Hardy middle school .... question about the student racial make-up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep moving the goalposts.

Not rigorous enough / low test scores.
Not enough students like us.
Foreign language options don’t work for us.

What's wrong with the criteria? These are valid points taken separately or together.

Most Asian parents living in DC avoid DC public altogether, or bail after elementary school. Who is the exodus helping but MoCo realtors?

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the REDNECK URBAN SCHOOL SYSTEM.

OP, I'd myself how Asian my children are. Do they identify as Asian? Do you want them to? Are they learning an Asian language, and are you serious about the instruction? Do you plan to stay in DCPS through high school?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, I'd avoid Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like you're not allowed to talk about this stuff without being called a racist. So flame away, I guess.

My kid is going into 6th grade. Hardy is mostly black kids, some hispanic, and a few whites.

1. If you have an Asian kid, are you okay with the racial makeup of the school?
2. If you have a white kid are you okay with the racial make up of the school?

My kids are both asian and white. Dh is Asian. One dd looks Asian and one dd looks white. I'm more worried about my white kid at Hardy than my Asian kid. Weird to comment that way, but easier short-hand.

What is it that you believe these majority "black and brown" kids are going to do to your children?

[Anonymous]

Don't take the bait, anybody.

Leave blaming Asian families for the hassles they face in predominantly low SES DCPS schools to other pps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Washington Global teaches Korean in its middle school charter. But I don't think that's going to make you want to stay in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

[Anonymous]

As an A-A, it's funny to read these posts. OP wouldn't be asking this question if the school was white. Period.

The question itself is so general - does OP want to know HOW numerical minorities are treated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

really. When I was in Junior HS in NYC, foreign language was mandatory (NYC ahead of its time?) and the choices were French or Spanish. Period. They didn't have the kinds of money some suburban school systems in this region have today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

Do you want to learn, or are you looking for more ammunition to knock Asians in DC public schools?

Asian languages are super difficult to learn well, particularly their writing systems, so best to start young and stay focused through the teen years. With knowledge of at least 3,000 characters supporting basic literacy in Japanese and Chinese, immigrants from these countries tend not to want their kids bogged down with mandatory instruction in Indo-European languages on the road to taking AP and/or International Baccalaureate exams in Asian languages. If the kids want to study Spanish etc. in college and later on, fine.

Also, Asian immigrant families tend not to rely on school instruction to raise their kids bilingual and biliterate. They do the work at home, and participate in parent-run heritage language programs on weekends. But in DC, unless a school is willing to work with you not to insist on instruction in an Indo-European language, or perhaps basic Chinese that's far too easy for the child (at Deal, BASIS, Wilson, DCI), or you bring a case to the DC PS Ombudsman challenging the requirement, you can't get out of it. This is one reason Asian immigrant families leave DC public schools. You may think it entitled and silly of them ask to be left alone to pursue private language learning goals while using by-right schools, but they don't. Fortunately, neither do the state and Federal court judges hearing the mandatory language instruction-related lawsuits they bring.

Perhaps best for the conversation to return to the subject of pros and cons of Asians and Asian-Caucasian 11 year-olds enrolling at Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

Do you want to learn, or are you looking for more ammunition to knock Asians in DC public schools?

Asian languages are super difficult to learn well, particularly their writing systems, so best to start young and stay focused through the teen years. With knowledge of at least 3,000 characters supporting basic literacy in Japanese and Chinese, immigrants from these countries tend not to want their kids bogged down with mandatory instruction in Indo-European languages on the road to taking AP and/or International Baccalaureate exams in Asian languages. If the kids want to study Spanish etc. in college and later on, fine.

Also, Asian immigrant families tend not to rely on school instruction to raise their kids bilingual and biliterate. They do the work at home, and participate in parent-run heritage language programs on weekends. But in DC, unless a school is willing to work with you not to insist on instruction in an Indo-European language, or perhaps basic Chinese that's far too easy for the child (at Deal, BASIS, Wilson, DCI), or you bring a case to the DC PS Ombudsman challenging the requirement, you can't get out of it. This is one reason Asian immigrant families leave DC public schools. You may think it entitled and silly of them ask to be left alone to pursue private language learning goals while using by-right schools, but they don't. Fortunately, neither do the state and Federal court judges hearing the mandatory language instruction-related lawsuits they bring.

Perhaps best for the conversation to return to the subject of pros and cons of Asians and Asian-Caucasian 11 year-olds enrolling at Hardy.

