Middle School at DCI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who want to talk about DCI without talking about preparedness in target languages, and level or rigor in language classes, can't see the forest for the trees. Kids coming up through feeders are supposed to be well positioned to ace IB Diploma language exams to help them stand out in college admissions. Language skills, especially in speaking and listening, are supposed to be one of their strong suits relative to the competition, after all those years in 50% of partial immersion! How lame that DCI probably won't even offer HL language classes.

If you want your kid to ace IBD math, middle school at BASIS would obviously be much better prep than the DCI experience. If you want them to ace IB humanities, middle school at Wash Latin, Deal or a private would obviously be much better prep.

Sorry, but on what basis are you speculating no HL classes? DCI is offering HL foreign language, not just SL. Starting with next year's Diploma Program students (that starts in 11th).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who want to talk about DCI without talking about preparedness in target languages, and level or rigor in language classes, can't see the forest for the trees. Kids coming up through feeders are supposed to be well positioned to ace IB Diploma language exams to help them stand out in college admissions. Language skills, especially in speaking and listening, are supposed to be one of their strong suits relative to the competition, after all those years in 50% of partial immersion! How lame that DCI probably won't even offer HL language classes.

If you want your kid to ace IBD math, middle school at BASIS would obviously be much better prep than the DCI experience. If you want them to ace IB humanities, middle school at Wash Latin, Deal or a private would obviously be much better prep.

This line of thinking is much too logical for most parents in DCI feeders, DCI admins, and the DCPCB members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would appreciate hearing details about the negative impacts of reliance on technology. Could you please share more information based on your experience? Do most kids tend to stay for high school?

Someone else will have to speak to the negative, because it is a positive for us. The kids have laptops. All of them. They take them to class and bring them home every day. All of their assignments are tracked with google classroom, which is awesome for parents who want to follow what's going on (just install the app on your own phone). Parents can literally watch remotely what their kids are working one every day, on their google drives, and see all of the written work assigned and completed, including the actual work product in process, through the google apps, with their parent password.

I have heard on this board that some people believe the laptops, which are linked to the internet, present too much of a temptation/distraction for their children. But parents can ask school to block non-school use, etc, or monitor better themselves at home. And kids who misuse the technology get put on restricted access automatically. If you think your child can't handle having access to a laptop and internet on demand, then perhaps that is something for you to consider. But honestly it has been great for my child and great for me to keep track of what my child is actually working on all day/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who want to talk about DCI without talking about preparedness in target languages, and level or rigor in language classes, can't see the forest for the trees. Kids coming up through feeders are supposed to be well positioned to ace IB Diploma language exams to help them stand out in college admissions. Language skills, especially in speaking and listening, are supposed to be one of their strong suits relative to the competition, after all those years in 50% of partial immersion! How lame that DCI probably won't even offer HL language classes.

If you want your kid to ace IBD math, middle school at BASIS would obviously be much better prep than the DCI experience. If you want them to ace IB humanities, middle school at Wash Latin, Deal or a private would obviously be much better prep.

Sorry, but on what basis are you speculating no HL classes? DCI is offering HL foreign language, not just SL. Starting with next year's Diploma Program students (that starts in 11th).

Where are you getting this? We talked to admins about HL preparation classes a month ago. They said they may offer HL for Spanish in a couple years, not in the fall (no students ready for it). They also said that they have no current plans to offer HL Mandarin or French. You must be confusing upper level Spanish classes with bona fide preparation for HL exams.

