Yu Ying - Transferring to Yu Ying from another state

[Anonymous]

Yes, why? If you feel it's complicated, explain it to the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

The why has been discussed extensively on other long running threads.

[Anonymous]

Thank you PP.

I'm the PP who said it's complicated (but not the famous "it's complicated" poster from old YY threads!). There are a couple reasons our family would object. 2 of them have been well-detailed in this and other threads. If you don't understand those points by now, you never will. And the other reason is something we will certainly raise with the administration and Yu Ying community if this issue ever gets posed to us. If this becomes something YY seriously takes up again, we'll be sure to share our observations and concerns. But I've seen how conversations about this go here. No interest in doing battle with anonymous posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

I'm the PP who said it's complicated (but not the famous "it's complicated" poster from old YY threads!). There are a couple reasons our family would object. 2 of them have been well-detailed in this and other threads. If you don't understand those points by now, you never will. And the other reason is something we will certainly raise with the administration and Yu Ying community if this issue ever gets posed to us. If this becomes something YY seriously takes up again, we'll be sure to share our observations and concerns. But I've seen how conversations about this go here. No interest in doing battle with anonymous posters.

Do you have a link to any of these threads which detail the case you are unwilling to make? I tried searching for "Yu Ying" "test-in" and got at least 13 pages. The entire first page and most of the second was links to this very thread. The search function here is anything but precise. This thread itself is 16 pages long. If a clear and well-made case is out there, it's not easy to find.

It's hard not to question the integrity of a YY parent who opposes more fluent Mandarin speakers in the classroom. Or the parenting skills, for that matter. Sorry, but if you think you can enhance your own child's success by limiting the competition on the playing field, you are doing him no favors in life.

[Anonymous]

Some of us weren't around last year, mind summarizing that why?

[Anonymous]

Do a search for "Cantonese". There use to be a poster who was adamant that Cantonese speakers should be given preferential admissions b/c Cantonese is similar to Mandarin. Not kidding.

Many long threads about why YY should have test-in or not for Mandarin speakers (and Cantonese - although there was only one person arguing this basically for their self-interest).

Enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: My BFF who is a native speaker in Mandarin has been sending her son to 1x a week classes since he was 4 as well as exclusively speaking to him in Mandarin since he was a baby. Her words but her 12 yr old son's Mandarin "sucks" if she can get him to speak it at all which she can't. He always answers back in English. For Mandarin for young kids, you need an immersion school and the well kept secret is that even Yu Ying has trouble getting their kids to speak Chinese on Chinese days.

In a lot of Asian cultures, it is considered unwise to boast, especially about one's children. So people will purposely imply that their kids are lazy, aren't doing well. Contrasts entirely with the typical American way of bragging about one's kids to others and lavishing praise on the youngsters. So I would take it with a grain of salt when your BFF says her 12 year old's can't speak Mandarin despite going to classes for 8 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: My BFF who is a native speaker in Mandarin has been sending her son to 1x a week classes since he was 4 as well as exclusively speaking to him in Mandarin since he was a baby. Her words but her 12 yr old son's Mandarin "sucks" if she can get him to speak it at all which she can't. He always answers back in English. For Mandarin for young kids, you need an immersion school and the well kept secret is that even Yu Ying has trouble getting their kids to speak Chinese on Chinese days.

In a lot of Asian cultures, it is considered unwise to boast, especially about one's children. So people will purposely imply that their kids are lazy, aren't doing well. Contrasts entirely with the typical American way of bragging about one's kids to others and lavishing praise on the youngsters. So I would take it with a grain of salt when your BFF says her 12 year old's can't speak Mandarin despite going to classes for 8 years.

I'm also Asian and we've been friends since childhood, 30+ yrs. She wasn't being modest. Also, my brother wanted to know how good the Mandarin school was since he was considering it for his kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

I'm the PP who said it's complicated (but not the famous "it's complicated" poster from old YY threads!). There are a couple reasons our family would object. 2 of them have been well-detailed in this and other threads. If you don't understand those points by now, you never will. And the other reason is something we will certainly raise with the administration and Yu Ying community if this issue ever gets posed to us. If this becomes something YY seriously takes up again, we'll be sure to share our observations and concerns. But I've seen how conversations about this go here. No interest in doing battle with anonymous posters.

