the DC International Public Charter School (DCI)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if the third language is not started before that key period (before adolescence) it will not be easily learned by the kids and they won't achieve native fluency.

The school doesn't expect native fluency in the 3rd language, and I think it's too much to expect kids to learn a 3rd language while still learning grade level social studies and math etc. in the target language. Name some effective examples of specific schools that start 2 new languages in early elementary and have kids stay at grade level throughout high school and also achieve native fluency in 3 languages (incl English) by graduations from 12th grade?

That may be true for kids learning the second language, but for kids already bilingual (as many Spanish speakers already are) the third language would be their learning experience. Why can't this be accommodated.

Accommodate your already bilingual kids yourself. Get with other parents of already-bilingual kids at your school and start/hire an after school instructor in a 3rd language that everyone shares the cost of. Or group with parents and rally the school to provide it. But unless you can point to a school that's done the 3 languages successfully at elementary, along with the other basic skills/subjects, do not expect the feeder schools to risk their math and English scores just to satisfy the relatively small number of kids who enter elementary already truly bilingual. The later test scores for DC students who enter elementary fluent in Spanish do not indicate that the majority have such a breeze with English and other subjects that there is tons of classroom time to spare on serious study of a 3rd language.

How much would a language instructor cost?

I don't know the cost, but there are Language Immersion programs such as Lango that goes into the schools as a part of the aftercare program. You can start there with the support of your PTA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather not malign a charter I basically like by naming it, one that saved us from a crappy IB school. But I will acknowledge that the arrangement seems to slip a bit with every passing year. The problems are mundane, rooted in the achievement and opportunity gap between low-SES and high-SES kids widening as time goes on.

We've done summer camps abroad for the last two summers, as well as Johns Hopkins CTY this summer, and have had a target language speaking au pair at home since PreK. Hence, my kid is now so far ahead of most of the low-SES AA kids in the target language that he's getting bored, not just on immersion days but on English days. The warm school community no longer gives me much of a boost.

Two of his high-SES buddies left for privates last year, a real blow to him. It's as though we're holding a handful of sand, with grains slipping out as we go. If we're on a slight downward trajectory in the middle ES grades, yikes, where will be by 12th grade at DCI? I'm starting to eye WIS....

This is a racist thing to say and if you really feel this way, take your racist attitude away from Stokes (do any of the other schools have "immersion days" and "English days") and leave it to people who don't assume they know everything about a child based on their skin color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if the third language is not started before that key period (before adolescence) it will not be easily learned by the kids and they won't achieve native fluency.

The school doesn't expect native fluency in the 3rd language, and I think it's too much to expect kids to learn a 3rd language while still learning grade level social studies and math etc. in the target language. Name some effective examples of specific schools that start 2 new languages in early elementary and have kids stay at grade level throughout high school and also achieve native fluency in 3 languages (incl English) by graduations from 12th grade?

That may be true for kids learning the second language, but for kids already bilingual (as many Spanish speakers already are) the third language would be their learning experience. Why can't this be accommodated.

Accommodate your already bilingual kids yourself. Get with other parents of already-bilingual kids at your school and start/hire an after school instructor in a 3rd language that everyone shares the cost of. Or group with parents and rally the school to provide it. But unless you can point to a school that's done the 3 languages successfully at elementary, along with the other basic skills/subjects, do not expect the feeder schools to risk their math and English scores just to satisfy the relatively small number of kids who enter elementary already truly bilingual. The later test scores for DC students who enter elementary fluent in Spanish do not indicate that the majority have such a breeze with English and other subjects that there is tons of classroom time to spare on serious study of a 3rd language.

And many Spanish-speaking kids are far from proficient in reading and writing Spanish, so they still have a lot of work to do before achieving mastery in their second language.

This is so true. And parents like the one asking "why can't serious 3rd language study be accommodated?" need to ask themselves if a 3rd language is really more important than core reading, writing, math and other subject skills.