CHARTERS MAY MERGE AT WALTER REED (The DC International School, IB Diploma Programme)

[Anonymous]

Charters May Merge at Walter Reed [Washington Yu Ying, LAMB, Mundo Verde, and Elsie Whitlow Stokes PCS are mentioned]
The Dupont Current
By Elizabeth Wiener
June 20, 2012

The halls of a 1933 nurses’ residence at Walter Reed could one day ring with the sound of teenagers speaking Chinese, Spanish, French — and English — under a still unfolding proposal for a languagebased charter school at the former Army hospital campus in Ward 4.

Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School, with its Chinese immersion program, has already won conditional approval to place a middle and high school in 100,000 square feet of the old Delano Hall at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And the Latin American Montessori Bilingual charter school, which teaches children in Spanish and English, has dibs on 35,000 square feet in the same building.

The two are in discussion with two other language immersion charters — Mundo Verde Bilingual, which offers Spanish and English instruction near Dupont Circle; and the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom School in Brookland, which has an English/French and English/Spanish program — about the four institutions forming a cooperative middle and high school that could eventually enroll about 1,000 students at Walter Reed.

Full story:

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/DP%2006.20.12%201.pdf

[Anonymous]

This is a welcome development for many families.

What about children who have become bilingual/biliterate through home life, living abroad, or schools other than the 4 mentioned, e.g., Oyster or WIS? Seems that as long as they are DC residents and can prove their language capabilities, they should have an equal shot at admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a welcome development for many families.

What about children who have become bilingual/biliterate through home life, living abroad, or schools other than the 4 mentioned, e.g., Oyster or WIS? Seems that as long as they are DC residents and can prove their language capabilities, they should have an equal shot at admission.

Don't worry-- they will through a lottery as there will be attrition from the 4 feeder schools. The question will be if the charter law will be amended to allow for testing for new students but may not be necessary because DCI will not be a immersion program so new students wouldn't necessarily have to be fluent to do an IB program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a welcome development for many families.

What about children who have become bilingual/biliterate through home life, living abroad, or schools other than the 4 mentioned, e.g., Oyster or WIS? Seems that as long as they are DC residents and can prove their language capabilities, they should have an equal shot at admission.

Don't worry-- they will through a lottery as there will be attrition from the 4 feeder schools. The question will be if the charter law will be amended to allow for testing for new students but may not be necessary because DCI will not be a immersion program so new students wouldn't necessarily have to be fluent to do an IB program.

exactly. no language testing. but kids from the feeder schools will get first priority and then a finite amount of slots will be opened for lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a welcome development for many families.

What about children who have become bilingual/biliterate through home life, living abroad, or schools other than the 4 mentioned, e.g., Oyster or WIS? Seems that as long as they are DC residents and can prove their language capabilities, they should have an equal shot at admission.

There will be lottery seats, at least in the early years. That should mean that new students stand their best chance of getting in, if they join from the ground up.

Yu Ying has a lottery like every other highly-regarded charter school, however Yu Ying orders its waitlist based on the date/time of application. Elsie Stokes does the same.

If you're very interested in a competitive and rigorous MS/HS plan, such as the bilingual International Baccalaureate Diploma, you should strive to be among the very first applicants when the application window opens. (It doesn't guarantee entry through the lottery, but single digits on waitlists almost always get in.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What about children who have become bilingual/biliterate through home life, living abroad, or schools other than the 4 mentioned, e.g., Oyster or WIS? Seems that as long as they are DC residents and can prove their language capabilities, they should have an equal shot at admission.

Isn't B---S promising a parallel Spanish program for extant bilinguals with more vigor than Middlebury? And what about the budding Hebrew speakers from the latest niche charter? Those kids might be pretty international.

Seriously though, high school level language/international school makes sense for our bi-literate multinational family. Wilson selective academy and $30K for WIS seem like the only DC options beyond 8th at Oyster-Adams, Stokes, YY.

But does charter law allow for "cooperative" schools? Wouldn't they need a whole new charter for each school to somehow feed or link to a high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What about children who have become bilingual/biliterate through home life, living abroad, or schools other than the 4 mentioned, e.g., Oyster or WIS? Seems that as long as they are DC residents and can prove their language capabilities, they should have an equal shot at admission.