[Anonymous]

My strong impression is that the current DCI administrators have no clue about the difference between SL and HL exams in any language!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, the middle school and high school at DCI improve every year. Parents are largely NOT bailing as the PP suggested. HS retention rates are so far even higher than MS, despite the fact that the leading classes are the ones working through most of the kinks for those that follow.
While that doesn't answer all of your questions, it should tell you that families are feeling comfortable with the leadership and plan for the future, and satisfied with the opportunities provided to their children today. Now that the school has moved into its lovely new campus at WR, people are even more excited and optimistic.
Yes, there is some attrition. But it is a low attrition rate compared to other schools. A couple of the 8th graders this year are leaving for Walls, a couple for Private, a couple for Duke Ellington. But the families who are remaining include high income families, families with Wilson in boundary, kids who got into one or more of the magnets, and families who could leave for Maryland suburbs, among others.
To address the complaints about "no tracking" - that's really not done very much anywhere in middle school anymore, but DCI does track in math and foreign language, plus it has 'support" or remedial classes that some students have to take in English and Math in addition to their basic classes. So the system is designed to work with everyone.
As a parent of a pretty "advanced" student, I've been pleased with the way the school continues to challenge my child, even in "untracked" classes like English Language Arts. For example, there is a lot of writing (essays, book analysis, etc), with grammar and spelling being covered more in support classes for those that need it. While there is a wide range of abilities in that class, there is a fair amount of peer review and editing, which has been beneficial for my child as well as others. In fact, there has been a tremendous amount of writing. In the tracked math and language classes, in the upper level classes, kids really are advanced and have the opportunity to challenge themselves even more.
If you got in to DCI, you owe it to yourself and child to check it out, talk (in person preferably) with actual parents and students (rather than listening to repeat anonymous posters), visit info sessions and meet the school leadership. Because if DCI does work out for your child, it's an amazing chance to have an IB diploma path and true commitment to bi-literacy. As far as I know, virtually the only other place you could get that is WIS (assuming that you can get in and want to spend that much on middle school and high school, and you don't mind WIS's lack of socioeconomic diversity compared to a public school).

Thank you for this detailed review!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, but on what basis are you speculating no HL classes? DCI is offering HL foreign language, not just SL. Starting with next year's Diploma Program students (that starts in 11th).

Where are you getting this? We talked to admins about HL preparation classes a month ago. They said they may offer HL for Spanish in a couple years, not in the fall (no students ready for it). They also said that they have no current plans to offer HL Mandarin or French. You must be confusing upper level Spanish classes with bona fide preparation for HL exams.

I've talked to admins and teachers about this too, and I think you are actually confusing readiness for dual/bilingual diplomas versus readiness for HL foreign language classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the middle school and high school at DCI improve every year. Parents are largely NOT bailing as the PP suggested. HS retention rates are so far even higher than MS, despite the fact that the leading classes are the ones working through most of the kinks for those that follow.
While that doesn't answer all of your questions, it should tell you that families are feeling comfortable with the leadership and plan for the future, and satisfied with the opportunities provided to their children today. Now that the school has moved into its lovely new campus at WR, people are even more excited and optimistic.
Yes, there is some attrition. But it is a low attrition rate compared to other schools. A couple of the 8th graders this year are leaving for Walls, a couple for Private, a couple for Duke Ellington. But the families who are remaining include high income families, families with Wilson in boundary, kids who got into one or more of the magnets, and families who could leave for Maryland suburbs, among others.
To address the complaints about "no tracking" - that's really not done very much anywhere in middle school anymore, but DCI does track in math and foreign language, plus it has 'support" or remedial classes that some students have to take in English and Math in addition to their basic classes. So the system is designed to work with everyone.
As a parent of a pretty "advanced" student, I've been pleased with the way the school continues to challenge my child, even in "untracked" classes like English Language Arts. For example, there is a lot of writing (essays, book analysis, etc), with grammar and spelling being covered more in support classes for those that need it. While there is a wide range of abilities in that class, there is a fair amount of peer review and editing, which has been beneficial for my child as well as others. In fact, there has been a tremendous amount of writing. In the tracked math and language classes, in the upper level classes, kids really are advanced and have the opportunity to challenge themselves even more.
If you got in to DCI, you owe it to yourself and child to check it out, talk (in person preferably) with actual parents and students (rather than listening to repeat anonymous posters), visit info sessions and meet the school leadership. Because if DCI does work out for your child, it's an amazing chance to have an IB diploma path and true commitment to bi-literacy. As far as I know, virtually the only other place you could get that is WIS (assuming that you can get in and want to spend that much on middle school and high school, and you don't mind WIS's lack of socioeconomic diversity compared to a public school).

