World Language transfer request for HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So if the option has been removed yet the child still wants to take the language course and the course isn't available via FCPS Online or Virtual VA, what are the options for the child? My child is interested in Russian and we are in the Mclean HS district so we weren't thinking of doing this solely to get to Langley (because there's no difference in my mind between the two, except for capacity issues which I don't consider excessive) but my kid really wants to add Russian as a language when he gets to high school. What are the options on this?

A pp posted this: “ Or, you could ask for your student to be allowed to go to the school for just one period like students do for academy classes, then return to your neighborhood school for everything else. You would need to provide transportation to and fro, which can be a hassle, but if your kid has a strong interest in the language the hassle might be worth it to you.”

I believe in the past, there were a few McLean students who took Russian first period at Langley, and then took the rest of their classes at McLean. I think the transfer time was during Highlander time- so they did not have to give up class time to facilitate it or possibly, they did it around the lunch periods. Schedules may have changed and the practice may have been eliminated a while ago.

OP here: that's a bigger problem for me. I work. I would have been able to do drop off and pick up from Langley if it were the whole day, but I can't do that just for 1 period. Some folks are saying it can be done online. I'm hoping that is a path we can explore. I'd hate to tell him that taking Russian for credit in FCPS is no longer possible for him.

Why Russian?

Is it just trying yo find any possible loophole to attend Langley?

OP was very clear in a prior post that her kid had a sincere issue in Russian and wasn’t just looking to transfer to Langley.

A Langley student wanting to take German would be in a similar situation, since Langley doesn’t offer German.

The elimination of a pupil placement option for foreign language because it has been “abused” by some is just another example of the type of half-assed decisions made under Reid. And of course a School Board member like Robyn Lady will likely be of little help.

I disagree.

I think eliminating language transfers but offering online or virtual is a great solution.

DP. Online or virtual is not equivalent to in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So if the option has been removed yet the child still wants to take the language course and the course isn't available via FCPS Online or Virtual VA, what are the options for the child? My child is interested in Russian and we are in the Mclean HS district so we weren't thinking of doing this solely to get to Langley (because there's no difference in my mind between the two, except for capacity issues which I don't consider excessive) but my kid really wants to add Russian as a language when he gets to high school. What are the options on this?

A pp posted this: “ Or, you could ask for your student to be allowed to go to the school for just one period like students do for academy classes, then return to your neighborhood school for everything else. You would need to provide transportation to and fro, which can be a hassle, but if your kid has a strong interest in the language the hassle might be worth it to you.”

I believe in the past, there were a few McLean students who took Russian first period at Langley, and then took the rest of their classes at McLean. I think the transfer time was during Highlander time- so they did not have to give up class time to facilitate it or possibly, they did it around the lunch periods. Schedules may have changed and the practice may have been eliminated a while ago.

OP here: that's a bigger problem for me. I work. I would have been able to do drop off and pick up from Langley if it were the whole day, but I can't do that just for 1 period. Some folks are saying it can be done online. I'm hoping that is a path we can explore. I'd hate to tell him that taking Russian for credit in FCPS is no longer possible for him.

Why Russian?

Is it just trying yo find any possible loophole to attend Langley?

OP was very clear in a prior post that her kid had a sincere issue in Russian and wasn’t just looking to transfer to Langley.

A Langley student wanting to take German would be in a similar situation, since Langley doesn’t offer German.

The elimination of a pupil placement option for foreign language because it has been “abused” by some is just another example of the type of half-assed decisions made under Reid. And of course a School Board member like Robyn Lady will likely be of little help.

I disagree.

I think eliminating language transfers but offering online or virtual is a great solution.

DP. Online or virtual is not equivalent to in the classroom.

DD did a year of foreign language online. It is *extremely* difficult to do. Her online learning consisted of 8-10 minute videos (if that). She was given a WL transfer in her sophomore year, and is at a non-base school now. No idea how she is impacted by this decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The language transfer option was removed in the past month. It’s a shame that so many people seem to have abused that option, and now kids who legitimately have an interest in a particular language won’t be able to transfer.

“Abused” that option?
Why is this worse than using the remaining option of IB/AP transfers?

dp. Many kids didn't enroll in the language for which they transferred.

How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The language transfer option was removed in the past month. It’s a shame that so many people seem to have abused that option, and now kids who legitimately have an interest in a particular language won’t be able to transfer.

“Abused” that option?
Why is this worse than using the remaining option of IB/AP transfers?

dp. Many kids didn't enroll in the language for which they transferred.

Yes, this.

Or they used the IB option to transfer to an AP school, but only took 1 AP class/year that was also offered at their base school, or switched to easier Dual Enrollment junior and senior year instead of AP.

Freshmen should never be allowed to transfer for AP. There are hardly any AP classes offered to freshmen, and those 1-2 classes could be offered at every school to completely eliminate freshmen AP transfers.

