Yu Ying - Transferring to Yu Ying from another state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe the law allows for tracking, and for testing to be done for tracking. A school could well test for proficiency and if the incoming student is several grade levels behind what they consider appropriate, they could put them in that lower grade level. So if someone had ideas about having their unprepared 4th grader going to a school where they would only be on par with 1st graders, the school could place them in 1st grade.

I'm sure that makes sense in your brain, and it sounds like you're making a sincere effort to add to this conversation. But this is a horrible idea - a 4th grader is 9-10 yrs old. 1st graders are 6-7 yrs old. Putting a 10 yr old in with 6 yr olds? Do you have any sense of how that would be for the 10 yr old from a socio-emotional perspective? And how older kids would see and probably tease that 10 yr old for being in a 1st grade class? This is a terrible idea.

That's the point. It's a terrible idea to put a 9-10 year old in with 6-7 year olds, but it's also just as terrible of an idea to put a kid with little or no Mandarin proficiency in with an immersion group of kids who are 4 years in.

So because the kid is not on fourth grade level Mandarin, Spanish! French, whatever, the kid should be held back academically if she wants to learn a second language. How ridiculous. What if the kid is on grade level or above in English or math.

Isn't the point of immersion to be that the language is part of the ENTIRE curriculum? Meaning, for that 4th grade math you also need to know the Mandarin terms involved, to include all Mandarin math terms for grade 1-4? It sounds like you aren't really grasping the concept of immersion and instead think it's just a separate Mandarin class.

I know exactly what it means. I've been involved with it for the last five years. You still did not answer the question regarding a kid who is proficient in 5th grade math and reading being placed in second grade math because he cannot speak or read Mandarin, especially when one year later, the school will offer sixth grade to non-mandarin speaking students.

It's not up to me to answer that question since I'm not the one running the show, but in my opinion, if it were to happen, something would have to change. Either the student would have to get a whole lot of rapid, intensive, tailored tutoring to catch up on all the concepts that they didn't have (and I don't think there's any extra money that's going to materialize for that) or they would have to go into a separate track that's very watered down with regard to the language component - which would defeat the purpose of immersion. I don't know what magical solution you had in mind, but in my opinion, it ends up being problematic any way you slice it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe the law allows for tracking, and for testing to be done for tracking. A school could well test for proficiency and if the incoming student is several grade levels behind what they consider appropriate, they could put them in that lower grade level. So if someone had ideas about having their unprepared 4th grader going to a school where they would only be on par with 1st graders, the school could place them in 1st grade.

I'm sure that makes sense in your brain, and it sounds like you're making a sincere effort to add to this conversation. But this is a horrible idea - a 4th grader is 9-10 yrs old. 1st graders are 6-7 yrs old. Putting a 10 yr old in with 6 yr olds? Do you have any sense of how that would be for the 10 yr old from a socio-emotional perspective? And how older kids would see and probably tease that 10 yr old for being in a 1st grade class? This is a terrible idea.

That's the point. It's a terrible idea to put a 9-10 year old in with 6-7 year olds, but it's also just as terrible of an idea to put a kid with little or no Mandarin proficiency in with an immersion group of kids who are 4 years in.

So because the kid is not on fourth grade level Mandarin, Spanish! French, whatever, the kid should be held back academically if she wants to learn a second language. How ridiculous. What if the kid is on grade level or above in English or math.

Isn't the point of immersion to be that the language is part of the ENTIRE curriculum? Meaning, for that 4th grade math you also need to know the Mandarin terms involved, to include all Mandarin math terms for grade 1-4? It sounds like you aren't really grasping the concept of immersion and instead think it's just a separate Mandarin class.

I know exactly what it means. I've been involved with it for the last five years. You still did not answer the question regarding a kid who is proficient in 5th grade math and reading being placed in second grade math because he cannot speak or read Mandarin, especially when one year later, the school will offer sixth grade to non-mandarin speaking students.

It's not up to me to answer that question since I'm not the one running the show, but in my opinion, if it were to happen, something would have to change. Either the student would have to get a whole lot of rapid, intensive, tailored tutoring to catch up on all the concepts that they didn't have (and I don't think there's any extra money that's going to materialize for that) or they would have to go into a separate track that's very watered down with regard to the language component - which would defeat the purpose of immersion. I don't know what magical solution you had in mind, but in my opinion, it ends up being problematic any way you slice it.

And that is exactly why YY has decided, and I agree, to limit the entrance year to second grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe the law allows for tracking, and for testing to be done for tracking. A school could well test for proficiency and if the incoming student is several grade levels behind what they consider appropriate, they could put them in that lower grade level. So if someone had ideas about having their unprepared 4th grader going to a school where they would only be on par with 1st graders, the school could place them in 1st grade.

I'm sure that makes sense in your brain, and it sounds like you're making a sincere effort to add to this conversation. But this is a horrible idea - a 4th grader is 9-10 yrs old. 1st graders are 6-7 yrs old. Putting a 10 yr old in with 6 yr olds? Do you have any sense of how that would be for the 10 yr old from a socio-emotional perspective? And how older kids would see and probably tease that 10 yr old for being in a 1st grade class? This is a terrible idea.

