Fairfax County-unequal opportunity for language learning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather my tax money be spent on something worthwhile-like helping kids learn to read and write English.

Thank you. And I'd rather MY tax money be spent on something as worthwhile as a foreign language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I've figured it out: you must be a foreign language teacher.

Wrong. I've been a sahm for almost a decade.

[Anonymous]

How does the district actually decide which languages are selected for teaching at different schools? Anybody knows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather my tax money be spent on something worthwhile-like helping kids learn to read and write English.

Thank you. And I'd rather MY tax money be spent on something as worthwhile as a foreign language.

what if english is a foreign language?

[Anonymous]

How does the district actually decide which languages are selected for teaching at different schools? Anybody knows?

I heard that the parents at our school voted-but did not get the one they selected due to staffing.

[Anonymous]

One of the problems with the FLES program is that it is not consistent--and there is no follow through at the middle and high school level.

[Anonymous]

Wonder what the reaction would be to eliminating the immersion program and institution FLES in all schools? Not saying I support this, but I'm sure parents of immersion kids would not like this idea; their child would be missing immersion. But at the same time, not every child can get into immersion because it is by lottery, so its not fair. I pay the same taxes as the neighbor's kid who was lucky in the lottery even though my kid was last on the waitlist.

I'd happily pay more taxes for all schools to have, at the minimum, FLES. Sadly, our ES does not have FLES or immersion. It does bother me that some schools have both.

[Anonymous]

The choice would be a dilemma. FLES is really not worthwhile for learning a language. Immersion is probably more effective but reaches fewer kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wonder what the reaction would be to eliminating the immersion program and institution FLES in all schools? Not saying I support this, but I'm sure parents of immersion kids would not like this idea; their child would be missing immersion. But at the same time, not every child can get into immersion because it is by lottery, so its not fair. I pay the same taxes as the neighbor's kid who was lucky in the lottery even though my kid was last on the waitlist.

I'd happily pay more taxes for all schools to have, at the minimum, FLES. Sadly, our ES does not have FLES or immersion. It does bother me that some schools have both.

Just note that for the schools that have both immersion and FLES, the FLES is only for the non-immersion students. There are no students that I am aware of that get both.

On another note, my DC's school did not get FLES after several years of applying, so our Principal went out and applied for and received a grant to institute something similar himself. It now shows up as a FLES school, but I don't know if the fundong is from the County or the grant. It has been at least 5 years since the program started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder what the reaction would be to eliminating the immersion program and institution FLES in all schools? Not saying I support this, but I'm sure parents of immersion kids would not like this idea; their child would be missing immersion. But at the same time, not every child can get into immersion because it is by lottery, so its not fair. I pay the same taxes as the neighbor's kid who was lucky in the lottery even though my kid was last on the waitlist.

I'd happily pay more taxes for all schools to have, at the minimum, FLES. Sadly, our ES does not have FLES or immersion. It does bother me that some schools have both.

Just note that for the schools that have both immersion and FLES, the FLES is only for the non-immersion students. There are no students that I am aware of that get both.

On another note, my DC's school did not get FLES after several years of applying, so our Principal went out and applied for and received a grant to institute something similar himself. It now shows up as a FLES school, but I don't know if the fundong is from the County or the grant. It has been at least 5 years since the program started.

I know they are separate programs at the school, but it seems unfair that some schools get both while others have neither.

Thanks for mentioning the grant alternative. My kids aren't in school yet, but I did speak with our principal about adding FLES. He cited funding, but said he expected it to be in all ES in a few years. So I'm even more saddened to hear it might not be added to any schools. I think about 40 schools don't have it. If they could add 10 a year, that would get in all ES in years. It might not be great, but in my mind, something is better than nothing. I've already thought about supplementing with a tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder what the reaction would be to eliminating the immersion program and institution FLES in all schools? Not saying I support this, but I'm sure parents of immersion kids would not like this idea; their child would be missing immersion. But at the same time, not every child can get into immersion because it is by lottery, so its not fair. I pay the same taxes as the neighbor's kid who was lucky in the lottery even though my kid was last on the waitlist.

I'd happily pay more taxes for all schools to have, at the minimum, FLES. Sadly, our ES does not have FLES or immersion. It does bother me that some schools have both.

Just note that for the schools that have both immersion and FLES, the FLES is only for the non-immersion students. There are no students that I am aware of that get both.

On another note, my DC's school did not get FLES after several years of applying, so our Principal went out and applied for and received a grant to institute something similar himself. It now shows up as a FLES school, but I don't know if the fundong is from the County or the grant. It has been at least 5 years since the program started.

I know they are separate programs at the school, but it seems unfair that some schools get both while others have neither.

Thanks for mentioning the grant alternative. My kids aren't in school yet, but I did speak with our principal about adding FLES. He cited funding, but said he expected it to be in all ES in a few years. So I'm even more saddened to hear it might not be added to any schools. I think about 40 schools don't have it. If they could add 10 a year, that would get in all ES in years. It might not be great, but in my mind, something is better than nothing. I've already thought about supplementing with a tutor.

