Yu Ying Waitlist Movement

[Anonymous]

Are there any deadlines coming up (e.g., paper work due) that would lead to major movement in the waitlist? We are in the low 40s and trying to figure out if we have a chance before we send a painful check for private school at the end of the month.

[Anonymous]

As detailed in the other thread on YY wait list, there are school tours coming up for accepted families in the next 2 weeks. Some possibility that parents will decline after seeing the school.

At this point, I think the movement will come only if/when parents who are holding slots at 2 schools (e.g., DCPS in boundary & YY) narrow down to only 1 school. The other source of movement will be late summer when students are accepted off of another wait list and give up the YY slot.

[Anonymous]

Another movement on the YY WL. 5 spots on PreK.

[Anonymous]

So it's moved to the mid thirties on the original wait list for preK? 26+2+5 today. Safe to assume they'll all accept since these people applied the 1st or 2nd day admissions opened, right? There are 2 more tours next week. Surprised how little movement there has been so far.

Really hope this school lives up to the hype. Is this the first year the 3 graders get tested? Will love to see how they do.

[Anonymous]

Test scores could be all over the map. They also wouldn't measure how well kids are doing in Chinese which is half of the whole school year. I wouldn't put much stock in any test scores that are either positive or negative.

[Anonymous]

The kids getting tested this year started as 1st graders, so they fall into 2 very different camps: those from families who wanted Chinese enough to leave a school where their child was probably doing well (high-achievers) and those whose child was in enough trouble that they needed to start over (low achievers).

Two years from now, when the kids who started as Pre-Kers get tested should be the real test of the school.

[Anonymous]

And many of the kids tested as 3rd graders this year started as 2nd graders, so were only at YY for 2 school years (and somewhere else for preK, K, 1st -- 3 school years). There are about 35 tested students, about half of them were at YY for 2 years, half for 3 years.

In addition to the limited years at YY, bilingual education in general predicts that kids will lag in English through 4th or 5th or even 6th grade, then have a jump forward in both languages.

So, don't expect great results to be released in July/ August. Remember that they represent ~35 of the more than 230 YY students.

[Anonymous]

10:06, shouldn't the "real test" of the school be how it educates all children?

Every other public school in DC has to educate "low achievers" and is judged on how those students perform on a standardized test. Why do you think this public school shold be judged by a different standard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:06, shouldn't the "real test" of the school be how it educates all children?

Every other public school in DC has to educate "low achievers" and is judged on how those students perform on a standardized test. Why do you think this public school shold be judged by a different standard?

It's hardly just this one. Every school wants to be judged on the children it educates - as opposed to those who drop in.

[Anonymous]

The bilingual immersion charters are not returning great test scores thus far. I wonder if third-fifth grade is a bit too early to expect great scores from bilingual learners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bilingual immersion charters are not returning great test scores thus far. I wonder if third-fifth grade is a bit too early to expect great scores from bilingual learners.

Could be. The data indicates it takes until about 5th grade for the cognitive benefits of bilingualism to kick in. Of course, once it does the kids outperform their monolingual peers in just about everything - including their native language. Interesting stuff.

[Anonymous]

"It's hardly just this one. Every school wants to be judged on the children it educates - as opposed to those who drop in."

Is attending a school for 2 or 3 years "dropping in?"

Again, if other public schools are expected to educate everyone, why not this one?

[Anonymous]

I am a parent of a YY third grader. I have a pretty good idea how he will score on the DCCAS. I also have no doubt that had he remained in our local DCPS he would have scored the same or slightly worse. I appreciated how YY prepared for the test. Those students who needed extra help were given after school help at no cost. Minimal instruction time was used up with learning how to fill in bubbles. Test scores are easier to understand, but what really makes a school great is how much learning takes place which is hard to measure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"It's hardly just this one. Every school wants to be judged on the children it educates - as opposed to those who drop in."

Is attending a school for 2 or 3 years "dropping in?"

Again, if other public schools are expected to educate everyone, why not this one?

Of course this school is expected to educate everyone. And it does. It is just important to remember that the first test scores that roll out, represent a small cohort with limited experience at this school which is in its third year of existence. People waiting to judge YY success on the first scores will be using only a limited data point.

If you look at the scores of school that has been existence forever, it is impossible to tell which kids (if any) started at that school in preK and have 5 years under their belt at that school prior to testing. And which kids arrived newly in third grade unprepared, or fabulously prepared. I wish the scores were presented as the amount of progress individual students made, not where they were. Example 50% of students advanced exactly 1 grade level from previous year, 30% advanced more than 1 grade level, 20% less than 1 grade level. In third grade, the average grade level achieved was 3.7 (meaning 7/10s of the way through 3rd grade). That would be meaningful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bilingual immersion charters are not returning great test scores thus far. I wonder if third-fifth grade is a bit too early to expect great scores from bilingual learners.

Do they breakdown the scores by race, FARMS, etc.? Curious.