Do you have a link to any of these threads which detail the case you are unwilling to make? I tried searching for "Yu Ying" "test-in" and got at least 13 pages. The entire first page and most of the second was links to this very thread. The search function here is anything but precise. This thread itself is 16 pages long. If a clear and well-made case is out there, it's not easy to find.

It's hard not to question the integrity of a YY parent who opposes more fluent Mandarin speakers in the classroom. Or the parenting skills, for that matter. Sorry, but if you think you can enhance your own child's success by limiting the competition on the playing field, you are doing him no favors in life.

Wow, just because you haven't read or can't find them, do you seriously expect another parent to go sorting through them and linking back for you? Are you kidding me? The entitlement on DCUM truly knows no bounds. Did you have some laundry you wanted someone here to also do for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's hard not to question the integrity of a YY parent who opposes more fluent Mandarin speakers in the classroom. Or the parenting skills, for that matter. Sorry, but if you think you can enhance your own child's success by limiting the competition on the playing field, you are doing him no favors in life.

Congratulations, you have added yet another "factor" into this conversation that no one else actually raised. Enhancing success by limiting the competition? Are you the same poster from earlier who kept inferring things no one said? I don't know what you're smoking, but they should probably be more worried about that than K2 or whatever the kids are screwing their lives up with these days. You are truly on another planet. A highly presumptous one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

I'm the PP who said it's complicated (but not the famous "it's complicated" poster from old YY threads!). There are a couple reasons our family would object. 2 of them have been well-detailed in this and other threads. If you don't understand those points by now, you never will. And the other reason is something we will certainly raise with the administration and Yu Ying community if this issue ever gets posed to us. If this becomes something YY seriously takes up again, we'll be sure to share our observations and concerns. But I've seen how conversations about this go here. No interest in doing battle with anonymous posters.

Do you have a link to any of these threads which detail the case you are unwilling to make? I tried searching for "Yu Ying" "test-in" and got at least 13 pages. The entire first page and most of the second was links to this very thread. The search function here is anything but precise. This thread itself is 16 pages long. If a clear and well-made case is out there, it's not easy to find.

It's hard not to question the integrity of a YY parent who opposes more fluent Mandarin speakers in the classroom. Or the parenting skills, for that matter. Sorry, but if you think you can enhance your own child's success by limiting the competition on the playing field, you are doing him no favors in life.

Wow, just because you haven't read or can't find them, do you seriously expect another parent to go sorting through them and linking back for you? Are you kidding me? The entitlement on DCUM truly knows no bounds. Did you have some laundry you wanted someone here to also do for you?

Or she could always make the point, if a good one exists. "Trust me the case has been made, I just can't be bothered to tell you what it is, but it's good and persuasive, just take my word for it" isn't a particularly strong argument. It smells of "I don't want anybody with an advantage my child doesn't have to get better scores than precious snowflake."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

I'm the PP who said it's complicated (but not the famous "it's complicated" poster from old YY threads!). There are a couple reasons our family would object. 2 of them have been well-detailed in this and other threads. If you don't understand those points by now, you never will. And the other reason is something we will certainly raise with the administration and Yu Ying community if this issue ever gets posed to us. If this becomes something YY seriously takes up again, we'll be sure to share our observations and concerns. But I've seen how conversations about this go here. No interest in doing battle with anonymous posters.

Do you have a link to any of these threads which detail the case you are unwilling to make? I tried searching for "Yu Ying" "test-in" and got at least 13 pages. The entire first page and most of the second was links to this very thread. The search function here is anything but precise. This thread itself is 16 pages long. If a clear and well-made case is out there, it's not easy to find.

It's hard not to question the integrity of a YY parent who opposes more fluent Mandarin speakers in the classroom. Or the parenting skills, for that matter. Sorry, but if you think you can enhance your own child's success by limiting the competition on the playing field, you are doing him no favors in life.

