Yu Ying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a newly matched YY family and completely overwhelmed by these threads :/

I am too... but we are still going to send our kid to YY in the fall.

More than anything, these threads have been a good intro to the unique & absurd politics surrounding the school. Better to find out early and online than late and in person, I guess.

But compared to the problems we've witnessed in other area schools, none of these complaints comes even close to being serious enough to deter us. Clearly some people feel super passionately about these issues, but to us they are small potatoes. Sorry.

I'm newly matched also for prek4. But I'm not listening to any of these YY haters who just wish their kids got in. Take their advice with a grain of salt...or less.

That's because you don't speak Chinese, hon, probably don't know anybody who does, and your kid is still a toddler.

Let me guess, you don't know where Chinese is widely spoken in the world (other than in Mainland China), or the major Chinese dialects and where they're spoken. Quick, rush to Wikipedia before you respond.

It concerns some of the upper grades parents that this town's native speakers have pretty much ignored our program all along. Somebody in charge ought to be paying attention and asking why.

All small potatoes when MOST UPPER GRADES KIDS CAN PASS THE PARCC (UNLIKE IN YOUR RUN OF THE MILL DC PUBLIC SCHOOL).

Unless you actually have a kid or kids who have made it through and are still doing well in high school. Or you could just insult strangers on the internet for absolutely no reason, "hon".

The assertion that the only reason any PP ever takes issue with the way YY operates (with public resources) is because their child didn't get a spot sparks pointless catfights on DCUM. Let's see what DCI's college admissions look like eventually before deciding if most of the kids are actually doing well in HS.

Judging YY by DCI college admissions is ridiculous

Right, ridiculous, seeing how the DCI Chinese track students do on the Intl Baccalaureate Diploma Chinese exams. Their scores should be through the roof after 12-15 years of meticulously building a foundation for speaking, listening, reading and writing. Most of the kids will have done this from full immersion in PreS3 and PreK. High scores will bode well in college admissions, particularly on Higher Level IBD Chinese (if DCI offers it), low scores, not so much, particularly on Standard Level (comparable level to AP).



If many DCI Chinese seniors score low, or simply average, on IBD Chinese exams, and AP Chinese if they take it, YY will probably come under pressure to make changes.

I’m a big fan of YY but the Chinese at DCI is nowhere near adequate. When (not if) the kids score low it will be DCI that needs to make changes.

Both programs will need to make changes (perhaps native speakers hired at both schools as senior admins). IBD exam scores can be a shocker for American PS admins and parents. They emphasize communication skills. There's no scoring high (6-7 out of 7) on IBD exams without being able to converse freely - interviews with test takers are recorded and sent to Geneva for review. My nephew scored a 5 on AP Chinese and a 3 on IBD HL after having studied Chinese since PreK. He took the tests last spring and thought he'd aced both.

[Anonymous]

DC Charter isn't used to planning ahead like that. Suburban.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just received an email from Yu Ying advising

"We do not provide private tours to matched students prior to enrollment. However, you do have to come to Yu Ying to complete your DC Residency Verification and can see a bit of the campus then."

You are making that up. Annie’s email DID NOT say they are refusing to give private tours. It did say those dates but never said you couldn’t schedule a private tour at another time. Some of you on here are flat out lying.

Wow, what a weird thing to say. Yes, this is what Annie's follow up email said when we asked whether we could come in for a tour. Why would we lie about that? Anyway, no big deal, we'll go in when we can.

To the second PP: As a fellow YY parent, please stop attacking a prospective parent who has some criticism for the school. This kind of hostility is making us all look bad. It's also inappropriate to call out the staff member's name. I believe the first PP because YY's policy is to not disrupt the classrooms with private tours prior to enrollment.

To the first PP who just got in: Unfortunately there are YY parents and admin who harass people who criticize the school, but there are also some great people there. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just received an email from Yu Ying advising

"We do not provide private tours to matched students prior to enrollment. However, you do have to come to Yu Ying to complete your DC Residency Verification and can see a bit of the campus then."

You are making that up. Annie’s email DID NOT say they are refusing to give private tours. It did say those dates but never said you couldn’t schedule a private tour at another time. Some of you on here are flat out lying.