Thank you for this detailed review!

OP here. Agreed---thank you for this response. We are in a DCI feeder and still a few years away from middle school. It's still early days in my research, but I will absolutely talk to actual parents and visit in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, but on what basis are you speculating no HL classes? DCI is offering HL foreign language, not just SL. Starting with next year's Diploma Program students (that starts in 11th).

Where are you getting this? We talked to admins about HL preparation classes a month ago. They said they may offer HL for Spanish in a couple years, not in the fall (no students ready for it). They also said that they have no current plans to offer HL Mandarin or French. You must be confusing upper level Spanish classes with bona fide preparation for HL exams.

I've talked to admins and teachers about this too, and I think you are actually confusing readiness for dual/bilingual diplomas versus readiness for HL foreign language classes.

DP - we're at DCI, and they said they'd be offering HL language when they did a high school presentation earlier this year.

Also - not quoted above, but to the poster commenting about the career track. The career track is not just for students who are not college bound. I expect that there will be college bound kids who are interested in computer science who opt for the career program. Please don't denigrate the career program unnecessarily and by extension the students in that track. College is not for everyone - very rational people can determine that the debt just simply isn't worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the middle school and high school at DCI improve every year. Parents are largely NOT bailing as the PP suggested. HS retention rates are so far even higher than MS, despite the fact that the leading classes are the ones working through most of the kinks for those that follow.
While that doesn't answer all of your questions, it should tell you that families are feeling comfortable with the leadership and plan for the future, and satisfied with the opportunities provided to their children today. Now that the school has moved into its lovely new campus at WR, people are even more excited and optimistic.
Yes, there is some attrition. But it is a low attrition rate compared to other schools. A couple of the 8th graders this year are leaving for Walls, a couple for Private, a couple for Duke Ellington. But the families who are remaining include high income families, families with Wilson in boundary, kids who got into one or more of the magnets, and families who could leave for Maryland suburbs, among others.
To address the complaints about "no tracking" - that's really not done very much anywhere in middle school anymore, but DCI does track in math and foreign language, plus it has 'support" or remedial classes that some students have to take in English and Math in addition to their basic classes. So the system is designed to work with everyone.
As a parent of a pretty "advanced" student, I've been pleased with the way the school continues to challenge my child, even in "untracked" classes like English Language Arts. For example, there is a lot of writing (essays, book analysis, etc), with grammar and spelling being covered more in support classes for those that need it. While there is a wide range of abilities in that class, there is a fair amount of peer review and editing, which has been beneficial for my child as well as others. In fact, there has been a tremendous amount of writing. In the tracked math and language classes, in the upper level classes, kids really are advanced and have the opportunity to challenge themselves even more.
If you got in to DCI, you owe it to yourself and child to check it out, talk (in person preferably) with actual parents and students (rather than listening to repeat anonymous posters), visit info sessions and meet the school leadership. Because if DCI does work out for your child, it's an amazing chance to have an IB diploma path and true commitment to bi-literacy. As far as I know, virtually the only other place you could get that is WIS (assuming that you can get in and want to spend that much on middle school and high school, and you don't mind WIS's lack of socioeconomic diversity compared to a public school).

Thank you for this detailed review!

Come on, relocating a few miles brings excellent immersion and IBD opportunities. Seems you're ruling that option out for everybody here. We're moving less than mile from DC to VA this summer for that very reason.

Some DC public school parents head to MoCo or VA for better partial immersion MS programs along with the chance to test into various high octane IBD programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, but on what basis are you speculating no HL classes? DCI is offering HL foreign language, not just SL. Starting with next year's Diploma Program students (that starts in 11th).

Where are you getting this? We talked to admins about HL preparation classes a month ago. They said they may offer HL for Spanish in a couple years, not in the fall (no students ready for it). They also said that they have no current plans to offer HL Mandarin or French. You must be confusing upper level Spanish classes with bona fide preparation for HL exams.