Wow, just because you haven't read or can't find them, do you seriously expect another parent to go sorting through them and linking back for you? Are you kidding me? The entitlement on DCUM truly knows no bounds. Did you have some laundry you wanted someone here to also do for you?

Or she could always make the point, if a good one exists. "Trust me the case has been made, I just can't be bothered to tell you what it is, but it's good and persuasive, just take my word for it" isn't a particularly strong argument. It smells of "I don't want anybody with an advantage my child doesn't have to get better scores than precious snowflake."

Where did she say it was good and pursuasive? And you said it yourself, there are 16 pages of mentions of this topic that you can't be bothered to wade through. You smell of someone who has their mind made up so strongly, you are suspicious of people who don't cowtow to your obnoxious request to the point where you make up your own explanations. If I had an answer to this, I wouldn't give it to you either.

[Anonymous]

To me it seems Cantonese preference for a Mandarin school makes about as much sense as giving a French speaker preference at a Spanish school.

Maybe that came up a year ago... as they say, "tl;dr" - don't care to wade through 16 pages if nobody else here is capable of summarizing succinctly.

But it's a non-sequitur anyways, nobody here was asking for that. They were asking for test-in for Mandarin proficiency. Test-in specifically for the area of specialization for the school - not something that someone else deemed "related" on their own whim.

[Anonymous]

YY was started by a bunch of parents. I believe only one or two of the founders had experience in education. For everyone on this board who wants a mandarin test-in school, go start your own charter, and you can send your children to that school. However, you will need to open it in another jurisdiction. The federal mandate prohibits it for charter schools in the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

I think the easiest way to understand the charter school system in DC is to recognize that each charter school is it's own educational authority, equal to DCPS, and reporting to the state. Every other state in the country, except Hawaii, has multiple education authorities, usually, but not always connected to geographic regions. You might have very big districts like NYC or DC, and tiny ones in rural areas or small towns that serve less than 1,000 students. Yu Ying, and most charter schools in DC, are like the latter.

Imagine a district in rural Montana that serves a few hundred kids, scattered over a large geographic area. That district doesn't get to pick and choose. If a Deaf child is born in their district, maybe the first in a long time, they need to scramble and figure out a solution. Pay an exorbitant salary to lure interpreters to the district? Find a distance education program so one of their current teachers can be certified in teaching Deaf children? Fund boarding school for the child? Similarly, if a family with 6 kids, none of whom spoke a word of English, moved into their district tomorrow, then they'd have a responsibility to figure out how to serve them. In neither circumstance would saying "we can't serve you" be an option.

Yu Ying has already gotten a huge concession in terms of being able to cut off their admissions at a certain point. Most educational authorities in this country can't do that. If they decide that, instead, they want to accept 3rd graders, then there are options for them. They could look at the model used by Washington International School, where kids who enter after first grade without speaking a target language get intensive small group language classes until they catch up. They could look at the model used by DCPS and most DC charter schools when they accept kids who can't read or speak their language of instruction (English), which is to include kids in the regular classes with push in or pull out support by specialists. They could look at other options too. But they can't use a test to pick and choose, any more than that district in Montana can decide that they aren't serving someone.

DCPS can pick and choose who goes to a certain school, like Oyster's language proficiency requirements or Ellington's auditions, because they aren't excluding kids from a district, they're just excluding them from a school. Similarly E. L. Haynes (and probably others, Haynes just happens to be where I have kids so I know) can exclude kids from it's Arabic 2 class if they didn't have Arabic 1, because that's a class not a district.

Thanks--this is one of the most thoughtful posts I've read in a while.

NP, but wanted to bring this up again because I think this is a great explanation. DCPS and YY are both essentially considered school districts in the eyes of DC law. Neither can limit access to their districts to students based on ability, but each can track students to specific programs within their districts based on ability and need. For DCPS, which is huge, this can mean entire schools that are test-in. At charters, which are much smaller, this in practice can only take the form of test-in classes and programs. In all cases, the "district" (DCPS or charter) has to be able to take on the needs of any child in the grade levels it serves.