Spinoff - topic of language vs arts posted ward 3 state of schools thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow! Way to let your self involved flag fly, pp. I was thinking of hypothetical trade offs across the city-wide system as a response to scary budget cuts. Not sure the majority of dcps families can get themselves quality music instruction and I happen to believe it is more essential to a quality primary education than a second language. Do all families think only of themselves like this when sitting in lsats, pta boards, principal searches and the like? Hope not

Leaving aside the debate of 2nd language vs arts education, how would the city address the practical implementation issues with this type of proposal? The Arts Integration model has merits, but how can it be made scaleable in DC? Apparently it is challenging to staff Arts Integration certified teachers. FY12 projected attendance for elementary students in Arts Integration schools according to DCPS website. About 600. (Not including 400+ at Tyler which is both language and arts integration.)

On the other hand there's the demand for language. The DCPS Projected FY12 attendance for Spanish bilingual programs: 3,000. (Again, excluding Tyler.) Oyster-Adams had 1,000 OOB applicants.

Would I like to have more music and art for my early grade kids? Absolutely. But if I had to choose one or the other, I'd vote for more investment in bilingual and ESL resources. On a completely opportunistic level, if DCPS had more and better bilingual programs then we might attract bilingual charter students and their funding as well.

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Sorry. Forgot to include the posters initial comment that got my attention on the other thread.

Anonymous wrote:I would get rid of second language instruction/immersion programs in the preschool-elementary level and prioritize QUALITY music and art programs instead.

[Anonymous]

If they are doing language immersion, I say put the money into language and have the other teachers incorporate Art and Music through the curriculum. But the really limited exposure of once a week like they are doing at many schools is frankly useless in my book and I would put the money towards more in depth art and music or even sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! Way to let your self involved flag fly, pp. I was thinking of hypothetical trade offs across the city-wide system as a response to scary budget cuts. Not sure the majority of dcps families can get themselves quality music instruction and I happen to believe it is more essential to a quality primary education than a second language. Do all families think only of themselves like this when sitting in lsats, pta boards, principal searches and the like? Hope not

Leaving aside the debate of 2nd language vs arts education, how would the city address the practical implementation issues with this type of proposal? The Arts Integration model has merits, but how can it be made scaleable in DC? Apparently it is challenging to staff Arts Integration certified teachers. FY12 projected attendance for elementary students in Arts Integration schools according to DCPS website. About 600. (Not including 400+ at Tyler which is both language and arts integration.)

On the other hand there's the demand for language. The DCPS Projected FY12 attendance for Spanish bilingual programs: 3,000. (Again, excluding Tyler.) Oyster-Adams had 1,000 OOB applicants.

Would I like to have more music and art for my early grade kids? Absolutely. But if I had to choose one or the other, I'd vote for more investment in bilingual and ESL resources. On a completely opportunistic level, if DCPS had more and better bilingual programs then we might attract bilingual charter students and their funding as well.

Any ideas?

On a completely practical level, where do you propose to enroll these bilingual charter students? Not trying to be snarky, but which Ward 3 elementary has space?

Consider that it is entirely possible that young Ward 3 families are looking at the bilingual charters for more than one reason: language immersion AND small class sizes.