One of the biggest east asian groups in the metro area are Viet Namese - VN is a language written in the Roman alphabet. Koreans are also a widespread group in the region, esp in Fairfax, and Korean uses a syllabic writing system, not characters. Are members of these groups more interested in studying Chinese than Spanish, or French, or German? Relative to anyone else?

And how many Japanese Americans are there in the region?

This is about Chinese, for that subset of Chinese families for which that language is decisive in what school they choose. As for pursuing those lawsuits, we shall see. On the issue of homeschoolers and extracurriculars, specials, etc, the courts have, IIUC, determined that public schooling is not required to be a la carte (pardon my French).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

Do you want to learn, or are you looking for more ammunition to knock Asians in DC public schools?

Asian languages are super difficult to learn well, particularly their writing systems, so best to start young and stay focused through the teen years. With knowledge of at least 3,000 characters supporting basic literacy in Japanese and Chinese, immigrants from these countries tend not to want their kids bogged down with mandatory instruction in Indo-European languages on the road to taking AP and/or International Baccalaureate exams in Asian languages. If the kids want to study Spanish etc. in college and later on, fine.

Also, Asian immigrant families tend not to rely on school instruction to raise their kids bilingual and biliterate. They do the work at home, and participate in parent-run heritage language programs on weekends. But in DC, unless a school is willing to work with you not to insist on instruction in an Indo-European language, or perhaps basic Chinese that's far too easy for the child (at Deal, BASIS, Wilson, DCI), or you bring a case to the DC PS Ombudsman challenging the requirement, you can't get out of it. This is one reason Asian immigrant families leave DC public schools. You may think it entitled and silly of them ask to be left alone to pursue private language learning goals while using by-right schools, but they don't. Fortunately, neither do the state and Federal court judges hearing the mandatory language instruction-related lawsuits they bring.

Perhaps best for the conversation to return to the subject of pros and cons of Asians and Asian-Caucasian 11 year-olds enrolling at Hardy.

I am not at all looking for any ammunition to knock Asian-Americans in DC public schools and have actually been one of the defenders of the OP in my previous posts on this thread. I still have little sympathy for the particular plight you describe regarding language instruction and how it supposedly detracts from their private endeavors. Foreign language instruction in American high schools is not that hard or burdensome that it should be "bogging" anyone down, and there are good arguments to be made for every American to learn at least some Spanish. But I can see that you have an axe to grind and probably a history of fighting DCPS on this, so it's not like I'm trying to convince you of anything.

[Anonymous]

Hey guys (and gals)....Hardy has a Chinese langauge program.

Not sure how extensive it is, but they teach Chinese there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

Do you want to learn, or are you looking for more ammunition to knock Asians in DC public schools?

Asian languages are super difficult to learn well, particularly their writing systems, so best to start young and stay focused through the teen years. With knowledge of at least 3,000 characters supporting basic literacy in Japanese and Chinese, immigrants from these countries tend not to want their kids bogged down with mandatory instruction in Indo-European languages on the road to taking AP and/or International Baccalaureate exams in Asian languages. If the kids want to study Spanish etc. in college and later on, fine.

Also, Asian immigrant families tend not to rely on school instruction to raise their kids bilingual and biliterate. They do the work at home, and participate in parent-run heritage language programs on weekends. But in DC, unless a school is willing to work with you not to insist on instruction in an Indo-European language, or perhaps basic Chinese that's far too easy for the child (at Deal, BASIS, Wilson, DCI), or you bring a case to the DC PS Ombudsman challenging the requirement, you can't get out of it. This is one reason Asian immigrant families leave DC public schools. You may think it entitled and silly of them ask to be left alone to pursue private language learning goals while using by-right schools, but they don't. Fortunately, neither do the state and Federal court judges hearing the mandatory language instruction-related lawsuits they bring.

Perhaps best for the conversation to return to the subject of pros and cons of Asians and Asian-Caucasian 11 year-olds enrolling at Hardy.

My kid is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and was forced by DCPS to learn Mandarin for three years at Adams MS. Several of his classmates endured the same challenge to their civil rights despite also speaking other languages at home (e.g. Swedish, Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian, Farsi, French, and non-Mandarin Chinese dialects).

Many kids who speak English at home were forced to learn Spanish and Chinese at the same time that they were working outside of school to master sufficient Hebrew (with its own alphabet, cantillation/te'amim and lots of sounds that don't exist in English) to read a Torah portion from a scroll with no vowels for their bar/bat mitzvah.

