Has anyone left an immersion school for a tradtional school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of families who've left two different DCI feeders for Shepherd. They seem happy, and active in the school.

Why would you do that? I guess if you were REALLY unhappy at a school... Strikes me as a poor choice.

Why do you think someone would be unhappy at Shepherd if they don't like their current school? Are you one of those language immersion fanatics?

NP, but if Shepherd were inherently desirable, it should have more IB students. It seems to be more of a haven for refugees like Hardy.

Sigh. We've been over and over this but I'll explain again, slowly for you:

1. Many of the children who live in Sheperd Park are Jewish children whose Jewish parents chose that neighborhood so their families could walk to synagogue. They send their children to private Jewish schools like JPDS and they were never, ever going to choose a public school, Sheperd, YY, or otherwise.

2. A lot of homeownvers in SP are long-time, older owners who do not have small children. Census stats bear this out. When they don't have kids in the local school, that frees up more spots for OOB kids. Unlike, say, AU Park and CCDC, where most households have kids < age of 18

It seems the Jewish population skews decidedly more Bethesda/Friendship Heights/Chevy Chase than Shepherd's Park. Not only that, Jewish families are fine with public schools - so long as they are high quality public schools (see: Bethesda, Potomac/Rockville).

[Anonymous]

OMG, last two Shepherd Park PPs, thanks for writing pretty much exactly what I was going to write! Especially the parts about the high % of Jewish residents in SP and the older high SES AA families in the neighborhood preferring privates over DCPS.

Only other thing I'd add is that a decade or so ago, Rhee fired Shepherd's principal. This was followed by a period of instability including several principals in a short period of time. Also, there was a split among families about the direction of the school, with some wanting dual-language and others wanting International Baccalaureate program implemented. A flight of many IB families followed, many of whom moved their kids to private or WOTP schools. This was all told to me by families with older kids in the neighborhood.

With the new families moving in, many are starting to send their kids to Shepherd, so I'm guessing that in the next few years the IB percentage will start to increase significantly, similar to what it was prior to 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of families who've left two different DCI feeders for Shepherd. They seem happy, and active in the school.

Why would you do that? I guess if you were REALLY unhappy at a school... Strikes me as a poor choice.

Why do you think someone would be unhappy at Shepherd if they don't like their current school? Are you one of those language immersion fanatics?

NP, but if Shepherd were inherently desirable, it should have more IB students. It seems to be more of a haven for refugees like Hardy.

Sigh. We've been over and over this but I'll explain again, slowly for you:

1. Many of the children who live in Sheperd Park are Jewish children whose Jewish parents chose that neighborhood so their families could walk to synagogue. They send their children to private Jewish schools like JPDS and they were never, ever going to choose a public school, Sheperd, YY, or otherwise.

2. A lot of homeownvers in SP are long-time, older owners who do not have small children. Census stats bear this out. When they don't have kids in the local school, that frees up more spots for OOB kids. Unlike, say, AU Park and CCDC, where most households have kids < age of 18

It seems the Jewish population skews decidedly more Bethesda/Friendship Heights/Chevy Chase than Shepherd's Park. Not only that, Jewish families are fine with public schools - so long as they are high quality public schools (see: Bethesda, Potomac/Rockville).

I'm guessing these families skew more less religious than in SP. Those in SP are observant Jews, for the most part. There are two synagogues in SP--Ohev Shalom is conservative and Tifereth is modern orthodox.

[Anonymous]

^^^Whoops, *less religious* than in SP.

[Anonymous]

SP peeps, just ignore the trolling. I don't understand why a fact that someone said a few DCI feeder kids opted for Shepherd would warrant such dogging. It doesn't make sense. Fwiw, our neighbor in SP is a leader at a sought after DCI feeder and opted for Deal over DCI. People make decisions for various reasons, no need to rag on the great OOB kids that attend Shepherd to prove some competitive urge you have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have former MV, Stokes, and DCPS bilingual students at our non-language charter. We also have former students of ours that are now at those schools. It happens all the time, constant merry-go-round.

+1. It seems Yu Ying and Lamb are is the only schools students don't leave, even wotp elementary school students come to our charter. And we've lost students to the major players too. Round and round the merry go round.

Families do leave YY and Lamb, just not in the numbers you see at the other immersion charters. We switched from YY to a MoCo immersion program in Rockville, where we're happier. We know other families who switched to Sidwell for their strong Chinese program. We like being on track for very strong instruction in Chinese, as well as English, math etc., in MS and HS, all the way to small Higher Level International Baccalaureate 11th-12th grade Mandarin classes at Richard Montgomery HS or Bethesda Chevy Chase.

Was it hard to get into College Gardens and how does it compare? We're at LAMB in the lower grades and will be moving to either Maryland or Virginia and hopefully to an immersion. LAMB is not the Shangrila people like to perpetrate on here. The program and teachers are amazing, however, the peer group leaves a lot to be desired. I can't experiment on my son and hope it works out, so away we go.

I doubt this is a lamb parent only because their peer group would be the same one since PK4, right? This makes no sense to me. It reminds me of my friend who would bash mundo verse on here to increase the chances her kids would get in. Maybe if she persuaded one kid not to list MV she'd improve her kids' chances by a little bit.