Isn't B---S promising a parallel Spanish program for extant bilinguals with more vigor than Middlebury? And what about the budding Hebrew speakers from the latest niche charter? Those kids might be pretty international.

Seriously though, high school level language/international school makes sense for our bi-literate multinational family. Wilson selective academy and $30K for WIS seem like the only DC options beyond 8th at Oyster-Adams, Stokes, YY.

But does charter law allow for "cooperative" schools? Wouldn't they need a whole new charter for each school to somehow feed or link to a high school?

Yes, they would have to petition the charter board as a group--there are legal issues involved.

[Anonymous]

They intend to amend their existing charters and use common language to do it.

[Anonymous]

Heard the goal is to open in 2014-15, for students who have just (in 2011-12) finished 3rd & 4th at YY. They would be 6th & 7th in 2014-15. From Osse audit report, here are the 3rd, 4th, 5th graders at the 4 schools.

MV: zero, not yet in those grades

3rd grade:

YY - 43
LAMB - 14
Stokes - 42
Total: 97

4th grade

YY - 32
LAMB - 13
Stokes - 48
Total: 93

5th grade

YY - 0
LAMB - 11
Stokes - 44
Total: 55

However, the last info posted here from a Stokes board meeting was they are considering the DCI and other options, such as an internal expansion, being a PreS to 8 school with addition on current facility. Stokes adds students to replace attrition, hence the larger class sizes above. You can more or less count on 45 to 50 students per grade level at Stokes.

YY & LAMB do not add students to replace via attrition, last entrance year for LAMB is preK, last for YY is 2nd. So a smaller and smaller cohort will be in these schools to start the DCI.

Just a long way of saying, should be plenty of space for new lottery applicants, esp. if Stokes bows out.

[Anonymous]

The can amend their original charters but that doesn't matter unless the charter law is changed so that their amended charters can be approved.

There are many legal issues involved and there will be many challenges to this plan. It is far, far from a done deal.

[Anonymous]

How would charter law need to be changed?

[Anonymous]

One question is: how can students from several schools attend this new school? Or would they technically be continuing in their original schools, but sharing classes and resources?? How would tha work? And if that is the case, which school would the new students attend?

Very interesting idea but I'm struggling to see how it would work within the system we have.

[Anonymous]

Technically, they would all be continuing in their original schools from what I understand. I guess each school would assume responsibility for a certain number of new students? I heard mention that each school will retain its own board, but then there will be some sort of combined board, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Isn't B---S promising a parallel Spanish program for extant bilinguals with more vigor than Middlebury?

I realize that you're being sarcastic, but I did hear statements early on from BASIS that seemed to intimate this. Later, I found out that the program for bilinguals or advanced language students will actually be an add-on early morning program, separate from the main curriculum. (And it costs $ to participate.) So I don't think of BASIS as being an ideal current option for kids whose parents want advanced-level second or third languages to be a full part of the curriculum. Maybe this will change later. (Why do we need 2 charter middle schools with a focus on Latin?)

Is SWW an option for bilingual/trilingual kids so that they can take college level language courses at GW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Isn't B---S promising a parallel Spanish program for extant bilinguals with more vigor than Middlebury?

I realize that you're being sarcastic, but I did hear statements early on from BASIS that seemed to intimate this. Later, I found out that the program for bilinguals or advanced language students will actually be an add-on early morning program, separate from the main curriculum. (And it costs $ to participate.) So I don't think of BASIS as being an ideal current option for kids whose parents want advanced-level second or third languages to be a full part of the curriculum. Maybe this will change later. (Why do we need 2 charter middle schools with a focus on Latin?)

Is SWW an option for bilingual/trilingual kids so that they can take college level language courses at GW?

My understanding is that B...S will offer advanced courses for already bilingual students if there is enough demand, but it will be off hours. They're strictly interested in AP. The DCI is supposed to be an IB "Diploma Programme" and students who do the IB Diploma must demonstrate proficiency in a 2nd or even 3rd language.