Unconventional comparison, but Lee vs Yuying?

[Anonymous]

We mainly speak Chinese at home. We're close to several YY families with one native-speaking parent. These kids are in the high grades at YY, or at DCI. Their spoken Chinese is minimal/weak.

If you don't do one parent/one language at home the kids don't grow up bilingual. Families may be fine with that but best not to pretend that the kids are being raised bilingual.

[Anonymous]

OP, the YY program isn't set up for families where Chinese is spoken at home (Chinese dominant or 50-50 English-Chinese).

Kids from such families are seldom enrolled. If they do come, they seldom stay long. No correspondence from the school goes home in Chinese.

If you're on board anyway, go for it in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

I know people who taught at YY and based on what they’ve told me, I’d never send my children there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Gratuitously mean comment directed at an immigrant parent trying to plan ahead on good form.

OP, if you want an Upper NW school, consider renting or buying in one of the cheaper swathes of Upper NW, e.g. Glover Park. It's unrealistic to plan to lottery into Upper NW DCPS program from K-5th. Don't worry about PreS3, PreK4 or even K. Many good public programs for Early Childhood Education in DC (ECE).

You could also rent or buy in southern Montgomery County MD, to access K-5th grade Mandarin immersion at College Gardens or Potomac school-within-a-school elementary schools. Those programs attract many Mandarin speakers and are run by competent American-Born Chinese admins who speak dialects and Mandarin.

OP doesn't mention she's an immigrant. Don't assume people who speak Chinese are not Americans, born and raised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're serious about your kid becoming bilingual, OP, why Mandarin?

Without an adult in the home who speaks Chinese, it's impossible to raise a kid bilingual in English and Chinese in this particular city. The YY families where kids are bilingual have had at least one Chinese-speaking adult in the home for years, generally Chinese au pairs (who are very difficult to host during the pandemic). We know DC families where one parent, or both, speaks Chinese to the kids most of the time time, and requires the kids to answer in Chinese. These kids have attended weekend Chinese programs for native speakers since they were tiny tots. Yet the parents complain that the kids aren't fully bilingual.

Why not go for immersion in a far more accessible language?

OP IS a Mandarin speaker.

GDAMMIT it's so annoying when someone doesn't read OP's opts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Gratuitously mean comment directed at an immigrant parent trying to plan ahead on good form.

OP, if you want an Upper NW school, consider renting or buying in one of the cheaper swathes of Upper NW, e.g. Glover Park. It's unrealistic to plan to lottery into Upper NW DCPS program from K-5th. Don't worry about PreS3, PreK4 or even K. Many good public programs for Early Childhood Education in DC (ECE).

You could also rent or buy in southern Montgomery County MD, to access K-5th grade Mandarin immersion at College Gardens or Potomac school-within-a-school elementary schools. Those programs attract many Mandarin speakers and are run by competent American-Born Chinese admins who speak dialects and Mandarin.

OP doesn't mention she's an immigrant. Don't assume people who speak Chinese are not Americans, born and raised.

Not PP but it wasn't even gratuitously mean and I find it really problematic that you'd want to treat some people with kid gloves and not as an adult like everyone else on this board. Examine why that is.

[Anonymous]

One way to tell that some of these comments are dated— all family communications DO go out in Mandarin, and English and Spanish too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know people who taught at YY and based on what they’ve told me, I’d never send my children there.

Would you mind elaborating what the problems are related to? Is it the way that teachers treat students, in that they’re unsupportive? Or is it related to the admin and how teachers are treated? Is it the teaching methodology? Is it related to the teachers who teach Chinese, English, math, etc.? This comment is just so general that it’s impossible to discern what the issues are and whether those are things we’re willing to deal with or not bother. I’m just trying to get a better sense as it was difficult to gauge the school culture and vibe through the limited virtual open house this winter.

FWIW, I’m not looking for a perfect school that’s top notch at teaching Chinese and all other subjects, as for something close to that I should go private or move to the burbs. I’m just trying to avoid sending my child to a school where he’s going to end up being really behind in English/writing and math. If having him attend Lee is going to get him on a better trajectory with his overall learning, then I’m okay with passing on YY’s seemingly low level of Chinese teaching and put more work on teaching him Chinese at home. We are a bilingual family and one parent one language.

[Anonymous]

Fwiw every single former yu ying student who graduated from dci last year earned the biliteracy seal on their diploma. Yu ying is a great school!

[Anonymous]

YY supported my twice exceptional child (gifted plus disabilities) well. Was challenged. It is a well run school. Several teachers and administrators send their kids there.

However with the lack of native speakers etc it’s true they don’t finish elementary school fluent. If you can live with that,it’s great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know people who taught at YY and based on what they’ve told me, I’d never send my children there.

Would you mind elaborating what the problems are related to? Is it the way that teachers treat students, in that they’re unsupportive? Or is it related to the admin and how teachers are treated? Is it the teaching methodology? Is it related to the teachers who teach Chinese, English, math, etc.? This comment is just so general that it’s impossible to discern what the issues are and whether those are things we’re willing to deal with or not bother. I’m just trying to get a better sense as it was difficult to gauge the school culture and vibe through the limited virtual open house this winter.

FWIW, I’m not looking for a perfect school that’s top notch at teaching Chinese and all other subjects, as for something close to that I should go private or move to the burbs. I’m just trying to avoid sending my child to a school where he’s going to end up being really behind in English/writing and math. If having him attend Lee is going to get him on a better trajectory with his overall learning, then I’m okay with passing on YY’s seemingly low level of Chinese teaching and put more work on teaching him Chinese at home. We are a bilingual family and one parent one language.

