Latin Cooper and Yu Ying possibly purchasing the Kirov Ballet building (W5)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese at DCI deserves to be on life support. The academics at both YY and DCI are lackluster, including the Mandarin. When most of the parents jump on board YY more for a school with an at-risk participation in the single digits than for the language immersion, what can we expect 8-12 years later at DCI? Great results and many kids still on board? Obviously not.

If YY gets the two middle school feeds, Latin Cooper will accrue the benefit. Sounds like win-win.

Its not fair to kids NOT in the YY feeder to get a shot at Latin. Why should kids get a select few slots into YY, then slide into Latin if they were never serious about chinese to begin with.

Because the arrangement would be great for both YY and Latin, co-located on the same campus in the future. No need for the DCPCSB to cut off its nose to spite its face on this one. DC hasn't been serious about Chinese to begin with. Parents can't be blamed. YY's leadership asked the city for a preference for native speakers way back in 2009. They were denied. With hardly any native speakers, Chinese at YY can't work well.

This is nonsense. The whole reason YY requested a charter for DCI was for kids to continue their Chinese studies. They can’t suddenly pivot and say we don’t care about Chinese.

The reality is that's what at least half of them already do. They leave for BASIS or the Latins after 4th grade or other middle schools not teaching partial immersion Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese at DCI deserves to be on life support. The academics at both YY and DCI are lackluster, including the Mandarin. When most of the parents jump on board YY more for a school with an at-risk participation in the single digits than for the language immersion, what can we expect 8-12 years later at DCI? Great results and many kids still on board? Obviously not.

If YY gets the two middle school feeds, Latin Cooper will accrue the benefit. Sounds like win-win.

Its not fair to kids NOT in the YY feeder to get a shot at Latin. Why should kids get a select few slots into YY, then slide into Latin if they were never serious about chinese to begin with.

Because the arrangement would be great for both YY and Latin, co-located on the same campus in the future. No need for the DCPCSB to cut off its nose to spite its face on this one. DC hasn't been serious about Chinese to begin with. Parents can't be blamed. YY's leadership asked the city for a preference for native speakers way back in 2009. They were denied. With hardly any native speakers, Chinese at YY can't work well.

So shut down YY since you said Chinese “can’t work well” since there are so few natives speakers at the school. Why does DCI even offer Chinese when there is more demand than capacity for Spanish seats? Sorry , just cause some 3 year hit the lottery jackpot and got into YY, doesn’t mean they get TWO choices for two of the most coveted charter schools for middle and high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese at DCI deserves to be on life support. The academics at both YY and DCI are lackluster, including the Mandarin. When most of the parents jump on board YY more for a school with an at-risk participation in the single digits than for the language immersion, what can we expect 8-12 years later at DCI? Great results and many kids still on board? Obviously not.

If YY gets the two middle school feeds, Latin Cooper will accrue the benefit. Sounds like win-win.

Its not fair to kids NOT in the YY feeder to get a shot at Latin. Why should kids get a select few slots into YY, then slide into Latin if they were never serious about chinese to begin with.

Because the arrangement would be great for both YY and Latin, co-located on the same campus in the future. No need for the DCPCSB to cut off its nose to spite its face on this one. DC hasn't been serious about Chinese to begin with. Parents can't be blamed. YY's leadership asked the city for a preference for native speakers way back in 2009. They were denied. With hardly any native speakers, Chinese at YY can't work well.

This is nonsense. The whole reason YY requested a charter for DCI was for kids to continue their Chinese studies. They can’t suddenly pivot and say we don’t care about Chinese.

The reality is that's what at least half of them already do. They leave for BASIS or the Latins after 4th grade or other middle schools not teaching partial immersion Chinese.

THIS. DC public schools are so messed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese at DCI deserves to be on life support. The academics at both YY and DCI are lackluster, including the Mandarin. When most of the parents jump on board YY more for a school with an at-risk participation in the single digits than for the language immersion, what can we expect 8-12 years later at DCI? Great results and many kids still on board? Obviously not.

If YY gets the two middle school feeds, Latin Cooper will accrue the benefit. Sounds like win-win.

Its not fair to kids NOT in the YY feeder to get a shot at Latin. Why should kids get a select few slots into YY, then slide into Latin if they were never serious about chinese to begin with.

Because the arrangement would be great for both YY and Latin, co-located on the same campus in the future. No need for the DCPCSB to cut off its nose to spite its face on this one. DC hasn't been serious about Chinese to begin with. Parents can't be blamed. YY's leadership asked the city for a preference for native speakers way back in 2009. They were denied. With hardly any native speakers, Chinese at YY can't work well.

So shut down YY since you said Chinese “can’t work well” since there are so few natives speakers at the school. Why does DCI even offer Chinese when there is more demand than capacity for Spanish seats? Sorry , just cause some 3 year hit the lottery jackpot and got into YY, doesn’t mean they get TWO choices for two of the most coveted charter schools for middle and high.