Wow, what a weird thing to say. Yes, this is what Annie's follow up email said when we asked whether we could come in for a tour. Why would we lie about that? Anyway, no big deal, we'll go in when we can.

To the second PP: As a fellow YY parent, please stop attacking a prospective parent who has some criticism for the school. This kind of hostility is making us all look bad. It's also inappropriate to call out the staff member's name. I believe the first PP because YY's policy is to not disrupt the classrooms with private tours prior to enrollment.

To the first PP who just got in: Unfortunately there are YY parents and admin who harass people who criticize the school, but there are also some great people there. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Oh hush

[Anonymous]

I am always shocked, on the rare occasion I dive into the DCUM universe, by the amazing level of just basic rudeness on display in so many of the threads here. And for some reason YY is often a prime target.

With fear that I'll draw the ire of a whole host of people on here, I'll trepidatiously add a few things to the discussion:

1) For me, and a decent percentage of other YY families, the IB PYP program was as desirable a draw as the Chinese. This seems to be largely missing from this discussion.

2) Sure, some folks use tutors. And sure, it certainly helps - any individualized instruction improves any endeavor - sports, math, reading, art, music. But there are plenty of folks who don't and get by. Are my children fluent? Nope. Are they conversant? Yep! Have they been gaining a basis in the language that they can build upon if they want? Absolutely! Are the consistently learning? For sure!

3) Beyond the codified academics, YY is warm and welcoming for students, has fairly small class sizes, a lovely campus, a committed faculty, an involved parent community. Sure, it isn't perfect. (School drop off, gah!) There is no such thing as a perfect school; and there is no such thing as the right school for everybody. (For instance: I would consider neither BASIS nor KIPP to be a good school for any of my children. But they are the exact right school for some children.) If the model for the 'perfect school' existed...me oh my what would folks on DCUM argue about then??

4) YY threads appear to be consistently hijacked by someone/some people who have issues with the lack of two-way immersion - a critique framed as 'YY engages in insufficient outreach to the ABC community'. This line of argument is...disingenuous. Yes, two-way immersion is considered the gold standard for immersion schools - but a two-way immersion school can only exist within very specific parameters.
A) You must be able to control your enrollment to allow for near equal enrollment of native speakers of the two target languages. Charter schools in DC are not allowed to have an entrance test. Period. They are only allowed to restrict enrollment by grade level (no entry after 1st grade, for instance). While getting established, YY engaged with the powers that be (DCPCSB, local lawmakers, etc) about this issue, and was solidly rebuffed. YY is prevented, by law, from trying to create a two-way immersion program. So the vast majority of the students come to YY with little to no background in Chinese. YY therefore, correctly and rightly so, built its educational system to cater to these students.
B) Beyond the legal framework, to be successful a two-way immersion school has to have a sufficient community of speakers in the target languages to draw from. So...DC clearly has a sufficient base of English speakers to draw from. But what about Chinese? Well, according to the US Census Bureau, approximately 3% of the population of DC is Asian. That sounds pretty low! But, in hard numbers, that's around 20,000-25,000 people. Oh, hey, that number sounds good, right? But 'Asian' doesn't mean Chinese speaking. It could mean Mandarin Chinese...or Cantonese (not taught at YY), some other dialect, or Japanese, or Korean, or Indonesian or Thai or Hindi or Nepalese or Malay or....well, I think you get the point. Want to dig even deeper? According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, just over 12,200 residents of DC speak an 'Asian or Pacific Islander Language' at home. And broken down even more...LESS THAN ONE THOUSAND residents of DC between the ages of 5 and 17 speak an 'Asian or Pacific Islander Language' at home. [Data: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF] So...how many DC residents are Mandarin Chinese speaking children of elementary school age? Maybe...150? 300? (out of around 75,000 children age 5-17 in DC) Think about those numbers every time you see the complaints about YY not doing enough outreach to the Chinese-speaking community.

Finally, folks seem to do a lot of hand wringing about schools. Again, there is no perfect school. Yes, it is all somewhat stressful. But...think of the amazing amount of choice we do have. Where I grew up small town/rural south) you enrolled in school. The school. The only option. We are so lucky to have the options we have.

[Anonymous]

Not a deranged native Chinese speaker, white guy in fact. But a skeptic nonetheless. Flame away.