Oh, the horror!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son gets called names like cracker or referenced as white boy but it doesn’t bother him. He has friends of all races there. He said there is nothing to worry about. He doesn’t let things bother him though. His friends parents are wanting to take their son out of school though because of things like that. My daughter has no terrible issues at hardy either and she is blonde haired and blue eyed. She has said that she has had trouble making friends though, unfortunately.

Come on, only one public school in the entire city enrolls enough Asian students to pull PARCC scores for Asians out by subgroup. That's Deal - they have at least 25 Asian kids taking the PARCC. Even YuYing and DCI don't.

There are dozens of white kids at Hardy and hardly any Asians, same as in the Hardy feeders. OP is wise to be concerned.

No - BASIS has at least 25 Asian students as well.

Do you have a link showing PARCC scores for BASIS Asian students pulled out by subgroup? I can't find one.

Maybe a question we should be asking ourselves here is why are there so few Asian students in our DC public schools. No more than 10% at any particular school, and 0% isn't uncommon, just not a lot wherever you look. Before you say, oh, that's just DC demographics for you, if you're looking for Asians, head to Rockville. Think again.

Our in-boundary middle school--Stuart Hobson--and high school--Dunbar--are both 0% Asian, which won't work for this Asian immigrant family. We may try to lottery into Hardy but are more likely to head to MoCo, like a gazillion DC Asians before us. One problem is that every DC public middle and high school we might have access to would force instruction in an Indo European language on us (Latin, Spanish). No thanks.

That sure is a weird "problem" to single out when you are living in a Western country.

Right, weird problem, forcing kids to learn Spanish in public school (not a national language of the US last time I checked) to attend by-right schools. There's a corpus of case law from Western states stemming from the issue. Asian immigrant parents in Cal, Nevada, Utah etc. have sued public school systems for forcing Spanish on their children, and have won in court or settled in almost every case on civil rights grounds. Partly as a result, few states still do this, but DC does. It's common for kids to be forced to study an Indo European language in DC public schools. The (higher performing) suburban municipalities in this Metro area don't do this. They don't do it because they'd much rather support families teaching their children difficult Asian languages than penalize the families for not being "Western" enough.

Sorry, but as a European who grew up with "forced" English instruction and then a choice of French or Latin, I will shake my head at those "civil rights" suits. But we know that in the US, you can sue for anything. Do the schools then have to offer the difficult Asian languages the families want to teach, or is the sole point to protect their kids from exposure to Spanish?

Do you want to learn, or are you looking for more ammunition to knock Asians in DC public schools?

Asian languages are super difficult to learn well, particularly their writing systems, so best to start young and stay focused through the teen years. With knowledge of at least 3,000 characters supporting basic literacy in Japanese and Chinese, immigrants from these countries tend not to want their kids bogged down with mandatory instruction in Indo-European languages on the road to taking AP and/or International Baccalaureate exams in Asian languages. If the kids want to study Spanish etc. in college and later on, fine.

Also, Asian immigrant families tend not to rely on school instruction to raise their kids bilingual and biliterate. They do the work at home, and participate in parent-run heritage language programs on weekends. But in DC, unless a school is willing to work with you not to insist on instruction in an Indo-European language, or perhaps basic Chinese that's far too easy for the child (at Deal, BASIS, Wilson, DCI), or you bring a case to the DC PS Ombudsman challenging the requirement, you can't get out of it. This is one reason Asian immigrant families leave DC public schools. You may think it entitled and silly of them ask to be left alone to pursue private language learning goals while using by-right schools, but they don't. Fortunately, neither do the state and Federal court judges hearing the mandatory language instruction-related lawsuits they bring.

Perhaps best for the conversation to return to the subject of pros and cons of Asians and Asian-Caucasian 11 year-olds enrolling at Hardy.

My kid is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and was forced by DCPS to learn Mandarin for three years at Adams MS. Several of his classmates endured the same challenge to their civil rights despite also speaking other languages at home (e.g. Swedish, Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian, Farsi, French, and non-Mandarin Chinese dialects).

Many kids who speak English at home were forced to learn Spanish and Chinese at the same time that they were working outside of school to master sufficient Hebrew (with its own alphabet, cantillation/te'amim and lots of sounds that don't exist in English) to read a Torah portion from a scroll with no vowels for their bar/bat mitzvah.

Oh, the horror!

I've heard of an Asian mom in Capitol Hill who was fighting DCPS over one hour of Spanish instruction a week in PK...

[Anonymous]

OP thread has been sidetracked by a discussion on foreign language at DCPS schools. Can we get back to OP’s fear of AA 6th graders picking on her euro-asian child?