DCI wouldn't exist as it does today if one of the founders of YY hadn't wanted to make sure her own kids had a path to continue Chinese after 5th grade. The fact that PARENTS who were trying to figure out continuing languages collaborated with other school leaders and educators to FORM DCI as a language school with options is how it came into existence in the first place.

For someone to be pissed about it now and say "You don't get 2 chances at languages when there are more needing Spanish seats" is ignorant and absurd. But most importantly, if you don't like it, GO START YOUR OWN language-focused middle and high schools and exclude Chinese as a language. You do NOT get to demand a founding language track gets eliminated because you don't like your options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese at DCI deserves to be on life support. The academics at both YY and DCI are lackluster, including the Mandarin. When most of the parents jump on board YY more for a school with an at-risk participation in the single digits than for the language immersion, what can we expect 8-12 years later at DCI? Great results and many kids still on board? Obviously not.

If YY gets the two middle school feeds, Latin Cooper will accrue the benefit. Sounds like win-win.

Its not fair to kids NOT in the YY feeder to get a shot at Latin. Why should kids get a select few slots into YY, then slide into Latin if they were never serious about chinese to begin with.

Because the arrangement would be great for both YY and Latin, co-located on the same campus in the future. No need for the DCPCSB to cut off its nose to spite its face on this one. DC hasn't been serious about Chinese to begin with. Parents can't be blamed. YY's leadership asked the city for a preference for native speakers way back in 2009. They were denied. With hardly any native speakers, Chinese at YY can't work well.

This is nonsense. The whole reason YY requested a charter for DCI was for kids to continue their Chinese studies. They can’t suddenly pivot and say we don’t care about Chinese.

The reality is that's what at least half of them already do. They leave for BASIS or the Latins after 4th grade or other middle schools not teaching partial immersion Chinese.

As a YY parent with a 10th grader and 7th grader at DCI, and a 5th grader at YY, you are fully full of BS to say "at least half of YY students leave for BASIS or Latin in 5th grade". WAY MORE THAN HALF of YY's graduating 5th graders go on to DCI.

YES, some families absolutely leave YY for BASIS and Latin, but WAY more than half actually go on to DCI for 6th grade.

Post your data and sources on this supposed mass migration away from DCI, or since you can't because it's not true, take your lies somewhere else.

Also, it's astonishing how long this BS narrative about "Chinese not working at YY" or the lack of a significant # of native speaking students means the rest of the students aren't learning Mandarin. YY has worked it's institutional butt off to have native speaking TEACHERS and guess what? When you spend 100% of PK3 & PK4 class time learning in Mandarin from native speakers, and then you spend 50% of class time in all subjects learning and speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin from K-5, YOU LEARN MANDARIN. Is it perfect, are you fluent, and can you speak, read and write equally well? Usually NO. But you do speak, understand, and usually read and write it, and most YY parents (including the ones with no outside Mandarin supports for their kids) hear over and over from native Mandarin speakers who have nothing to do with YY that their kid's Mandarin is very good if not excellent.

DCI only exists because of YY founders starting the conversation to develop a MS and HS language-focused pathway in DC for kids, including Mandarin. Arguments for YY parents not caring about Mandarin or Mandarin being canceled from DCI are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese at DCI deserves to be on life support. The academics at both YY and DCI are lackluster, including the Mandarin. When most of the parents jump on board YY more for a school with an at-risk participation in the single digits than for the language immersion, what can we expect 8-12 years later at DCI? Great results and many kids still on board? Obviously not.

If YY gets the two middle school feeds, Latin Cooper will accrue the benefit. Sounds like win-win.

Its not fair to kids NOT in the YY feeder to get a shot at Latin. Why should kids get a select few slots into YY, then slide into Latin if they were never serious about chinese to begin with.

Because the arrangement would be great for both YY and Latin, co-located on the same campus in the future. No need for the DCPCSB to cut off its nose to spite its face on this one. DC hasn't been serious about Chinese to begin with. Parents can't be blamed. YY's leadership asked the city for a preference for native speakers way back in 2009. They were denied. With hardly any native speakers, Chinese at YY can't work well.

This is nonsense. The whole reason YY requested a charter for DCI was for kids to continue their Chinese studies. They can’t suddenly pivot and say we don’t care about Chinese.

The reality is that's what at least half of them already do. They leave for BASIS or the Latins after 4th grade or other middle schools not teaching partial immersion Chinese.

As a YY parent with a 10th grader and 7th grader at DCI, and a 5th grader at YY, you are fully full of BS to say "at least half of YY students leave for BASIS or Latin in 5th grade". WAY MORE THAN HALF of YY's graduating 5th graders go on to DCI.

YES, some families absolutely leave YY for BASIS and Latin, but WAY more than half actually go on to DCI for 6th grade.

Post your data and sources on this supposed mass migration away from DCI, or since you can't because it's not true, take your lies somewhere else.

