Discussion over whether to expand Tyler dual-lang program turns to gentrification debate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thai article is very slanted and limited. We are high SES white family at Bruce Monroe. The school is majority Spanish dominant and low income. The school goes out of its way to serve low income Latinos. Are we having some growing pains? Yes but so are all gentrifying schools. the school has more slots for Spanish from kids thannenglish at the ECE leave to try to retain a 50/50 mix. No one is getting g pushed out, if anything high income parents are being kept out. Also, there are many black/ African Latinos who are Spanish dominant. So don’t just judge based on what you see people.

Why do they need to heavily slant towards the Spanish-speaking kids in order to keep a 50/50 mix? Isn't it typically the whiter/higher SES families who are likely to leave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thai article is very slanted and limited. We are high SES white family at Bruce Monroe. The school is majority Spanish dominant and low income. The school goes out of its way to serve low income Latinos. Are we having some growing pains? Yes but so are all gentrifying schools. the school has more slots for Spanish from kids thannenglish at the ECE leave to try to retain a 50/50 mix. No one is getting g pushed out, if anything high income parents are being kept out. Also, there are many black/ African Latinos who are Spanish dominant. So don’t just judge based on what you see people.

Why do they need to heavily slant towards the Spanish-speaking kids in order to keep a 50/50 mix? Isn't it typically the whiter/higher SES families who are likely to leave?

No, the BM Latino families are less likely to own homes / are more transient or housing insecure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One challenge with immersion is that it's hard for kids to join in when they move in later grades, and poorer kids in DC tend to move more. What do you do when a 4th grader moves IB for a dual-language school or when the charter they've been in counsels them out mid-year?

I think Tyler should go dual-language and Brent should be monolingual (or vice versa), and students in both boundaries should be able to rank their preferences for each. You'd be guaranteed a seat in one of them and there'd be sibling preference to keep families together. Then there would be lots more dual language slots and everyone would still have a monolingual alternative if they wanted it, and both schools would have more racial and economic diversity.

Hate this idea. YOu don't seem to know that Brent is bursting at the seams. Seen the new trailers on the small playground?

No room at Brent for most IB parent who want PreS3 and PreK4 let alone IB Tyler families who'd reject Spanish!

Then make Brent dual language and Tyler monolingual. It's the same number of IB kids in the combined boundary either way.

Come on, every Hill parent knows that Tyler has subsidized housing its catchment and Brent does not - Brent would never want to combine boundaries. That’s why people buy in the Brent district.

Huh, why should what Brent parents want matter more than what Tyler parents want?

Because it's Brent that you're proposing f*cking with.

Brent has its own set of problems - trying to fit everyone in its catchment into the building. Taking on another school's population and associated issues is hardly a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One challenge with immersion is that it's hard for kids to join in when they move in later grades, and poorer kids in DC tend to move more. What do you do when a 4th grader moves IB for a dual-language school or when the charter they've been in counsels them out mid-year?

I think Tyler should go dual-language and Brent should be monolingual (or vice versa), and students in both boundaries should be able to rank their preferences for each. You'd be guaranteed a seat in one of them and there'd be sibling preference to keep families together. Then there would be lots more dual language slots and everyone would still have a monolingual alternative if they wanted it, and both schools would have more racial and economic diversity.

Hate this idea. YOu don't seem to know that Brent is bursting at the seams. Seen the new trailers on the small playground?

No room at Brent for most IB parent who want PreS3 and PreK4 let alone IB Tyler families who'd reject Spanish!

Then make Brent dual language and Tyler monolingual. It's the same number of IB kids in the combined boundary either way.

Come on, every Hill parent knows that Tyler has subsidized housing its catchment and Brent does not - Brent would never want to combine boundaries. That’s why people buy in the Brent district.

Huh, why should what Brent parents want matter more than what Tyler parents want?

Because it's Brent that you're proposing f*cking with.

Brent has its own set of problems - trying to fit everyone in its catchment into the building. Taking on another school's population and associated issues is hardly a priority.

Brent does not exist in a vacuum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many posters on here are dismissing rational and deep concerns that the parents in the arts program are expressing. What you aren't hearing is that they value a more structured, English-proficiency based education for specific reasons. These are a different set of values and equally worthy. I'm cringing at the "white-splaining" going on here. Just for the record, I'm high-SES, married, educated and still find the inability of the DL proponents here tone-deaf.

No. We are calling out her racism: “Norde, who is African American and a native Washingtonian, tied the increasing popularity of dual-language programs to the city becoming more white and Hispanic...”

White and Hispanic people like it, and that’s why it’s bad.

You clearly have no f*cking clue what racism is.

