List of Spanish Immersion Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What type of Chinese characters does YY emphasize? There is my ignorance, I didn't know there was any other kind of character for Mandarin Chinese than traditional... what other kind is there and what does YY teach?

There's traditional characters, then there are simplified. Mainland China uses simplified, whereas Taiwan, Hong Kong and most overseas communities use traditional characters. About 2/3 of the characters are the same, traditional or simplified. But the more complex traditional ones were "simplified" by Chairman Mao and his cohorts in ways which totally obliterate the original traditional character. This is a problem for language learners. Traditional characters are easier for foreigners to recognize because they are more distinct and the character itself holds clues to its meaning. There's also a few traditional characters that were dropped altogether, resulting in one simplified character holding multiple meanings. It is generally considered to be much easier to go from knowing traditional characters to simplified, than from simplified to traditional.

YY teaches simplified characters. It is a great school, of course, but in my humble opinion they made a big mistake upon founding the school when they decided to eschew traditional characters.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, that's very interesting. I appreciate the history too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right, look very carefully at the % low income students. LAMB is low (24%) while Bancroft is high (80%), and this is reflected in the scores. This is what determines scores, people.

Please be careful in your statement, just because a school has a high srudent population of low income doesn't mean the scores are going to be low...

[Anonymous]

PP can u give an example in dc where that isn't the case?

[Anonymous]

NP. Kipp schools: high FARM, high scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, look very carefully at the % low income students. LAMB is low (24%) while Bancroft is high (80%), and this is reflected in the scores. This is what determines scores, people.

Please be careful in your statement, just because a school has a high srudent population of low income doesn't mean the scores are going to be low...

Except in extremely rare cases, that is exactly what it means.

[Anonymous]

YY's DC CAS scores have been embarrassing to say the least.

[Anonymous]

Back to the thread discussion about Spanish Immersion/Bilingual schools; does anyone have any insight on DC Bilingual Public Charter Schools (CentroNia)? I tried to email them about Open Houses and lottery applications but the email bounced.

We hope we can get into Mundo Verde; my coworker's daughter was in the inaugural PreK4 class and she loves it. She did not have any Spanish exposure but can now hold simple conversations. We are not holding our breath though because we heard that last year they had 900 applications for 15 slots.

Good luck to all and thanks very much-

[Anonymous]

The same people are applying for all of the spots. I say play all the lotteries and then you can figure it out.

I did the Centro Nia. They have DC Bilingual and they have a pre-school on Harvard Street. It's not free like DC Bilingual PS-3, but the payments are lower than most of other pre-schools and you can put your kids name on it now.

The chances on DC Bilingual are even lower than most of the other PS3 immersion. Again, play all the lotteries and see what you get. What I did last year was start a spreadsheet with open houses info, application due date, lottery, website address, address, contact person and info and the after/before care situation. Only way to keep track. Also, check when the lottery for DCPS application date is, you need to be on top of that. You do not get preference IB at PS3/PK4 level.

[Anonymous]

11:24 P Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and helpful tips!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the thread discussion about Spanish Immersion/Bilingual schools; does anyone have any insight on DC Bilingual Public Charter Schools (CentroNia)? I tried to email them about Open Houses and lottery applications but the email bounced.

We hope we can get into Mundo Verde; my coworker's daughter was in the inaugural PreK4 class and she loves it. She did not have any Spanish exposure but can now hold simple conversations. We are not holding our breath though because we heard that last year they had 900 applications for 15 slots.

Good luck to all and thanks very much-

DC Bilingual is a Tier 2 school. The performance report is on charter board site.

http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/data/images/044-dcbilingual_es11-12.pdf

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for a DC Pubic Charter that has a PK2 program... anyone have a clue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm looking for a DC Pubic Charter that has a PK2 program... anyone have a clue?

NONE!!! Kids have to be 3 by Sept for most charters and by Dec 31 for just a few charters.

Guess you have to keep staying at home or paying for daycare.

[Anonymous]

I have to say I am a little bit repulsed by the parents in my neighborhood who unabashedly point to the English Language Learner (ELL) population at Bruce-Monroe and the number of non-white students and think that they are listing good reasons not to send their (presumably white) children to the school. I admit that the test scores are not good, which you would expect from a large ELL population taking English standardized tests. That doesn't mean that your child is going to score poorly if you send them there. From what I have seen of the school, the instruction is superb, the staff work hard to bring in wonderful programming, including partnerships with DC Ballet, DC United (Soccer) and the DC symphony.

Ultimately, it is a problem that BMPV does not have any non-Hispanic white students, but it's a problem for our community and not an indicator that the school is bad. I think judging a school solely based on its demographic profile is pretty deplorable, and we should all be ashamed to make our decisions in this way because it does real harm to our community and de-values our neighborhood school and its dedicated teachers and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to say I am a little bit repulsed by the parents in my neighborhood who unabashedly point to the English Language Learner (ELL) population at Bruce-Monroe and the number of non-white students and think that they are listing good reasons not to send their (presumably white) children to the school. I admit that the test scores are not good, which you would expect from a large ELL population taking English standardized tests. That doesn't mean that your child is going to score poorly if you send them there. From what I have seen of the school, the instruction is superb, the staff work hard to bring in wonderful programming, including partnerships with DC Ballet, DC United (Soccer) and the DC symphony.

Ultimately, it is a problem that BMPV does not have any non-Hispanic white students, but it's a problem for our community and not an indicator that the school is bad. I think judging a school solely based on its demographic profile is pretty deplorable, and we should all be ashamed to make our decisions in this way because it does real harm to our community and de-values our neighborhood school and its dedicated teachers and families.

+1000