Oh expert, do you speak Chinese? Let us guess, you don't. Do you have ethnic Chinese friends or relatives? Let us guess, none of those. Have you lived, worked or traveled extensively in any Chinese-speaking country? Let us guess, you haven't. What do you know about Chinese language and culture? Let us, guess, very little.

Not convinced that Chinese immersion is going anywhere for your family. If the school were half as wonderful as you describe, the local ethnic bilingual Chinese community would be trying as hard to get their litle ones in as Latinos try for Oyster. Seems that DC Chinese don't bother with YY.

The fact that the speakers of this language all but ignore this fabulous school says that something's rotten in this rosy picture. In Lower Manhattan,where I lived before DC, the ethnic Chinese families I rubbed shoulders with reported that they were eager to get their kids into PS Mandarin immersion programs. They often failed, but boy did they try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am always shocked, on the rare occasion I dive into the DCUM universe, by the amazing level of just basic rudeness on display in so many of the threads here. And for some reason YY is often a prime target.

With fear that I'll draw the ire of a whole host of people on here, I'll trepidatiously add a few things to the discussion:

1) For me, and a decent percentage of other YY families, the IB PYP program was as desirable a draw as the Chinese. This seems to be largely missing from this discussion.

2) Sure, some folks use tutors. And sure, it certainly helps - any individualized instruction improves any endeavor - sports, math, reading, art, music. But there are plenty of folks who don't and get by. Are my children fluent? Nope. Are they conversant? Yep! Have they been gaining a basis in the language that they can build upon if they want? Absolutely! Are the consistently learning? For sure!

3) Beyond the codified academics, YY is warm and welcoming for students, has fairly small class sizes, a lovely campus, a committed faculty, an involved parent community. Sure, it isn't perfect. (School drop off, gah!) There is no such thing as a perfect school; and there is no such thing as the right school for everybody. (For instance: I would consider neither BASIS nor KIPP to be a good school for any of my children. But they are the exact right school for some children.) If the model for the 'perfect school' existed...me oh my what would folks on DCUM argue about then??

4) YY threads appear to be consistently hijacked by someone/some people who have issues with the lack of two-way immersion - a critique framed as 'YY engages in insufficient outreach to the ABC community'. This line of argument is...disingenuous. Yes, two-way immersion is considered the gold standard for immersion schools - but a two-way immersion school can only exist within very specific parameters.
A) You must be able to control your enrollment to allow for near equal enrollment of native speakers of the two target languages. Charter schools in DC are not allowed to have an entrance test. Period. They are only allowed to restrict enrollment by grade level (no entry after 1st grade, for instance). While getting established, YY engaged with the powers that be (DCPCSB, local lawmakers, etc) about this issue, and was solidly rebuffed. YY is prevented, by law, from trying to create a two-way immersion program. So the vast majority of the students come to YY with little to no background in Chinese. YY therefore, correctly and rightly so, built its educational system to cater to these students.
B) Beyond the legal framework, to be successful a two-way immersion school has to have a sufficient community of speakers in the target languages to draw from. So...DC clearly has a sufficient base of English speakers to draw from. But what about Chinese? Well, according to the US Census Bureau, approximately 3% of the population of DC is Asian. That sounds pretty low! But, in hard numbers, that's around 20,000-25,000 people. Oh, hey, that number sounds good, right? But 'Asian' doesn't mean Chinese speaking. It could mean Mandarin Chinese...or Cantonese (not taught at YY), some other dialect, or Japanese, or Korean, or Indonesian or Thai or Hindi or Nepalese or Malay or....well, I think you get the point. Want to dig even deeper? According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, just over 12,200 residents of DC speak an 'Asian or Pacific Islander Language' at home. And broken down even more...LESS THAN ONE THOUSAND residents of DC between the ages of 5 and 17 speak an 'Asian or Pacific Islander Language' at home. [Data: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF] So...how many DC residents are Mandarin Chinese speaking children of elementary school age? Maybe...150? 300? (out of around 75,000 children age 5-17 in DC) Think about those numbers every time you see the complaints about YY not doing enough outreach to the Chinese-speaking community.

Finally, folks seem to do a lot of hand wringing about schools. Again, there is no perfect school. Yes, it is all somewhat stressful. But...think of the amazing amount of choice we do have. Where I grew up small town/rural south) you enrolled in school. The school. The only option. We are so lucky to have the options we have.