Whether one school has both FLES and immersion and another school doesn't have either OR one has immersion and one has FLES, still means there are students who do not have any options. The inequality is still there if there are students that do not have access to FLES or Immersion. If you had FLES in all non-immersion schools but not in Immersion schools, then it still would not be fair to the non-immersion students at immersion schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder what the reaction would be to eliminating the immersion program and institution FLES in all schools? Not saying I support this, but I'm sure parents of immersion kids would not like this idea; their child would be missing immersion. But at the same time, not every child can get into immersion because it is by lottery, so its not fair. I pay the same taxes as the neighbor's kid who was lucky in the lottery even though my kid was last on the waitlist.

I'd happily pay more taxes for all schools to have, at the minimum, FLES. Sadly, our ES does not have FLES or immersion. It does bother me that some schools have both.

Just note that for the schools that have both immersion and FLES, the FLES is only for the non-immersion students. There are no students that I am aware of that get both.

On another note, my DC's school did not get FLES after several years of applying, so our Principal went out and applied for and received a grant to institute something similar himself. It now shows up as a FLES school, but I don't know if the fundong is from the County or the grant. It has been at least 5 years since the program started.

I know they are separate programs at the school, but it seems unfair that some schools get both while others have neither.

Thanks for mentioning the grant alternative. My kids aren't in school yet, but I did speak with our principal about adding FLES. He cited funding, but said he expected it to be in all ES in a few years. So I'm even more saddened to hear it might not be added to any schools. I think about 40 schools don't have it. If they could add 10 a year, that would get in all ES in years. It might not be great, but in my mind, something is better than nothing. I've already thought about supplementing with a tutor.

Whether one school has both FLES and immersion and another school doesn't have either OR one has immersion and one has FLES, still means there are students who do not have any options. The inequality is still there if there are students that do not have access to FLES or Immersion. If you had FLES in all non-immersion schools but not in Immersion schools, then it still would not be fair to the non-immersion students at immersion schools.

So why not add FLES to all schools first, then add immersion? And the fact that you have to provide transportation for out of bounds students likely limits the number of students applying for immersion, thus increasing the chances of inbound students to get in. And if the inbound kid doesn't get in, he still has the opportunity to go to FLES, while my kid doesn't.

[Anonymous]

There are some drawbacks I see to FLES. One is that it seems recess is shortened a bit at these schools (well at least DC's school). It's only 15 minutes a day and none on Mondays. Second, it seems some of the core subjects are shortened as well since FLES is supposed to be teaching some of the core subject material. There are no more minutes in the school day just because FLES is added. Third, your child only gets to study the language offered at the base school. We might have picked a different language for DC, but I feel it's too much to expect a child to learn two languages at the same time and keep up with everything else. The main pro I see is that everyone in the school is learning the same language and so they really get into that culture and language in a positive way and probably learn more as a result verses a program where language learning is optional or if each child at the school gets the option of choosing their language through rosetta stone.

[Anonymous]

What you don't get is that FCPS funds are limited. Is FLES the best use of those funds? I don't think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonder what the reaction would be to eliminating the immersion program and institution FLES in all schools? Not saying I support this, but I'm sure parents of immersion kids would not like this idea; their child would be missing immersion. But at the same time, not every child can get into immersion because it is by lottery, so its not fair. I pay the same taxes as the neighbor's kid who was lucky in the lottery even though my kid was last on the waitlist.

I'd happily pay more taxes for all schools to have, at the minimum, FLES. Sadly, our ES does not have FLES or immersion. It does bother me that some schools have both.

Just note that for the schools that have both immersion and FLES, the FLES is only for the non-immersion students. There are no students that I am aware of that get both.

On another note, my DC's school did not get FLES after several years of applying, so our Principal went out and applied for and received a grant to institute something similar himself. It now shows up as a FLES school, but I don't know if the fundong is from the County or the grant. It has been at least 5 years since the program started.

I know they are separate programs at the school, but it seems unfair that some schools get both while others have neither.

Thanks for mentioning the grant alternative. My kids aren't in school yet, but I did speak with our principal about adding FLES. He cited funding, but said he expected it to be in all ES in a few years. So I'm even more saddened to hear it might not be added to any schools. I think about 40 schools don't have it. If they could add 10 a year, that would get in all ES in years. It might not be great, but in my mind, something is better than nothing. I've already thought about supplementing with a tutor.

Whether one school has both FLES and immersion and another school doesn't have either OR one has immersion and one has FLES, still means there are students who do not have any options. The inequality is still there if there are students that do not have access to FLES or Immersion. If you had FLES in all non-immersion schools but not in Immersion schools, then it still would not be fair to the non-immersion students at immersion schools.

So why not add FLES to all schools first, then add immersion? And the fact that you have to provide transportation for out of bounds students likely limits the number of students applying for immersion, thus increasing the chances of inbound students to get in. And if the inbound kid doesn't get in, he still has the opportunity to go to FLES, while my kid doesn't.

Okay, I get it know. If your child had FLES or immersion, you wouldn't be complaining. It isn't so much that you feel that it is unfair that some students get immersion or FLES and some students do not. It is that your child doesn't have access to FLES or immersion.