Yeah, I'm a LAMB parent and I can't imagine what PP is talking about. Or rather, all I can imagine is that this is a way of saying the school is more diverse than s/he can handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have former MV, Stokes, and DCPS bilingual students at our non-language charter. We also have former students of ours that are now at those schools. It happens all the time, constant merry-go-round.

+1. It seems Yu Ying and Lamb are is the only schools students don't leave, even wotp elementary school students come to our charter. And we've lost students to the major players too. Round and round the merry go round.

Families do leave YY and Lamb, just not in the numbers you see at the other immersion charters. We switched from YY to a MoCo immersion program in Rockville, where we're happier. We know other families who switched to Sidwell for their strong Chinese program. We like being on track for very strong instruction in Chinese, as well as English, math etc., in MS and HS, all the way to small Higher Level International Baccalaureate 11th-12th grade Mandarin classes at Richard Montgomery HS or Bethesda Chevy Chase.

Was it hard to get into College Gardens and how does it compare? We're at LAMB in the lower grades and will be moving to either Maryland or Virginia and hopefully to an immersion. LAMB is not the Shangrila people like to perpetrate on here. The program and teachers are amazing, however, the peer group leaves a lot to be desired. I can't experiment on my son and hope it works out, so away we go.

I doubt this is a lamb parent only because their peer group would be the same one since PK4, right? This makes no sense to me. It reminds me of my friend who would bash mundo verse on here to increase the chances her kids would get in. Maybe if she persuaded one kid not to list MV she'd improve her kids' chances by a little bit.

Yeah, I'm a LAMB parent and I can't imagine what PP is talking about. Or rather, all I can imagine is that this is a way of saying the school is more diverse than s/he can handle.

A little ironic given how much less diverse LAMB is now compared to just a couple years ago.

[Anonymous]

Yeah that sounded like a fake post.

[Anonymous]

I love it that when someone criticizes the top Spanish immersion HRCS, it's henchmen troll on out! Y'all are fake. Truth be told, LAMB is great, but there are discipline issues like with any school. They manage them very well. Also, the peer group changes for kids entering 1st and 4th. With a hat, there may b concerns. Trolls who are mad at the truth, go back in Nader your bridge now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have former MV, Stokes, and DCPS bilingual students at our non-language charter. We also have former students of ours that are now at those schools. It happens all the time, constant merry-go-round.

+1. It seems Yu Ying and Lamb are is the only schools students don't leave, even wotp elementary school students come to our charter. And we've lost students to the major players too. Round and round the merry go round.

Ha, we moved our DC out of YY to another non-immersion charter. Several parents have left YY for different reasons, especially around grades 3- 4. I have no idea why you would think YY is immune from parents seeking better fits for their DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love it that when someone criticizes the top Spanish immersion HRCS, it's henchmen troll on out! Y'all are fake. Truth be told, LAMB is great, but there are discipline issues like with any school. They manage them very well. Also, the peer group changes for kids entering 1st and 4th. With a hat, there may b concerns. Trolls who are mad at the truth, go back in Nader your bridge now.

??? Lamb only accepts kids in prek3/4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of families who've left two different DCI feeders for Shepherd. They seem happy, and active in the school.

Why would you do that? I guess if you were REALLY unhappy at a school... Strikes me as a poor choice.

DEAL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it that when someone criticizes the top Spanish immersion HRCS, it's henchmen troll on out! Y'all are fake. Truth be told, LAMB is great, but there are discipline issues like with any school. They manage them very well. Also, the peer group changes for kids entering 1st and 4th. With a hat, there may b concerns. Trolls who are mad at the truth, go back in Nader your bridge now.

??? Lamb only accepts kids in prek3/4.

And your point is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it that when someone criticizes the top Spanish immersion HRCS, it's henchmen troll on out! Y'all are fake. Truth be told, LAMB is great, but there are discipline issues like with any school. They manage them very well. Also, the peer group changes for kids entering 1st and 4th. With a hat, there may b concerns. Trolls who are mad at the truth, go back in Nader your bridge now.

??? Lamb only accepts kids in prek3/4.

And your point is?

NP. I guess the "Nader" poster suggests that a lot of kids leave LAMB for 1st grade? I never heard that before, but who knows. Of course people leave even the HRCS immersion programs for greener pastures. Although sometimes those seem to be other immersion programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of families who've left two different DCI feeders for Shepherd. They seem happy, and active in the school.

Why would you do that? I guess if you were REALLY unhappy at a school... Strikes me as a poor choice.

Why do you think someone would be unhappy at Shepherd if they don't like their current school? Are you one of those language immersion fanatics?

NP, but if Shepherd were inherently desirable, it should have more IB students. It seems to be more of a haven for refugees like Hardy.

Not at all. Most of my Shepherd neighbors are at Big 3 privates or Lowell or private Jewish schools (some at language charters). Not an indictment of the quality of Shepherd. They would be at those schools no matter where they lived. Even if it is a haven (a la Hardy) what's wrong with that? Doesn't make it a bad school because people OOB desire the vacant spots left by private going families.

Yet, the Mann and Key catchment areas are at least as wealthy as Shepherd, and they attend their neighborhood ES. Why the difference?

Don't they break off around the third grade to attend the privates?