My son is a freshman at Langley and he is taking 3 AP classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The language transfer option was removed in the past month. It’s a shame that so many people seem to have abused that option, and now kids who legitimately have an interest in a particular language won’t be able to transfer.

“Abused” that option?
Why is this worse than using the remaining option of IB/AP transfers?

dp. Many kids didn't enroll in the language for which they transferred.

How do you know this?

It sounds like BS. We were never given the option of DD not enrolling in the language that she transferred for.

[Anonymous]

What happens if the student does enroll and finds the class too difficult or doesn't like it and drops the class. Does the student stay at the school or do they have to go back to their home school. I can see people doing this. Especially for top tier schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The language transfer option was removed in the past month. It’s a shame that so many people seem to have abused that option, and now kids who legitimately have an interest in a particular language won’t be able to transfer.

“Abused” that option?
Why is this worse than using the remaining option of IB/AP transfers?

IB/AP is a programmatic difference that influences the entirety of a kids schedule. Foreign Language is one class. That is the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if the student does enroll and finds the class too difficult or doesn't like it and drops the class. Does the student stay at the school or do they have to go back to their home school. I can see people doing this. Especially for top tier schools.

They return to their base school, at least they are supposed to return to their base school.

Kids transferring for IB or AP are required to take at least 4 IB or AP classes over the course of the 4 years that they are in HS. I think it should be at least one a year, there are 3 AP classes available to freshmen at many of the HS so that is not an excuse.

I would guess kids wanting to move for AP and a language can now only move for AP and they will be offered the option of the closest available AP HS with room for pupil placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They updated the policy recently to start enforcing the no transfers into closed high schools rule.

That policy has been in place for decades. But FCPS wasn't enforcing it, not even at overcrowded schools that have officially been closed to transfers for years, such as WSHS.

So if, for example, you are trying to use the language loophole to transfer into WSHS for German, it sounds like you are out of luck. Many people will be very grateful to hear that FCPS is stopping transfers into that closed school, if they are indeed disallowing new German language transfers going forward.

If you are trying to switch into a school with capacity, such as Lake Braddock for Japanese, then I am not sure if the transfers are still allowed. They might be locking down the entire high school transfer system after the rezoning outcry, where abuse of the foreign language transfers and IB loophole transfers was a huge point of contention.

What language and school are you trying to transfer into?

Now if they would only get rid of IB. And adding a few AP classes is not the same as attending a HS with a full AP program, the class offering at Robinson is no where close to the offerings at other AP schools. IB should be an application only option at a few HS in the County. Kids who want to take IB should be applying and committing to the IB diploma.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how transfer renewal decisions are made? What if a kid has transferred to a high school as a freshman and then next year that school closed to transfers? Are rising sophomores grandfathered in or can they be told to go back to their neighborhood high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The language transfer option was removed in the past month. It’s a shame that so many people seem to have abused that option, and now kids who legitimately have an interest in a particular language won’t be able to transfer.

How do you distinguish between abuse and a legitimate interest in a language?

The elimination of the foreign language transfer option was a major goal of Robyn Lady. She can barely speak English, so of course she looks at kids transferring to take a foreign language with suspicion. It’s a shame she didn’t just retire and go play golf with the rest of her crowd.

What about immersion kids? Does the program completely drop off for them after elementary?

[Anonymous]

I’m a world language teacher in FCPS. We have been told that language is no longer a reason that will be accepted for high school transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a world language teacher in FCPS. We have been told that language is no longer a reason that will be accepted for high school transfers.

But they are still accepting transfers for AP or IB.
Seems unfair to limit it to the closest school if the closest school doesn’t offer the student’s language that they already started in high school, considering that can affect getting into schools like UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The language transfer option was removed in the past month. It’s a shame that so many people seem to have abused that option, and now kids who legitimately have an interest in a particular language won’t be able to transfer.

“Abused” that option?
Why is this worse than using the remaining option of IB/AP transfers?

dp. Many kids didn't enroll in the language for which they transferred.

Yes, this.

Or they used the IB option to transfer to an AP school, but only took 1 AP class/year that was also offered at their base school, or switched to easier Dual Enrollment junior and senior year instead of AP.

Freshmen should never be allowed to transfer for AP. There are hardly any AP classes offered to freshmen, and those 1-2 classes could be offered at every school to completely eliminate freshmen AP transfers.

My son is a freshman at Langley and he is taking 3 AP classes.

Your right.

It was not 3 when my upperclassman was a freshman, but I see that it is 3 now.

Ever school including the IB schools can offer thos 3 low level AP classes so that there are zero IB to AP transfers freshman year.

That would quickly correct the transfer problem in FCPS, if no Freshmen could transfer high schools.

Let freshmen establish roots in their neighborhood schools before trying to escape the IB high schools. They might discover that they never want to leave their neighborhood school, which will improve the quality of all the high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a world language teacher in FCPS. We have been told that language is no longer a reason that will be accepted for high school transfers.

How are they handling the students going into levels 2-AP? Do they get grandfathered to finish their language?