much right do they have to complain about being in a poor and all Spanish school when they made it that way?

I can't think of when it might become a problem unless you are referring to teaching children who speak only Spanish at home only in Spanish. But that is not happening and there are no plans for that. And I'm not aware of anybody making anything poor. Is somebody making something poor that I am not aware of?

Most people think it is good to be bilingual. Take Rolling Terrace for example. There are a lot of kids there who speak Spanish at home. Making the school dual language will allow for the children to work together on language with Spanish speakers helping English speakers and English speakers helping Spanish speakers. The result is that the entire student body will become fluent in both English and Spanish. What a wonderful thing. If only more schools were like that.