If the PP had said "racial prejudice" as opposed to "racism" it wouldn't have substantially changed the point though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing the majority of posters have never set foot in a bilingual school. My kid attends Bruce Monroe. All the teachers are no bilingual so no, half the staff isn’t fired. Kids do one full day in Spanish and one full day in English. Every Spanish lead teacher is bilingual. But English lead teachers are not typically bilingual. My kids English day teacher last year did not speak Spanish. So essentially every teacher can and does speak English as needed.

With all due respect, BM's neighborhood demographics differ substantially from Tyler's. If - when it comes to successful immersion model - it is true that the devil is in the details, then there are some significantly different details between implementing at BM and implementing at Tyler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For many families learning a second language well is not a fad. In fact, this country could use more cross-cultural understanding these days.

you can learn a second language without immersion. you can also find a dual-language program without colonizing someone else's school. and let's not forget that the tyler spanish parents ***already*** have an immersion program. but it's not enough for them and they want to kick the (mostly black) kids out.

Has been explicitly stated or is it paranoia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One challenge with immersion is that it's hard for kids to join in when they move in later grades, and poorer kids in DC tend to move more. What do you do when a 4th grader moves IB for a dual-language school or when the charter they've been in counsels them out mid-year?

I think Tyler should go dual-language and Brent should be monolingual (or vice versa), and students in both boundaries should be able to rank their preferences for each. You'd be guaranteed a seat in one of them and there'd be sibling preference to keep families together. Then there would be lots more dual language slots and everyone would still have a monolingual alternative if they wanted it, and both schools would have more racial and economic diversity.

Hate this idea. YOu don't seem to know that Brent is bursting at the seams. Seen the new trailers on the small playground?

No room at Brent for most IB parent who want PreS3 and PreK4 let alone IB Tyler families who'd reject Spanish!

Then make Brent dual language and Tyler monolingual. It's the same number of IB kids in the combined boundary either way.

Come on, every Hill parent knows that Tyler has subsidized housing its catchment and Brent does not - Brent would never want to combine boundaries. That’s why people buy in the Brent district.

Huh, why should what Brent parents want matter more than what Tyler parents want?

Because it's Brent that you're proposing f*cking with.

Brent has its own set of problems - trying to fit everyone in its catchment into the building. Taking on another school's population and associated issues is hardly a priority.

Brent does not exist in a vacuum.

No school does. But Brent has its own issues and what Brent parents want for Brent trumps what Tyler parents want for Brent. Tyler parents are doing enough screwing up their own school, so they really don't need access to anyone else's.

[Anonymous]

Brent isn't broken, Tyler is. Don't allow Tyler to "fix" Brent.

[Anonymous]

NP. There's just no chance of this politically. Why worry, or even comment? Neighborhood people who think this may happen arrived about ten minutes ago. As a Brent parent of a decade, believe me when I say the chance of the two schools forming some sort of cluster is precisely zero. Look what happened when DCPS encouraged Miner and Maury to merge: a big cohort of Maury parents was rightfully up in arms. The proposal hit a towering wall of objection fast and promptly died.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thai article is very slanted and limited. We are high SES white family at Bruce Monroe. The school is majority Spanish dominant and low income. The school goes out of its way to serve low income Latinos. Are we having some growing pains? Yes but so are all gentrifying schools. the school has more slots for Spanish from kids thannenglish at the ECE leave to try to retain a 50/50 mix. No one is getting g pushed out, if anything high income parents are being kept out. Also, there are many black/ African Latinos who are Spanish dominant. So don’t just judge based on what you see people.

Why do they need to heavily slant towards the Spanish-speaking kids in order to keep a 50/50 mix? Isn't it typically the whiter/higher SES families who are likely to leave?

they would be less likely to leave if they felt welcomed and thought the school cared about academic rigor or if more of the neighborhood kids could actually get in.

[Anonymous]

Are you kidding? It's difficult for an IB student to get into BM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? It's difficult for an IB student to get into BM?

For PK3, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? It's difficult for an IB student to get into BM?

For PK3, yes.

Yes, 29 spots are reserved for Spanish Dom and 19 for Englsih Dom. But effectively even less when you consider sibling preference. Every year there are OOB Spanish Dom kids who get in over IB English dominant kids. the waitlist for IB english has very little movement and I know several families who didn't get in IB for PK. Parents have raised some concerns but the school wants a 60/40 split with an emphasis on Spanish dominant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? It's difficult for an IB student to get into BM?

For PK3, yes.

Yes, 29 spots are reserved for Spanish Dom and 19 for Englsih Dom. But effectively even less when you consider sibling preference. Every year there are OOB Spanish Dom kids who get in over IB English dominant kids. the waitlist for IB english has very little movement and I know several families who didn't get in IB for PK. Parents have raised some concerns but the school wants a 60/40 split with an emphasis on Spanish dominant.

Have you talked to the instructional superintendent over BM?