Walls Versus DCI
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Anonymous
Kids can’t do IB diploma track if they have not taken languages since 7th so no, many kids can’t do the track. It’s not because they can’t get a B average but because of the language pre-requisite. WL yes has more languages but the actual courses are just SL and HL in the language and don’t offer any other variety of courses taught in the language such as literature, social studies, etc… It is very limited Let’s be real here, the only kids doing IB in Arabic are native speakers because no school in Arlington is offering kids Arabic starting in 7th on, neither for the other languages in the IB diploma. Same with Mandarin, etc.. That is why the program is so small because Arlington public schools don’t have IB middle schools offering languages. And why it opens doors to other students just to get 150 kids or whatever. The school does not provide any immersion programs abroad or study abroad. You need to do immersion in the summer on your own. |
Anonymous
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IBD requires strong writing and advance language acquisition. If the kids do not have both, they will not pass to get the diploma or if pass but not do well and score low in the mid 20’s.
That is why you cannot just have an IB diploma program in high school. You need to start acquiring writing and language skills much earlier. So if the kids are not in an IB program earlier, then families are heavily, heavily supplementing outside and at home especially in the language if the kid is nit from a native speaking family. Even if coming from a native speaking family, you will likely have to supplement quite a bit because you need not just speaking and comprehension but also reading and writing to do well on the IB language test. |
Anonymous
What the PP above fails to say is that the academic culture in HK is toxic. There is a whole other school in Asia and especially in HK called cram schools. So the kids go to school all day then go to the cram school at night. It is totally crazy. All families who can afford to do it and the rat race is never ending. Even families who can’t afford it will scrimp and save and put all their savings to have their kids in cram schools. This data is very old, years ago but last time I looked it was 75% of kids go to cram schools. Only the poor don’t who can’t afford it. What PP above also fails to say is that her school is likely taught in English and the kids have been in English taught schools, so immersion in the language, way before coming to her school. Probably their whole life. The academic pressure to do well and expectations is off the roof in HK. It affects the kids self esteem, mental health, etc…HK has a silent epidemic of student suicides. It is among the highest in the developed world. I would never live in HK and raise a kid there. Childhood is fleeting and not worth giving it up and the high cost to the rat race of doing well. What is even more sad is that unless you come from a wealthy family, these kids later still can’t afford to support themselves independently due to the high COL and high housing cost to buy a place. |
Anonymous
Pretty sure the school they’re talking about is HKIS, and while the culture there is stressful it’s mostly rich expats so it’s not cram school stressful. |
Anonymous
I don’t think so because HKIS is AP in high school, not IB. BTW HKIS is preschool to 12th with a tuition of $112k to $130k per semester so you are looking at $224k to $260k a year. It is for the ultra wealthy. |
Anonymous
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PP above writes: [Arlington] Kids can’t do IB diploma track if they have not taken languages since 7th so no, many kids can’t do the track. It’s not because they can’t get a B average but because of the language pre-requisite.