Sure, they CATER to these students. But immersion isn't what they're offering at YY. It's a misnomer that should be calledout.Have you checked out the Chinese at DCI? Not impressive. Why not? Because immersion programs need a bunch of families who know the language + culture to work out in the medium and long-term. If you can't get these families, don't bother. Make a new plan.

Signed,
Immigrant Asian parent with 2 kids in Spanish immersion who rejected a spot at YY last year, moved IB for Oyster

[Anonymous]

We get it. You hate the charter law and think schools should break it to further privilege families like yours.

[Anonymous]

Shut up. That's not what the guy said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a deranged native Chinese speaker, white guy in fact. But a skeptic nonetheless. Flame away.

Oh expert, do you speak Chinese? Let us guess, you don't. Do you have ethnic Chinese friends or relatives? Let us guess, none of those. Have you lived, worked or traveled extensively in any Chinese-speaking country? Let us guess, you haven't. What do you know about Chinese language and culture? Let us, guess, very little.

Not convinced that Chinese immersion is going anywhere for your family. If the school were half as wonderful as you describe, the local ethnic bilingual Chinese community would be trying as hard to get their litle ones in as Latinos try for Oyster. Seems that DC Chinese don't bother with YY.

The fact that the speakers of this language all but ignore this fabulous school says that something's rotten in this rosy picture. In Lower Manhattan,where I lived before DC, the ethnic Chinese families I rubbed shoulders with reported that they were eager to get their kids into PS Mandarin immersion programs. They often failed, but boy did they try.

At no point did I refer to any person as deranged, nor did I flame. I simply shared my experiences, as well as some real facts, about YY and why it operates the way it does.

I can completely understand why families of Chinese descent in NYC are keen to get in to Mandarin immersion public schools. There is a large enough Chinese speaking community in NYC to support two-way immersion. As I explained, pretty clearly I think, there just isn't a large enough Chinese speaking community in the District to maintain that kind of program, and charter law doesn't allow for funneling the few Chinese speaking families who live here into YY to create that balance.

Also, as I indicated above, I'm continually shocked at the level of gross vitriol and personal attacks that DCUM seems to thrive on. In fact I do speak Mandarin (I read and write too, but I'm a bit rusty these days from lack of practice). In fact I have lived in China - way back before it was cool. All of which is how I know that my kids' Chinese is conversant, not fluent. And I'm perfectly ok with that.

I think the problem is perhaps peoples' expectations. YY is a very good school that does a fantastic job with the resources available, and teaches all of the kids that walk in the doors. YY is not a private school that can choose who to teach, and charge them lots of money for the privilege. It is a public charter school. My kids are happy, supported, and learning. I never had an expectation that my kids would walk out of 5th grade sounding like a native Mandarin speaker. I do expect them to work hard, try their best, learn and grow, and I expect their school to support them in that endeavor. So far it has gone pretty well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shut up. That's not what the guy said.

That’s exactly what he said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am always shocked, on the rare occasion I dive into the DCUM universe, by the amazing level of just basic rudeness on display in so many of the threads here. And for some reason YY is often a prime target.

With fear that I'll draw the ire of a whole host of people on here, I'll trepidatiously add a few things to the discussion:

1) For me, and a decent percentage of other YY families, the IB PYP program was as desirable a draw as the Chinese. This seems to be largely missing from this discussion.

2) Sure, some folks use tutors. And sure, it certainly helps - any individualized instruction improves any endeavor - sports, math, reading, art, music. But there are plenty of folks who don't and get by. Are my children fluent? Nope. Are they conversant? Yep! Have they been gaining a basis in the language that they can build upon if they want? Absolutely! Are the consistently learning? For sure!

3) Beyond the codified academics, YY is warm and welcoming for students, has fairly small class sizes, a lovely campus, a committed faculty, an involved parent community. Sure, it isn't perfect. (School drop off, gah!) There is no such thing as a perfect school; and there is no such thing as the right school for everybody. (For instance: I would consider neither BASIS nor KIPP to be a good school for any of my children. But they are the exact right school for some children.) If the model for the 'perfect school' existed...me oh my what would folks on DCUM argue about then??

