siblings offered spot at Mundo Verde

[Anonymous]

There are several kids at Bancroft who were once at MV. I'd choose wisely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely wait for Oyster. We moved inbounds during K year and have been there (now in middle school). Kids have joined the class in every grade we've been- 1-5th, so it does happen. This year in particular there seems to be a lot of flux.

Suerte!

But are they kids who moved to the neighborhood or who got in OOB through the lottery?

OP, it sounds like a lot of hassle for kids who hate change and love their current schools. If you are fluent in two other languages, why not start working with your kids to learn one of them and really go all-in (camps, aftercare, au pair, long summer trip where the language is spoken with kids enrolled in camp, books and TV in that language, etc.)?

On the other hand if you try LAMB and don't like it they can always go back to their IB DCPS, even partway through the year. So keep that in mind if you do decide to go for LAMB.

PP- both! We know kids who came from LAMB and MV via the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely wait for Oyster. We moved inbounds during K year and have been there (now in middle school). Kids have joined the class in every grade we've been- 1-5th, so it does happen. This year in particular there seems to be a lot of flux.

Suerte!

But are they kids who moved to the neighborhood or who got in OOB through the lottery?

OP, it sounds like a lot of hassle for kids who hate change and love their current schools. If you are fluent in two other languages, why not start working with your kids to learn one of them and really go all-in (camps, aftercare, au pair, long summer trip where the language is spoken with kids enrolled in camp, books and TV in that language, etc.)?

On the other hand if you try LAMB and don't like it they can always go back to their IB DCPS, even partway through the year. So keep that in mind if you do decide to go for LAMB.

I don’t think LAMB would give the first grader a seat, even with sibling preference. Plus if they did and then changed their minds, that’s two spots that LAMB would never backfill and two families that would never get an offer there. Doubting OP would send one kid and not the other, so probably a non-issue, but I’d personally choose Stokes over LAMB if I wasn’t pretty sure I’d keep the seats through elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are several kids at Bancroft who were once at MV. I'd choose wisely.

Meaning wait for a better school than MV or take the seat to keep the Spanish up?

We’re debating moving in bound for Bancroft/Oyster or trying MV for as long as it works and continuing to play the lottery. Would really love not to move, but also don’t want to sacrifice educational quality because we don’t want to move…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several kids at Bancroft who were once at MV. I'd choose wisely.

Meaning wait for a better school than MV or take the seat to keep the Spanish up?

We’re debating moving in bound for Bancroft/Oyster or trying MV for as long as it works and continuing to play the lottery. Would really love not to move, but also don’t want to sacrifice educational quality because we don’t want to move…

This is OP, just here to mention the previous poster debating whether to move inbound for Bancroft/Oyster is not me hahaha.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thanks so very much to the PPs who took the time to type up detailed, pertinent, and thoughtful answers. You all have put it very well, the decision hinges on the fact that the kids are shy and anxious and that they are currently happy. I am not so much worried about academics and while DCI would be nice to have, I'd want it for the same reason as MV or another bilingual school, for the language rather than the academics (I would have worried about academics if we were talking about way worse schools than MV)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. This is a very tough decision. I am fluent in three languages (English is my third language) and used to be fluent in a 4th but lost a lot of it due to no longer using it. My kids only know English and I would love for them to know at least one other language but I know making the move will be very tough and perhaps even traumatizing for the kids, who do not respond well to big changes.

Ah, okay, this is helpful context.

First, how much outside supplementation do you plan to do if you switch to an immersion school? If exposure was your goal, I wouldn't worry. But if you expect anything more than basic conversational skills, you have to put in outside effort. Particularly at the charters because there isn't a preference for native speakers. Don't uproot your children unless you're realistic and comfortable with the level of fluency immersion kids achieve in these schools, both with and without outside supplementation.

Second, there is no longer a guarantee at DCI, which is the middle and high school feeder for the charters. People debate this strongly, but there's probably about 50/50 shot at DCI from MV, maybe less if it gets more popular and fewer people at feeders choose Latin and Basis over DCI. Balance that against leaving a "beloved" DCPS with a middle that is making "great strides."

Third, you will not get a spot at Oyster for either grade. You can check the historic waitlist data for that. They usually make 0 offers for both grades, last year was the first year since 2015 they made any offers and it was 2 for K and 4 for 1st. That was likely a fluke and I wouldn't count on it again. Same with Bancroft and Marie Reed, if you listed those. They make 0-3 offers for those grades and they're usually to kids with sibling preference, i.e., not your kids. If it's your kindergartener with the good WL number, you may get an offer at DCB this year since they're expanding that grade. You will probably get an offer at Stokes, plus MV8 and LAMB SD if you listed those schools. LAMB doesn't usually fill seats after K, so I don't think your 1st grader would get an offer or be pulled off the waitlist from the K offer. I would go through the historic waitlist data for all of your schools and familiarize yourself with how many offers the immersion DCPS schools make versus the charters. https://public.tableau.com/views/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData/MSDCPublicDisplay%3Aembed=y&%3AshowVizHome=no&%3Adisplay_count=y&%3Adisplay_static_image=y

What is your current DCPS? I'd be very hesitant to move kids from a school that you are happy with to either Stokes or MV, unless you feel very strongly about the language exposure and have realistic expectations about how strong the language instruction is. Likely your DCPS has stronger academics as well, so consider that versus the language exposure as well.

