Charter School board is approving new schools!

[Anonymous]

I feel like I should be excited about another middle school, and yet, I'm not.

IT will go through 8th. Not sure about CM.

My guess is this school mostly hopes to attract DCPS kids from EotP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just approved Washington Global - a middle school with Spanish and Chinese.

Soon up Arabic school.

Another language immersion school

What the hell is wrong with you? As if learning another language is a bad thing?

Not the poster to whom you are responding, but why not a math immersion school or a science immersion school or a literature immersion school?

[Anonymous]

1:13 What are you talking about? Literature immersion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1:13 What are you talking about? Literature immersion?

They speak only in literary quotes.

[Anonymous]

There is a demand for language immersion, however I'm hoping for well rounded middle school i.e DEAL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:only 240 kids at the end of 5 years in grades 6-8? i worry about their ability to survive....

They may pull in students from traditional DCPS dual language schools or maybe some DCI feeders depending on location.

They originally said they're looking at Ward 3. Depending on their financing, Mass. Ave. isn't out of the question.

Doubtful that any DCI families would switch schools to jump in - why give up on a solid investment and a sure thing? However, it could attract like-minded families who didn't get into DCI.

Sorry, it was the Arabic immersion school that was looking at Ward 3. Not the MS Washington Global.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. I wish charters would branch out from the language emphasis. Languages are good but hardly the only thing that matters! Would prefer that the school focuses on instruction instead of being distracted by trying to hire native speakers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I wish charters would branch out from the language emphasis. Languages are good but hardly the only thing that matters! Would prefer that the school focuses on instruction instead of being distracted by trying to hire native speakers.

You say that as if doing both is impossible. It's not. Time will mainly tell, but the language immersion schools I'm most familiar with strive to do both really well. We'll all see how students do as these schools are open for 10 and 15 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I wish charters would branch out from the language emphasis. Languages are good but hardly the only thing that matters! Would prefer that the school focuses on instruction instead of being distracted by trying to hire native speakers.

You say that as if doing both is impossible. It's not. Time will mainly tell, but the language immersion schools I'm most familiar with strive to do both really well. We'll all see how students do as these schools are open for 10 and 15 years.

Agree with this.

foreign language learning is much more a cognitive problem solving activity than a linguistic activity, overall. Studies have shown repeatedly that foreign language learning increases critical thinking skills, creativity, and flexibility of mind in young children. Students who are learning a foreign language out-score their non-foreign language learning peers in the verbal and, surprisingly to some, the math sections of standardized tests. This relationship between foreign language study and increased mathematical skill development, particularly in the area of problem solving, points once again to the fact that second language learning is more of a cognitive than linguistic activity.
A 2007 study in Harwich, Massachusetts, showed that students who studied a foreign language in an articulated sequence outperformed their non-foreign language learning peers on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test after two-three years and significantly outperformed them after seven-eight years on all MCAS subtests.

Furthermore, there is research (Webb bibliography) that shows that children who study a foreign language, even when this second language study takes time away from the study of mathematics, outperform (on standardized tests of mathematics) students who do not study a foreign language and have more mathematical instruction during the school day. Again, this research upholds the notion that learning a second language is an exercise in cognitive problem solving and that the effects of second language instruction are directly transferable to the area of mathematical skill development.

http://tip.duke.edu/node/866

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I wish charters would branch out from the language emphasis. Languages are good but hardly the only thing that matters! Would prefer that the school focuses on instruction instead of being distracted by trying to hire native speakers.

You say that as if doing both is impossible. It's not. Time will mainly tell, but the language immersion schools I'm most familiar with strive to do both really well. We'll all see how students do as these schools are open for 10 and 15 years.

NP here. I don't think the poster was saying that it's impossible. But everyone does not want their kid in a language immersion school. I personally did not want my child in an immersion school because said child gets bored easily, and enjoys constant change. I didn't want to risk her failing in school because she didn't enjoy the language being taught. I have no problems with my child learning a language as an add on in school (as she is). I just wouldn't want it to be the focus. I think it's great that there are different styles and opportunities of learning in the district. And I don't see one being more effective then the other. You just have to choose what's best for your child.