OP, there have bee several long YY threads on DCUM in just the last year, dozens in the last five years. I'd search for those threads to find answers.

The problems are fairly obvious. The same head has run the school for 13 years. She speaks Mandarin poorly, can't communicate with her Chinese teachers freely, has never worked or lived in a Chinese-speaking country, does no outreach to the DC ethnic bilingual community, and has done very little to address the problem of white kids in the school posting the lowest test scores by subgroup in the DC public school system year after year (easy to look up).

We couldn't stand the sycophant culture at YY, with parent leaders kissing up to an ineffective leader who's been in way over her head for a really long time. We also didn't like the culture of mediocrity in teaching and learning. Most of our YY pals sent their kids to BASIS virtually this year, not waiting for 6th grade at DCI. Other parents love YY, generally those in the lower grades with no real connection to China or Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know people who taught at YY and based on what they’ve told me, I’d never send my children there.

Would you mind elaborating what the problems are related to? Is it the way that teachers treat students, in that they’re unsupportive? Or is it related to the admin and how teachers are treated? Is it the teaching methodology? Is it related to the teachers who teach Chinese, English, math, etc.? This comment is just so general that it’s impossible to discern what the issues are and whether those are things we’re willing to deal with or not bother. I’m just trying to get a better sense as it was difficult to gauge the school culture and vibe through the limited virtual open house this winter.

FWIW, I’m not looking for a perfect school that’s top notch at teaching Chinese and all other subjects, as for something close to that I should go private or move to the burbs. I’m just trying to avoid sending my child to a school where he’s going to end up being really behind in English/writing and math. If having him attend Lee is going to get him on a better trajectory with his overall learning, then I’m okay with passing on YY’s seemingly low level of Chinese teaching and put more work on teaching him Chinese at home. We are a bilingual family and one parent one language.

In short - it’s the admin. They are essentially holding teachers hostage by threatening to revoke their work visas. The teachers are unhappy and that always translates to the classroom. As for the curriculum itself, many former students have told me that for math all they had the students do was Khan Academy - so essentially they weren’t taught. This method is fine for high achieving and gifted students, but not for the typical student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know people who taught at YY and based on what they’ve told me, I’d never send my children there.

Would you mind elaborating what the problems are related to? Is it the way that teachers treat students, in that they’re unsupportive? Or is it related to the admin and how teachers are treated? Is it the teaching methodology? Is it related to the teachers who teach Chinese, English, math, etc.? This comment is just so general that it’s impossible to discern what the issues are and whether those are things we’re willing to deal with or not bother. I’m just trying to get a better sense as it was difficult to gauge the school culture and vibe through the limited virtual open house this winter.

FWIW, I’m not looking for a perfect school that’s top notch at teaching Chinese and all other subjects, as for something close to that I should go private or move to the burbs. I’m just trying to avoid sending my child to a school where he’s going to end up being really behind in English/writing and math. If having him attend Lee is going to get him on a better trajectory with his overall learning, then I’m okay with passing on YY’s seemingly low level of Chinese teaching and put more work on teaching him Chinese at home. We are a bilingual family and one parent one language.

Math is terrible at almost all elementary schools. The vast majority of early educators aren't math people. They just aren't. Don't understand it at any more than a superficial level and can't teach it. If your kid ends up with two teachers during pk-5 who actually are competent math teachers, he's won the fricking lottery. Writing instruction at the elementary level is predictably better. And bilingual schooling isn't a negative there--the important stuff "translates." Even the scope of his English vocabulary will be driven much more by his interactions with his parents than with his peers or teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know people who taught at YY and based on what they’ve told me, I’d never send my children there.

Would you mind elaborating what the problems are related to? Is it the way that teachers treat students, in that they’re unsupportive? Or is it related to the admin and how teachers are treated? Is it the teaching methodology? Is it related to the teachers who teach Chinese, English, math, etc.? This comment is just so general that it’s impossible to discern what the issues are and whether those are things we’re willing to deal with or not bother. I’m just trying to get a better sense as it was difficult to gauge the school culture and vibe through the limited virtual open house this winter.

FWIW, I’m not looking for a perfect school that’s top notch at teaching Chinese and all other subjects, as for something close to that I should go private or move to the burbs. I’m just trying to avoid sending my child to a school where he’s going to end up being really behind in English/writing and math. If having him attend Lee is going to get him on a better trajectory with his overall learning, then I’m okay with passing on YY’s seemingly low level of Chinese teaching and put more work on teaching him Chinese at home. We are a bilingual family and one parent one language.

Math is terrible at almost all elementary schools. The vast majority of early educators aren't math people. They just aren't. Don't understand it at any more than a superficial level and can't teach it. If your kid ends up with two teachers during pk-5 who actually are competent math teachers, he's won the fricking lottery. Writing instruction at the elementary level is predictably better. And bilingual schooling isn't a negative there--the important stuff "translates." Even the scope of his English vocabulary will be driven much more by his interactions with his parents than with his peers or teachers.

I am a veteran teacher and I completely disagree. Seems like you are a "math person" and expect algebra in 3rd grade. Math programs in elementary in DC and surrounding areas are competitive. You definitely do not need to be a "math" person to teach K-5 math. Writing is a complete disaster. I have seen very few programs that explicitly teach writing mechanics in elementary.

[Anonymous]

I don’t really see how Lee would be better for you. You don’t seem interested in or committed to Montessori, you are more worried about test scores and are probably going to move anyway. So, why Lee? Is it just close to your house?

I’d definitely try YY if I were you. Then, be unsatisfied by first grade and move to the suburbs or NW. Don’t really think Lee will suit you.