That's the point. It's a terrible idea to put a 9-10 year old in with 6-7 year olds, but it's also just as terrible of an idea to put a kid with little or no Mandarin proficiency in with an immersion group of kids who are 4 years in.

So because the kid is not on fourth grade level Mandarin, Spanish! French, whatever, the kid should be held back academically if she wants to learn a second language. How ridiculous. What if the kid is on grade level or above in English or math.

Isn't the point of immersion to be that the language is part of the ENTIRE curriculum? Meaning, for that 4th grade math you also need to know the Mandarin terms involved, to include all Mandarin math terms for grade 1-4? It sounds like you aren't really grasping the concept of immersion and instead think it's just a separate Mandarin class.

I know exactly what it means. I've been involved with it for the last five years. You still did not answer the question regarding a kid who is proficient in 5th grade math and reading being placed in second grade math because he cannot speak or read Mandarin, especially when one year later, the school will offer sixth grade to non-mandarin speaking students.

It's not up to me to answer that question since I'm not the one running the show, but in my opinion, if it were to happen, something would have to change. Either the student would have to get a whole lot of rapid, intensive, tailored tutoring to catch up on all the concepts that they didn't have (and I don't think there's any extra money that's going to materialize for that) or they would have to go into a separate track that's very watered down with regard to the language component - which would defeat the purpose of immersion. I don't know what magical solution you had in mind, but in my opinion, it ends up being problematic any way you slice it.

And that is exactly why YY has decided, and I agree, to limit the entrance year to second grade.

Yes, yes and yes. And please, let this be the last time this one person (or maybe there are more than one who make up problems to solve that aren't at issue in this thread) let this be the last time anyone brings up this ridiculous issue of kids who don't speak Mandarin getting into YY in the 3-5 grades and being lost. Kids aren't admitted in 3-5 grades, and at 6th grade once DCI opens, kids who don't speak Mandarin can join the kids from the other schools who don't speak Mandarin in beginner Mandarin. No one has a policy or is proposing a policy where non-proficient kids would get thrown in in 3-5 grades, and it's an endless waste of everyone's time for this 1 or 2 people to keep acting like it's an issue or is proposed. It's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone! I'm very late to this discussion and haven't read all 17 pages. But I **LOVE** Yu Ying, so I thought I'd share my opinions here, like it or not!

1. "Go start your own Mandarin immersion school if you don't like it."
Actually, sooner or later, this will happen! Just like we have at least two DC charters that teach Spanish, there is more than enough demand for a second Chinese charter school. Perhaps one that focused on traditional characters instead of simplified? Or which offered elective Cantonese? Don't underestimate what DC parents can create.

2. "Yu Ying was just started by a bunch of parents with no experience in education"
And what an amazing job these parents have done! A top-ranked charter school, new campus, international high school, IB accreditation. Applause for the parents! And think of what would have happened had the teacher's unions and "professional" educators been allowed to continue with business as usual before the charter schools came.

3. "I believe the law allows for tracking"
Yes, in fact, Yu Ying already tracks its uppermost grade! And it needs to! Not all kids are going to be at the same level of Chinese; they vary tremendously. Therefore the need to track. Most all schools "track" students in English readers; the advanced kids don't read the same books as the remedial readers.

4. "We need a way to test-in older kids who already speak some Mandarin" Yes, we do, and YY will find a way to do it! The main issue is that students are lost due to natural attrition in the older grades. Let the new students in to replace them! If they speak Mandarin already all the better!

That's it for now guys! Sorry if I seem obnoxiously positive, but some people don't realize what a GREAT school we have and prefer to pick petty fights here! Appreciate what we have!

1. This would be wonderful. But, if it is started in DC, they will not be allowed to do test-in. But they can flaunt the law until they get caught like LAMB, and then it will cease.

2. You are incorrect. YY does not track. The school does differential teaching in the classrooms. In my child's third grade class, the children's reading level range from K-Q. Some students are performing fractions with ease, while others are still laboring under 3 digit addition. The teachers work with the varying levels in one class room. If there was tracking, the advanced students would be in one class and the lower performing students in another. Finally, the students on grade level would be among their peers. There are five classes so enough students for tracking, but no tracking.

3. Your number 4 is also incorrect. YY is busy developing a 6-12 grade school, a p3 class, and an enlargement of its current YY campus. Any attrition gaps from grades 3-5 will be closed with the new incoming 6 graders. At this point why should or would YY expend any of their hard-earned political and economic capital trying to get a test-in for a few privileged families.

PP thank you for setting this other parent straight. They were indeed wrong on these points.

Bottom line is, for this year and the next at least, it's not going to change. No test in, no kids admitted in 2-5 grades (and pretty sure YY is hoping to close new admissions at 1st grade instead of 2nd soon, which they CAN do). DCI will take care of attrition, and at this point the class sizes already take attrition into account at the later grades. So right now, attrition is not the problem at YY that some of you want to make it out to be.

At this point I think we can assume that there is either one or two bitter or "challenged" parents who don't care that this can't happen now or that there is no issue with kids who don't speak the language getting in in the middle grades, and just because they like making people repeat themselves for 18 pages or because they are too dense to grasp these points, they are just going to continue asking for something that YY cannot (and some would say should not) change. Either way, if it gets posed again, we know that that is the case.