[Anonymous]

I skimmed the nicely written and presented Global proposal and what I see is the same old overly ambitious vision due to the limitations the system places on such charters. As per usual, they're not in a position to bring in native speakers as groups to give the program oomph, they're not going to have enough kids to do meaningful ability grouping/differentiation/tracking, they're not necessarily going to get enough well-prepared students to excel in studying either language, they're not going to be in a position to replace drop-outs with bilingual/biliterate kids in a systematic way, their facilities are unlikely to be very good etc.

If they locate both the incubator space and permanent space on or near Capitol Hill they'll do better than if they don't. This program would work much better as a DCPS, or DCPS-charter hybrid, by-right school for Capitol Hill and Penn Quarter with the Tyler Spanish Immersion and Thompson and Brent kids (who study some Chinese) feeding into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just approved Washington Global - a middle school with Spanish and Chinese.

Soon up Arabic school.

Another language immersion school

Most of these parents don't give a flying fart about foreign language. "Language Immersion" is just a filter to keep the "riff-raff" out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I wish charters would branch out from the language emphasis. Languages are good but hardly the only thing that matters! Would prefer that the school focuses on instruction instead of being distracted by trying to hire native speakers.

You say that as if doing both is impossible. It's not. Time will mainly tell, but the language immersion schools I'm most familiar with strive to do both really well. We'll all see how students do as these schools are open for 10 and 15 years.

NP here. I don't think the poster was saying that it's impossible. But everyone does not want their kid in a language immersion school. I personally did not want my child in an immersion school because said child gets bored easily, and enjoys constant change. I didn't want to risk her failing in school because she didn't enjoy the language being taught. I have no problems with my child learning a language as an add on in school (as she is). I just wouldn't want it to be the focus. I think it's great that there are different styles and opportunities of learning in the district. And I don't see one being more effective then the other. You just have to choose what's best for your child.

Charters are specialty schools. No was "has" to attend them. Everyone gets a general neighborhood school to which they may send their kids, or they can apply OOB to other schools or move IB for another school.

If you want a charter that is not language immersion, then you can put in the 4+ years with 10-15 other people get an application together and have it approved by the charter board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I wish charters would branch out from the language emphasis. Languages are good but hardly the only thing that matters! Would prefer that the school focuses on instruction instead of being distracted by trying to hire native speakers.

You say that as if doing both is impossible. It's not. Time will mainly tell, but the language immersion schools I'm most familiar with strive to do both really well. We'll all see how students do as these schools are open for 10 and 15 years.

NP here. I don't think the poster was saying that it's impossible. But everyone does not want their kid in a language immersion school. I personally did not want my child in an immersion school because said child gets bored easily, and enjoys constant change. I didn't want to risk her failing in school because she didn't enjoy the language being taught. I have no problems with my child learning a language as an add on in school (as she is). I just wouldn't want it to be the focus. I think it's great that there are different styles and opportunities of learning in the district. And I don't see one being more effective then the other. You just have to choose what's best for your child.

Charters are specialty schools. No was "has" to attend them. Everyone gets a general neighborhood school to which they may send their kids, or they can apply OOB to other schools or move IB for another school.

If you want a charter that is not language immersion, then you can put in the 4+ years with 10-15 other people get an application together and have it approved by the charter board.

I'm aware that charter schools are specialty schools. My daughter attends one, that is shockingly NOT immersion. Language is not the only specialty around here....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just approved Washington Global - a middle school with Spanish and Chinese.

Soon up Arabic school.

Another language immersion school

What the hell is wrong with you? As if learning another language is a bad thing?

Not the poster to whom you are responding, but why not a math immersion school or a science immersion school or a literature immersion school?

The closest that comes to math or science immersion is Basis and even they got a lot of resistance and complaint for pushing as hard on math and science as they do. I can't even imagine a public charter school successfully pushing it even farther than Basis does in this political climate.