Also, it's astonishing how long this BS narrative about "Chinese not working at YY" or the lack of a significant # of native speaking students means the rest of the students aren't learning Mandarin. YY has worked it's institutional butt off to have native speaking TEACHERS and guess what? When you spend 100% of PK3 & PK4 class time learning in Mandarin from native speakers, and then you spend 50% of class time in all subjects learning and speaking, reading and writing in Mandarin from K-5, YOU LEARN MANDARIN. Is it perfect, are you fluent, and can you speak, read and write equally well? Usually NO. But you do speak, understand, and usually read and write it, and most YY parents (including the ones with no outside Mandarin supports for their kids) hear over and over from native Mandarin speakers who have nothing to do with YY that their kid's Mandarin is very good if not excellent.

DCI only exists because of YY founders starting the conversation to develop a MS and HS language-focused pathway in DC for kids, including Mandarin. Arguments for YY parents not caring about Mandarin or Mandarin being canceled from DCI are ridiculous.

Give it up. These issues have been thrashed out in countless other DCUM threads over the years.

Dig a little. Find out how the DCI seniors who have been taking "advanced" Chinese have scored on their IB Chinese exams from Geneva HQ. I've tutored several DCI students prepare for the speaking component of the exams. These kids earned top grades in the most advanced Mandarin offered at DCI. I've encouraged their parents to send the kids to immersion Mandarin sleepaway summer camps but they've always had other plans. Several of these teens took IBD Chinese exams last June. How did they score? Dismally. On a bright note, I'm told that two of them scored high on AP Chinese, where little speaking is required.

Magical thinking only gets you so far with IBD language exams. Maybe you need a wake-up call at the bitter end to get it.

[Anonymous]

Oh let then have their magical thinking. Even IB exam screw ups won’t cure them.

[Anonymous]

I can't see how giving YY families a preference for Latin Cooper's middle school/high school would help or hurt Mandarin learning at YY or DCI.

I also can't see it happening. No way, the DCPSCB won't sign off on the preference.

[Anonymous]

10:04, you don’t need to keep spreading your vitriol. You don’t tutor dci kids and you have no idea how they scored. My child has graduated and earned the biliteracy seal, and a very high IB score. We don’t speak Chinese at home, nor did we engage with dubious camps or even more sketchy self-proclaimed tutors. My child was highly motivated to learn thanks to their excellent teachers and a school culture that valued and supported language learning.

[Anonymous]

NP who wishes it was was just that, BS and vitriol. My eldest scored 4/7 on SL IB Chinese after DCI. A couple of his friends scored a little higher but not much and nobody took HL. We expected him to ace the exam. He was always one of the strongest Chinese students in his cohort. We hired tutors from the YY upper grades.

Reality #1 was that the Mandarin teaching at DCI and the tutoring wasn’t enough. Reality #2 was that the problem of no native speakers in his cohorts was real (zilch true native speakers all the way up).

Parents can come here claiming that the most advanced DCI students speak great Mandarin per IBD Geneva standards but we’re not doing that. Our current DCI HS student will spend 4 wks out at Concordia this summer (5k).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't see how giving YY families a preference for Latin Cooper's middle school/high school would help or hurt Mandarin learning at YY or DCI.

I also can't see it happening. No way, the DCPSCB won't sign off on the preference.

I agree. They won’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:04, you don’t need to keep spreading your vitriol. You don’t tutor dci kids and you have no idea how they scored. My child has graduated and earned the biliteracy seal, and a very high IB score. We don’t speak Chinese at home, nor did we engage with dubious camps or even more sketchy self-proclaimed tutors. My child was highly motivated to learn thanks to their excellent teachers and a school culture that valued and supported language learning.

Concordia, dubious? They’ve been teaching immersion languages in Minnesota for a century. Kids come from all around the country for their Chinese camp sessions. Look them up. Your kid just isn’t going to learn the language without real immersion.

[Anonymous]

OK, but that’s not message unrealistic parents get from YY or DCI. If you want serious IB diploma you need to stop kidding yourself in DC public schools. Who care if YY adds more students at Kirov. Latin Cooper is the program we should care about.

[Anonymous]

I'm inclined to agree but think it's a shame that Latin hasn't moved to create an economy of scale with one high school for both Latins. The DCPCSB/Latin Board and management entity could offer more serious academics at one non-selective high school than at two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm inclined to agree but think it's a shame that Latin hasn't moved to create an economy of scale with one high school for both Latins. The DCPCSB/Latin Board and management entity could offer more serious academics at one non-selective high school than at two.

DCUM gonna DCUM. It is a shame that a school that opened this year, doesn't yet have a 7th grader in the building and is a few years away from occupying its permanent facility hasn't uprooted the entire system to your liking? You are typical of educated upper middle class folks who have never actually run anything or had to make decisions at scale where a clear answer wasn't known and there are lots of considerations beyond your nose.