APS - From option school to private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

They don’t *need* even one. But they want the program, and it’s popular enough to support two locations currently. At some future point, they may consolidate the programs, into one larger school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious which option schools people are thinking of leaving, but understand not wanting to share.

We left Claremont. Claremont has an amazing principal and was a wonderful school (facility, teachers, enthusiasm), but APS (and Claremont) were too overcrowded, which made pandemic learning a disaster. If Claremont had 500 kids instead of 700, I think it would be a much better experience. Lunch was around 1050 due to overcrowding pre-pandemic, and my child felt like a number (We had GREAT teachers, but how can you expect Immersion teachers to track 50 kids?)

If your kid gets an Immersion spot, in my opinion you're getting more than a public school education because you're getting the bonus of a life-long language skill...and we had siblings in the pipeline who would have benefited too.

However in the end the amazing option of Immersion just wasn't enough to gamble other things away (smaller class sizes, strong spelling/writing skills, teacher attention etc). The final straw was APS's utter paralysis in spring of 2020 when COVID began, which convinced us we could not trust the district with our kids' education, and (sadly) we left the immersion experience, but it was the right move for us. Honestly I do think it's a harder call to leave an Option school than a regular APS school because you're getting some "bonus" private-school type features (for free). But you have to weigh everything carefully.

I am confused at the idea that the Teachers cannot track 50 kids in immersion. We are in an immersion program in FCPS, DS cohort has 50 kids, spilt between two classes. His Teachers know each of the kids, they spend half the day with each of those kids. Each Teacher is tracking 2-3 disciplines. His Language Teacher is tracking Math, Science, and the Language. The Teacher might have more kids but they have fewer subjects to prepare.

No one says that the Specials teachers cannot do their jobs when they have hundreds of students and see them once or twice a week for 30 minutes.

I get being concerned about overcrowding but an immersion program at a school that is not overcrowded is going to have 50 kids because there is normally one Teacher who teaches in the new language and one Teacher teaching in English for LA and some other class. That has nothing to do with overcrowding and everything to do with the nature of an immersion program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

They don’t *need* even one. But they want the program, and it’s popular enough to support two locations currently. At some future point, they may consolidate the programs, into one larger school.

It's a good program. Unforunately, FLES is pulled out and other kids in APS do not have the opportunity to learn Spanish. Private schools are teaching it. I can't see why APS isn't resuming it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

They don’t *need* even one. But they want the program, and it’s popular enough to support two locations currently. At some future point, they may consolidate the programs, into one larger school.

It's a good program. Unforunately, FLES is pulled out and other kids in APS do not have the opportunity to learn Spanish. Private schools are teaching it. I can't see why APS isn't resuming it.

Budget cuts. They asked principals which of the proposed cuts would be the least awful, and they chose to cut FLES (rather than increasing class size, for instance). The way FLES was implemented wasn’t really consistent across APS. They way our school handled it, I haven’t missed it, even though the teacher was awesome. I think my kids have better pronunciation than they would have had otherwise, but even my kid who went all the way learned very little. Maybe colors, some farm animals. But that was about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

What is your definition for “need”? Clearly they are popular and in demand. And learning a foreign language is important to many parents, particularly given that APS has removed foreign language instruction at the elementary level and the PTAs have had to pick that up. You could
Similarly say the kids don’t need sports or club or, or, or and eventually you get down to why people are leaving in the first place

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

What is your definition for “need”? Clearly they are popular and in demand. And learning a foreign language is important to many parents, particularly given that APS has removed foreign language instruction at the elementary level and the PTAs have had to pick that up. You could
Similarly say the kids don’t need sports or club or, or, or and eventually you get down to why people are leaving in the first place

Ha! Not at the Title 1 schools. Must be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

They don’t *need* even one. But they want the program, and it’s popular enough to support two locations currently. At some future point, they may consolidate the programs, into one larger school.

Very inward-looking. Not offering students the chance to learn the 2nd most widely-spoken language in the country is pretty disgraceful. For all the taxes we're paying, APS really doesn't deliver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

They don’t *need* even one. But they want the program, and it’s popular enough to support two locations currently. At some future point, they may consolidate the programs, into one larger school.

Very inward-looking. Not offering students the chance to learn the 2nd most widely-spoken language in the country is pretty disgraceful. For all the taxes we're paying, APS really doesn't deliver.

* I'm referring to APS non-option schools..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t see why the country needs two Spanish immersion schools at this point.

^ county.

They don’t *need* even one. But they want the program, and it’s popular enough to support two locations currently. At some future point, they may consolidate the programs, into one larger school.

Very inward-looking. Not offering students the chance to learn the 2nd most widely-spoken language in the country is pretty disgraceful. For all the taxes we're paying, APS really doesn't deliver.

Taxes here are low compared to other areas, both locally (MCPS, FCCPS) and across the country. The old people and singles don’t want to pay for our kids to have a premium education. APS is having to do more with less becaue the number of kids keeps getting larger, but the pot of money in the revenue sharing agreement from the county isn’t growing to match.