What’s going on at DCI?
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Anonymous
How is that different from every other family playing the lottery? We’re all trying to get away from our IB schools. |
Anonymous
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Not everybody. A few families with strong IB schools enroll at language immersion charters all the way up, e.g. kids in-boundary for Brent at MV, or in-boundary for Lafayette at YY.
Look, in this low-performing school system nobody much cares if kids who attend an immersion ES for years and years leave barely able to speak the target language. If the kids can pass PARCC tests and the school has a high retention rate, in the eyes of system leaders, all's well. I've been floored by the abysmal IB Diploma points totals coming out of Banneker and Eastern in recent years, partly because of poor quality language instruction all the way up. DCPS could care less that most of the IB Diploma students in the system fail to earn the Diploma with the lowest possible number of pass points (around 24 points on a 24-45-point scale). I would guess that DCI admins will feel the same way once students start taking the IB Diploma exams. You need to head for privates or the burbs for quality control in learning languages in this Metro area. |
Anonymous
| Why should DCI leaders care about future test scores? With few workable 6-12 alternatives for feeder families, demand will remain high no matter how test scores or college acceptances shake out. |
Anonymous
Few WOTP families at DCI. It is filled with families with low-performing IB middle and/or high schools. See the 2018 student commute map. https://www.dcpcsb.org/dc-international-school-location-map |
Anonymous
DCI is filled with EOTP families who won the lottery to get into language immersion and escape their IB school. They won so they didn’t feel they had to move. Many WOTP families were EOTP and would have stayed there but they lost the lottery and so moved WOTP (or Maryland) if they could. It is a crap shoot and pure luck that more EOTP families send their kids to DCI. No virtue, just luck. |
Anonymous
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Yes, but not sure how "lucky" we're feeling in our 1st year at DCI. Chinese track students are grouped into required language classes, from Level 1A - Level 3B. My girl cracked the most advanced group. On a summer trip to China, we realized that she can't speak half as well as we thought she could.
I'm not thrilled with this result, or with her for-all-comers English class. She reads 2-3 years ahead of the curriculum but is in class with a bunch of kids who are behind, some far behind. The rest of her 6th grade program is OK. We're waiting to hear if she's been admitted to privates, hoping for good financial aid. |
Anonymous
this is what I fear for McFarland too. by middle school, DC needs a test in language option for kids who are coming up through the feeders and actually learning at or above grade level. I am surprised by all the parents who are so confident that McFarland will be a good school even in 10 years, its getting a weak cohort from feeders. DCI is probably getting a much stronger cohort but it could still take years to before to build a solid school. The behavioral problems are as a big an issue as classes with kids 2 grades behind (why are they even in that school). sorry, but as a parent think middle school is critical to set up for success in HS. I am surprised so many parents are willing to gamble away these difficult years so they can give their kids "immersion"-- and I say that as a parent with a kid at an immersion DCPS. I would love for her to continue with it but not if if means lousy academics overall and non stop behavioral problems. |
Anonymous
This is why we went from our Spanish immersion charter to BASIS, taking a pass on DCI, which would have been in its 2nd year when DC started. Even though we are sad our child "lost" the opportunity to practice the language at a high level, and BASIS is far from perfect, my kid (now 9th) learned has solid math, history and science skills and knowledge. ELA is weak, but we supplement for that. Also learned a lot in the electives they chose (art and drama). Middle school goes by in an instant, and I wanted to be sure DC was ready to hit the ground running in 9th. |
Anonymous
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Good for you, PP.
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Anonymous
| DCI 6th Grade parent here, I’m on the fence about DCI for high school. While it seems like admins talk a good game, lots of subjectivity in the IB scoring rubrics without many supports to help kids understand the metrics. Many teachers enter grades in Managebac late, too late for students to take advantage of the resubmit policy. I’m really just over the inconsistency between what they say they do and what they say DCI is as a school and what my kid is actually experiencing. Lots of absent teachers as well. |
Anonymous
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Can you explain these concerns a bit for us who are still in feeders?
What do you mean about subjectivity in IB scoring rubrics? What's managebac? |
Anonymous
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Managebac is the online system that many schools use - the equivalent of Aspen for DCPS.
https://www.managebac.com/ |
Anonymous
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Managebac is required for IB schools.
DCI has been an amazing school for us and we feel so fortunate to be there. |
Anonymous
This is extremely common in language immersion schools. My DH attended a British prep school in a foreign country and earned straight As. It was a very tough school with a large British ex-pat community. He had the same experience as your daughter when he came to the US. He refused to even consider a language immersion school. Immersion schools cannot offer true immersion and if no one speaks the language at home, it’s truly pointless. |
Anonymous
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Yes, but when parents crack YY and Stokes, knowing that the Mandarin and French work to keep out almost all the problem kids around, they're thrilled. But the chickens come home to roost for the parents who stay on for DCI, when the problem kids start turning up in most of their children's classes. They also figure out that all those years in immersion haven't really taught their kids to speak these languages and aren't as happy as they were a few years earlier.
Critics of the arrangement have been predicting all this for years. Yet they've been called jerks and worse (racist assholes) on these boards a lot. |