I've talked to admins and teachers about this too, and I think you are actually confusing readiness for dual/bilingual diplomas versus readiness for HL foreign language classes.

DP - we're at DCI, and they said they'd be offering HL language when they did a high school presentation earlier this year.

Also - not quoted above, but to the poster commenting about the career track. The career track is not just for students who are not college bound. I expect that there will be college bound kids who are interested in computer science who opt for the career program. Please don't denigrate the career program unnecessarily and by extension the students in that track. College is not for everyone - very rational people can determine that the debt just simply isn't worth it.

No one denigrated the career track. It is a good option for students who don't wish to immediately continue education past high school.

It is NOT a good option for a college bound student because it will not signal the most rigorous path to a college admissions office. The IB diploma is respected, but the career track is new, only exists at a handful of US high schools and is, in fact, meant for students who wish to immediately start careers.

[Anonymous]

NP. Boosters really know how to spin it. DCI is just OK.

If you want good or excellent for a language instruction-oriented MS and HS experience in DC you have three choices: move, pay a bomb, or go with Deal or BASIS and supplement for humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the middle school and high school at DCI improve every year. Parents are largely NOT bailing as the PP suggested. HS retention rates are so far even higher than MS, despite the fact that the leading classes are the ones working through most of the kinks for those that follow.
While that doesn't answer all of your questions, it should tell you that families are feeling comfortable with the leadership and plan for the future, and satisfied with the opportunities provided to their children today. Now that the school has moved into its lovely new campus at WR, people are even more excited and optimistic.
Yes, there is some attrition. But it is a low attrition rate compared to other schools. A couple of the 8th graders this year are leaving for Walls, a couple for Private, a couple for Duke Ellington. But the families who are remaining include high income families, families with Wilson in boundary, kids who got into one or more of the magnets, and families who could leave for Maryland suburbs, among others.
To address the complaints about "no tracking" - that's really not done very much anywhere in middle school anymore, but DCI does track in math and foreign language, plus it has 'support" or remedial classes that some students have to take in English and Math in addition to their basic classes. So the system is designed to work with everyone.
As a parent of a pretty "advanced" student, I've been pleased with the way the school continues to challenge my child, even in "untracked" classes like English Language Arts. For example, there is a lot of writing (essays, book analysis, etc), with grammar and spelling being covered more in support classes for those that need it. While there is a wide range of abilities in that class, there is a fair amount of peer review and editing, which has been beneficial for my child as well as others. In fact, there has been a tremendous amount of writing. In the tracked math and language classes, in the upper level classes, kids really are advanced and have the opportunity to challenge themselves even more.
If you got in to DCI, you owe it to yourself and child to check it out, talk (in person preferably) with actual parents and students (rather than listening to repeat anonymous posters), visit info sessions and meet the school leadership. Because if DCI does work out for your child, it's an amazing chance to have an IB diploma path and true commitment to bi-literacy. As far as I know, virtually the only other place you could get that is WIS (assuming that you can get in and want to spend that much on middle school and high school, and you don't mind WIS's lack of socioeconomic diversity compared to a public school).

Thank you for this detailed review!

Come on, relocating a few miles brings excellent immersion and IBD opportunities. Seems you're ruling that option out for everybody here. We're moving less than mile from DC to VA this summer for that very reason.

Some DC public school parents head to MoCo or VA for better partial immersion MS programs along with the chance to test into various high octane IBD programs.

+1. Yes.

[Anonymous]

where are the various high octane IBD programs to test into?

[Anonymous]

In the near burbs, the strongest program is at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville (program gets at least 1,000 applicants for 100 spots, strong Chinese students have a leg up in applying).

The next best is Washington Lee, in Arlington. WL isn't as difficult as RM to get into. Arlington IBD takes 8th grade graduates with a B+ average or better overall if the kid did well in MS language classes and/or can demonstrate fluency in a language.

I'm not very familiar with the programs further out, but there are four or five programs in Fairfax.