4) YY threads appear to be consistently hijacked by someone/some people who have issues with the lack of two-way immersion - a critique framed as 'YY engages in insufficient outreach to the ABC community'. This line of argument is...disingenuous. Yes, two-way immersion is considered the gold standard for immersion schools - but a two-way immersion school can only exist within very specific parameters.
A) You must be able to control your enrollment to allow for near equal enrollment of native speakers of the two target languages. Charter schools in DC are not allowed to have an entrance test. Period. They are only allowed to restrict enrollment by grade level (no entry after 1st grade, for instance). While getting established, YY engaged with the powers that be (DCPCSB, local lawmakers, etc) about this issue, and was solidly rebuffed. YY is prevented, by law, from trying to create a two-way immersion program. So the vast majority of the students come to YY with little to no background in Chinese. YY therefore, correctly and rightly so, built its educational system to cater to these students.
B) Beyond the legal framework, to be successful a two-way immersion school has to have a sufficient community of speakers in the target languages to draw from. So...DC clearly has a sufficient base of English speakers to draw from. But what about Chinese? Well, according to the US Census Bureau, approximately 3% of the population of DC is Asian. That sounds pretty low! But, in hard numbers, that's around 20,000-25,000 people. Oh, hey, that number sounds good, right? But 'Asian' doesn't mean Chinese speaking. It could mean Mandarin Chinese...or Cantonese (not taught at YY), some other dialect, or Japanese, or Korean, or Indonesian or Thai or Hindi or Nepalese or Malay or....well, I think you get the point. Want to dig even deeper? According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, just over 12,200 residents of DC speak an 'Asian or Pacific Islander Language' at home. And broken down even more...LESS THAN ONE THOUSAND residents of DC between the ages of 5 and 17 speak an 'Asian or Pacific Islander Language' at home. [Data: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF] So...how many DC residents are Mandarin Chinese speaking children of elementary school age? Maybe...150? 300? (out of around 75,000 children age 5-17 in DC) Think about those numbers every time you see the complaints about YY not doing enough outreach to the Chinese-speaking community.

Finally, folks seem to do a lot of hand wringing about schools. Again, there is no perfect school. Yes, it is all somewhat stressful. But...think of the amazing amount of choice we do have. Where I grew up small town/rural south) you enrolled in school. The school. The only option. We are so lucky to have the options we have.

Sure, they CATER to these students. But immersion isn't what they're offering at YY. It's a misnomer that should be calledout.Have you checked out the Chinese at DCI? Not impressive. Why not? Because immersion programs need a bunch of families who know the language + culture to work out in the medium and long-term. If you can't get these families, don't bother. Make a new plan.

Signed,
Immigrant Asian parent with 2 kids in Spanish immersion who rejected a spot at YY last year, moved IB for Oyster

Native Spanish speaker here- huge mistake moving to oyster then. They don’t even teach grammar until middle school which is extremely telling. Best of luck but you made a massive mistake. Just my opinion.

(Also I wouldn’t put my kid with that level of dsicipline- screaming teachers, yelling, the works.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a deranged native Chinese speaker, white guy in fact. But a skeptic nonetheless. Flame away.

Oh expert, do you speak Chinese? Let us guess, you don't. Do you have ethnic Chinese friends or relatives? Let us guess, none of those. Have you lived, worked or traveled extensively in any Chinese-speaking country? Let us guess, you haven't. What do you know about Chinese language and culture? Let us, guess, very little.

Not convinced that Chinese immersion is going anywhere for your family. If the school were half as wonderful as you describe, the local ethnic bilingual Chinese community would be trying as hard to get their litle ones in as Latinos try for Oyster. Seems that DC Chinese don't bother with YY.

The fact that the speakers of this language all but ignore this fabulous school says that something's rotten in this rosy picture. In Lower Manhattan,where I lived before DC, the ethnic Chinese families I rubbed shoulders with reported that they were eager to get their kids into PS Mandarin immersion programs. They often failed, but boy did they try.

You started your kid in K I’m guessing. By then they will never learn a good Spanish accent.

And “white guy” thanks for mansplaining “what Latinos want”.

[Anonymous]

Why does this thread seem like a parental version of “my d>>k is bigger than yours” contest?

[Anonymous]

Jesus Christ