Thank you so much for your great insight. I am hesitant to name our DCPS for the sake of anonymity but we live near Logan Circle and think Garrison, Ross, Seaton, and Thompson (in alpha order hahaha). I think although I received powerful arguments both for staying and for moving to MV, I am leaning towards staying and perhaps doing what one PP suggested i.e. traveling to the countries where my other languages are spoken, taking classes, tutors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would pull them for Oyster for sure, and Stokes maybe, but not MV.

Stokes has been a disaster with IPL. The kids will be way behind and teachers will have many challenges. I would not choose Stokes.

At least Oyster and MV offered more robust IPL. MV also has summer camp to catch up kids.

If there is any chance you will be staying long term, I would definitely make the move.

+1 I will make the move. It is very unlikely to get an offer from Oyster in K or 1st. After this year I don’t think stokes is worth it anymore.

I really don't understand this line of thinking. Schools will be back full time in the fall, why would a school that was good before the pandemic suddenly become bad after the pandemic because of how they handled the pandemic? Truly trying to understand because I hear this a lot and it would be one thing if DL showed the quality of teaching or curriculum to be sub par, but if the administration was fine before, wouldn't they be fine after?

Stokes is one of the weaker schools in Spanish than the other charters. Also their math scores are much lower too. So admin wasn’t that strong to begin with. Clearly, the kids education didn’t take priority during the pandemic unlike other schools that offered much more IPL such as MV and LAMB who are both offering summer school options too BTW.

So now the kids at Stokes will be even further behind. The teachers will need to spend a significant part of next year trying to catch the kids up which means loss of potential time to cover what is typically needed for the year. I would plan on supplementing even more than normal at Stokes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kids aren't keen on it and don't like big change, I wouldnt move from a beloved DCPS, unless it was Oyster. The charter immersion schools aren't worth it IMO, unless language is your very first concern. There are other afterschool language classes and such you could use to address that concern.

OP here. Thanks for mentioning other ways to get the language. I should get on the ball and get serious about implementing them before they get older.

[Anonymous]

Would not pull for stokes unless you have a strong liking of social justice being woven into the curriculum. It’s important, but the school seems to be getting overly focused on social issues over academics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. This is a very tough decision. I am fluent in three languages (English is my third language) and used to be fluent in a 4th but lost a lot of it due to no longer using it. My kids only know English and I would love for them to know at least one other language but I know making the move will be very tough and perhaps even traumatizing for the kids, who do not respond well to big changes.

OMG, your kids know no Spanish and don’t respond well to big changes and you want to move them to an immersion school in K and 1st??

They are going to be totally lost 50% of the time on the Spanish days and miss important instructions on those days too.

Unless your kids are above grade level, picks up things easily, and are resilient, I would not make the move.

This is why kids who come to immersion schools later end up going back to their IB DCPS schools because it’s too much and they don’t do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would pull them for Oyster for sure, and Stokes maybe, but not MV.

Stokes has been a disaster with IPL. The kids will be way behind and teachers will have many challenges. I would not choose Stokes.

At least Oyster and MV offered more robust IPL. MV also has summer camp to catch up kids.

If there is any chance you will be staying long term, I would definitely make the move.

+1 I will make the move. It is very unlikely to get an offer from Oyster in K or 1st. After this year I don’t think stokes is worth it anymore.

I really don't understand this line of thinking. Schools will be back full time in the fall, why would a school that was good before the pandemic suddenly become bad after the pandemic because of how they handled the pandemic? Truly trying to understand because I hear this a lot and it would be one thing if DL showed the quality of teaching or curriculum to be sub par, but if the administration was fine before, wouldn't they be fine after?

Don’t you think that how they handle the pandemic is a reflection of how good the administration is?

It depends on what you mean by "good." If they were good at running an in-person school pre-pandemic, then presumably they'll be the same after. If they have misplaced priorities that are no longer relevant post-pandemic, then who cares? And even if they're worse than you could tell before, if the pre-pandemic communication was acceptable and the teachers aren't fleeing due to mismanagement, then who cares? I guess I just don't understand what kind of administrative issues would make you leave a school you were happy at previously, assuming the classroom experience will be the same as it was in the before times. Again, genuine question because we're considering these schools and I don't know whether mismanaging a pandemic is indicative of how the school experience will be over the next 5-7 years.

Pandemic laid bare a lot of issues we didn’t see before. It’s easy to be blissfully ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Spanish aside, how good is Mundo Verde? Part of their focus is on environment but I never hear anything about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone heard anything about Oyster adding another K class this year...

I heard this might happen from an Oyster teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several kids at Bancroft who were once at MV. I'd choose wisely.

Meaning wait for a better school than MV or take the seat to keep the Spanish up?

We’re debating moving in bound for Bancroft/Oyster or trying MV for as long as it works and continuing to play the lottery. Would really love not to move, but also don’t want to sacrifice educational quality because we don’t want to move…

Play the lottery to get into Oyster/Bancroft? Is that possible? (Not being sarcastic, I would also love to get into one of those schools but the prevailing wisdom on the board seems to be that they never take English-dominant kids from OOB).