Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of really good things about Escuela Key. The involved parent community is overwhelmingly english speaking, or bilingual. There are very few highly involved parents who speak only Spanish. PTA meetings etc. are conducted in English with Spanish translation if there is interest in the translation. In general Key attracts more involved parents than neighborhood schools. (This is not exclusive to Key- this is true of all option schools.) For example, Key is overrepresented on the various ACTL committees- note anyone who wants to be on these can be, but you will find a ton of Key parents on the advisory committees.
In terms of the 80-20, the foreign language advisory committee has been pushing this for many years. I think the research does show that it is a better way to learn a foreign language. The teachers at Key are not sold on it- and if it happens, it is going to be a major disruption to their way of doing business. I'm also uncertain of the benefits to native Spanish speakers. Initially immersion was brought to Arlington b/c there is lots of research that shows that students do better in school if they are taught in their native language so the immersion school was to benefit the high proportion of native Spanish speakers. HOwever, in general, the less educated native Spanish speaker immigrant community are not sold on the benefit of immersion. (the highly educated native Spanish speaking ex-pat community is very sold on the benefits of immersion, and you will find a lot of them at Escuela Key.)
Children who go all the way through the immersion program do very well. However- you have to realize that the attrition rate out of immersion is quite high. Kids drop out for a variety of reasons, but the leading one is that they are not learning Spanish which then impacts their ability to learn math etc. It can be hard when you have a risking Kindergartner to know if they are the kind of kid who is going to do well in immersion, or if they are not.
I think its also hard when your kids are just about to start kindergarten to think about what life will look like in a few years. Right now, you probably take them everywhere in a car, and stay together, so whether you are in a car for 5 minutes or 15 minutes doesn't make as much of a difference. But when kids start to get into the middle and upper elementary years, and they are involved in things like sports, and wanting to see friends, its really nice when all of that is within blocks off your house. e.g. you can drop a kid at soccer practice 8 blocks away, drop another kid at a friends near the field, go home, start dinner, and then run and pick everyone up. But if the soccer team is based on Key- practice is going to be further away, and friends could live anywhere in Arlington- so it is just a lot harder to coordinate everything.
I agree with a lot of this. Just to take the perspective of a native English speaker, entering K without any exposure to Spanish could be a rough ride. Make it through, and it’s great. But of it’s just not clicking, bail after K or no later than First.