Push for another bilingual middle school

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t vote for a Council Member that cuts special deals for one group of families, but tells others that don’t have the right DC address to pound sand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t vote for a Council Member that cuts special deals for one group of families, but tells others that don’t have the right DC address to pound sand.

What is this a reference to? I mean, I assume Charles Allen from context/the reply, but what past action of his are you referring to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t vote for a Council Member that cuts special deals for one group of families, but tells others that don’t have the right DC address to pound sand.

God Charles Allen just can’t get anything right. I hope he doesn’t run again.

I actually think Charles Allen is among the best councilpeople. I don't agree with him on everything, but I find him to be very engaged and responsive and I have seen him get action out of DCPS when no one else could. And he will obviously run again given that he ran unopposed last time and then handily defeated the recall attempt.

[Anonymous]

when (at least one poster mentions immersion - you really mean dual language, right? Where two-three classes are taught in the target language, not where your day is all-target language.
Immersion to me is "recess chatter is English, education is in target language."

Dual language is available; in middle school (MacFarland) it's several classes and not your whole day. My child had it for 1-2 classes each semester. That's fine.

If it were for me - I was and am a language nerd - I would love to have gone to a school where target language is the full-up no alternative language of instruction. I think those are relatively rare and specialized, though I believe more common in other countries where, for example, English fluency is a target or students are encouraged to learn a 'national language' that's not the lingua franca where they live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you previous poster. They just put out a flyer announcing the meeting for July 21st at 5:00 pm. It will be attended by Councilmember Charles Allen and some DCPS leaders. There is also a virtual option to join.

I do believe that this is highly inappropriate in the manner and timing of releasing this information. However, they are using the same tactics of current leader Dr. Brann and Fereebee. The full immersion and dual-language program was voted down by majority stakeholders 1 year prior to Dr. Brann sneakily resubmitting her proposal against the wishes of the majority.

Parker and other Councilmembers are expressing support for this. The community *may* have been excluded but certainly there must be some constituents for it if multiple councilmembers are getting involved.

The middle school immersion issue is both a DCPS and charter issue. On the charter side, DCI has limited spots available. Plus not all immersion charters have feeder rights to DCI. Perhaps it was bad planning to have not foreseen that when these elementaries were created middle options would be needed. But we are where we are. The Jefferson solution sounds like a good option.

What is the "this" that Parker and other Councilmembers support? A MS at Chisholm? Or expanding the Spanish program at Jefferson?

I don't know why anyone with kids at another immersion school would support a MS program at Chisholm. It would wind up being like Oyster, where students in the elementary program get in no problem and kids at other immersion schools compete for like 2 lottery spots there. I know multiple families at Marie Reed who have moved IB for Oyster to get there kids into the MS program, which is not a great situation. If Chisholm wants to advocate for an east-side immersion MS, they should be advocating either for a stand-alone school (which I think is a non-starter) or an immersion track at Jefferson, which could actually serve multiple schools and wouldn't just be a little bespoke program for Chisholm students.

I also want to throw out the idea that it's okay for kids who attended immersion in PK-5 to not continue with immersion. I get why you would want it, but I don't actually think it's important enough that the district HAS to provide it. As long as appropriately leveled language courses are offered at the MS and HS level, these kids will still benefit from early immersion, and parents can pursue other immersion opportunities for their kids. The vast majority of DCPS students don't get ANY immersion experience, so I just don't view the lack of immersion opportunities at the MS and HS level as a problem. Not when we have much bigger fish to fry, like creating tracked math and ELA programs at the MS level and improving the academic quality at the HS level across the city. Immersion is a side project, not a central goal of the school district. Immersion parents get too entitled about this.

This = eastside immersion middle -- specifically a southeast side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t vote for a Council Member that cuts special deals for one group of families, but tells others that don’t have the right DC address to pound sand.

What is this a reference to? I mean, I assume Charles Allen from context/the reply, but what past action of his are you referring to?

Sounded like a reference to Frumin who wants every public to be like schools in his Ward but doesn't want charters.