WL yes has more languages but the actual courses are just SL and HL in the language and don’t offer any other variety of courses taught in the language such as literature, social studies, etc. It is very limited Let’s be real here, the only kids doing IB in Arabic are native speakers because no school in Arlington is offering kids Arabic starting in 7th on, neither for the other languages in the IB diploma. Same with Mandarin, etc.. That is why the program is so small because Arlington public schools don’t have IB middle schools offering languages. And why it opens doors to other students just to get 150 kids or whatever. The school does not provide any immersion programs abroad or study abroad. You need to do immersion in the summer on your own. I write: Sure, let's "be real," versus pushing an inaccurate take on the quality of immersion/partial immersion instruction at DCI and in its feeders. Thomas Jefferson MS in Arlington uses IB Middle Years curriculum, requiring language from 6th grade. The school teaches Arabic and other languages via a virtual UVA program on demand. The other neighborhood middle schools provide language instruction, too, with Dorothy Hamm leading the pack (best MS language teachers in the system). When my DCI middle schooler took social studies and PE in the target language we discovered what a gimmicky joke the arrangement was. Few students could handle content so the right-out-of-grad-school teachers often lapsed into English to teach, and accepted it in return. We've found that standards for speaking and understanding at W-L have been higher than at DCI (in top group for language instruction). I point out YuYing cut its immersion summer program a decade back and DC has no public universities offering summer immersion to teens at in-state tuition like VA does. Many of my kid's classmates in Arlington do weeks of summer immersion study, in this country and/or abroad, every year while hardly anybody we knew at a DCI feeder and at DCI bothered with it, even if they had the dough. Study abroad trips at DCI were fun, but pricey and didn't include serious immersion. Arlington lets more than 50 OOB students per year lottery into W-L to pursue IBD alongside in-boundary W-L students. DCI/DCPCS has no such comprehensive system to attract and retain high school IBD talent. W-L doesn't offer IBD for all, preferring to serve only high-achieving and serious students, the way IBD is supposed to work. Without firm prerequisites, DCI's IBD program is undeniably watered down. The scarcity of native speakers at DCI off the Spanish track doesn't help either (different story at W-L). We might have stuck around in DC for Walls if my 3.8 GPA kid had been given a fair shot of entry (wasn't even granted an interview). You can't fool everybody here, PP. IBD-for-all at DCI is a drag and parents know it. Quality beats quantity in VA for us. DCI families who can afford private high school or crack Walls generally leave. By contrast, from what I've seen, in Arlington, committed IB families stay. |
Anonymous
| Same. We'd have stayed in DC public for Walls, supplementing for language. Decent language instruction at DCI wasn't worth missing out on a first-rate high school for. |
Anonymous
You and PP above you are outliers because not many DCI families leaving for burbs, Walls, or privates. DCI has a very high retention rate, close to mid 90%. We know family who declined the Walls offer. |
Anonymous
Retention rate doesn’t mean people are thrilled. Kids at DCI might stay because they don’t have another option. Not that many DCI kids get into Walls. We are at DCI middle school and would absolutely take a spot at Walls if it’s an option. I know a bunch of DCI kids and don’t know anyone that turned down Walls for DCI. Glad to have info on other options from PPs. |
Anonymous
Sure, but where else are these kids going to go if the families don't love DCI? The better-off families we know there--friends and neighbors of many years--leave for privates between middle and high school. Families or lesser means have stayed but the parents talk about how they dearly wish they had a better option. They'd skip the hour-long commute from Ward 6 SE by public transportation in a heartbeat for their teens if they had a decent option that didn't include it. That seems to be half the reason these families try for Walls - an easy commute by Metro from Capitol Hill. Nobody seems to love IBD for all at DCI. Most of these families are there because they struck out in the Latin and BASIS lotteries years ago. |
Anonymous
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Come on. Posters on here can move to the burbs or go to their IB middle school. Go private or parochial. Move to WOTP. You can also rent in any neighborhood to go to the school you want.
People have options. Let’s not pretend they don’t. We declined Latin. We know a family who declined Basis. Many families at our feeder did not even play the lottery in 5th. |
Anonymous
Come on, families EotP who aren't wealthy don't tend to have great middle or high school options, increasingly the case. Let's not pretend that they invariably do. I know this after 30 years in Ward 6. It's not easy to move to the burbs when you've been dug in here for decades. It's not easy to go for a private or parochial for multiple children on a Fed government salary, even if you could get a spot (often not the case). Some of us don't go parochial, although we could afford it at a stretch, because we're not Christian, or we're Christians who hated parochial school. We headed to DCI only after failing to get off the WLs for Basis and both Latins. We rejected our in-boundary middle school because the high school it feeds into is a dead end. We're lucky to have a Walls spot for the fall, a much better commute for our student. |
Anonymous
I don’t know a single kid at our DCI feeder that didn’t take a Latin spot if they got in. |
Anonymous
| I don't know a single family at DCI that got into BASIS or the original Latin. Those middle schoolers offer more stable faculties and more rigor than DCI, other than for language. |
Anonymous
I don't either. The DCI boosters are following the lead of the BASIS boosters, claiming all sorts of marvelous things about their school that we have reason to doubt. There's just not enough challenge for the highest performers at DCI, and not nearly enough experienced teachers or admins. |