Yu Yang--is the student body predominately African American, does Yu Yang have a non-Chinese track..

[Anonymous]

Garfield ES in Ward 8 is at 8% proficient and some ass-clowns have time to focus their energy and vitriol on Yu Yang?

Too many people in this city think it's more important that everyone in this city be equal instead of fair. It's better if we are all in squallor than to have some schools actually rising out of the morass that DC has been in. Yu Yang is just trying to give kids an education - there's no conspiracy.

Like crabs in a barrel, when one near the top and almost out, others grab it and pull it back down.

[Anonymous]

Why is this school getting so much attention from DCUM? I am a new parent at YY, with an advanced AA child. She loves the school, and is excited about the Chinese language! The school must be doing something right, since you all are wasting so much of your valuable time trying to "knock it down"!!

Again, if you are happy with the school, throw your name in the lottery! If the school does not work for you, keep on stepping! It is a charter school, you do not have to apply! In other words...If the quality of the school is not sufficient for the ABCs, or the EFG's, or the 123s, pay $30K at private or attend your neighborhood school. Move on people....get a life! No school is perfect...

[Anonymous]

This rings so true. Seems the fatal flaw of our city will always be its inability to let successful ventures flourish. It seems there is no way to grow success when the first hint of quality gets torn down no matter who is benefitting. It's ugly, immature and destructive. How does one repair a fatal flaw like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This rings so true. Seems the fatal flaw of our city will always be its inability to let successful ventures flourish. It seems there is no way to grow success when the first hint of quality gets torn down no matter who is benefitting. It's ugly, immature and destructive. How does one repair a fatal flaw like this?

I'm abandoning DCUM. Seriously. This is the last time I will read it/post to it. I think it's the anonymity factor, but a huge majority of people on it seem to be hurting, vengeful, bullies. I'm so tired of the Yu Ying bashing, but also just how mean-spirited most postings have become.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Dialect support" to learn Mandarin could be something as simple as a teacher who speaks yours offering focused help w/pronunciation. True that dialect speakers need to start learning Mandarin young to avoid a pronounced accent (like the heavy "th" of the Cantonese speakers), and that strong accents aren't appreciated in northern China. But dialect speakers can't avoid a Mandarin accent altogether. I'm a Lafayette parent who speaks Shanghai'ese to my child. I got in to YY but it didn't seem worth the trek when the school's agnostic on the subject of bilingual kids attending. It is what it is. We like our heritage Mandarin class at a private oufit in Silver Spring. A teacher speaks our dialect and the Mandarin standard in the advanced classes for elementary is higher than at YY. I'm not going to call our situation representative, but know other ABCs with similar stories at Brent, Janney etc. For my tax dollars, I'd like YY to at least start tracking how many bilingual families go in the lottery, and why some don't attend even if they could.

1) As a Mandarin speaker, I personally would not trade 32.5 hours of Mandarin immersion at YY PreK for a few weekend hours at "Chinese School."
2) My brother's children (now 12 and 11) have been taking "heritage Mandarin classes" since they were 5. While they are excellent, well-rounded students, they are not fluent in Mandarin and definitely are not able to read or write in Mandarin. My brother and sister-in-law are both native speakers of Mandarin. The children are not attending "Chinese School" anymore this year because my brother and SIL do not see the value in it.
3) I think it's wonderful that you have very specific objectives regarding your children's education. I agree that the school should know how many bilingual famlies apply as a reference point for future planning. However, I think YY - as a public charter school - should NOT be obligated to track WHY a bilingual family (or any family) chooses not to attend YY.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to be the one who broke the 500-message mark on this thread! Now why doesn't everyone go pick on something else??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to be the one who broke the 500-message mark on this thread! Now why doesn't everyone go pick on something else??

whew..thank you! I think it is official--DCUM loves Yu Ying!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

2) My brother's children (now 12 and 11) have been taking "heritage Mandarin classes" since they were 5. While they are excellent, well-rounded students, they are not fluent in Mandarin and definitely are not able to read or write in Mandarin. My brother and sister-in-law are both native speakers of Mandarin. The children are not attending "Chinese School" anymore this year because my brother and SIL do not see the value in it.

I know several kids like this including both of my bf's kids who have been going to "heritage Mandarin classes" since 4, now 10 and 12. They can understand Mandarin but answer in English and cannot read/write. I don't know about their spoken Mandarin since I've never heard them speak it. Don't think "heritage Mandarin classes" helped at all.

[Anonymous]

Just to throw another example out there similar to 14:44. We had one kid in Sunday morning Heritage Mandarin classes for two years. We put child #2 in Yu Ying (no previous Chinese). Within 4 months Child #2's Chinese was better than kid who had been going to Sunday morning classes. We do not speak Mandarin at home.

Personally, I would love more native speakers in the class, but I understand Yu Ying's constraints. My hope is that as the school grows, it will attract more native speakers to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to be the one who broke the 500-message mark on this thread! Now why doesn't everyone go pick on something else??

whew..thank you! I think it is official--DCUM loves Yu Ying!

How about this?
Those who can, do, and those who can't--write about Yu Ying on DCUM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to throw another example out there similar to 14:44. We had one kid in A morning Heritage Mandarin classes for two years. We put child #2 in Yu Ying (no previous Chinese). Within 4 months Child #2's Chinese was better than kid who had been going to Sunday morning classes. We do not speak Mandarin at home.

Personally, I would love more native speakers in the class, but I understand Yu Ying's constraints. My hope is that as the school grows, it will attract more native speakers to apply.

[/quote

Not speaking Mandarin at home is a big contributing factor in your kid's progress.

[Anonymous]

Over 11200 people have read this. Over 500 have contributed.

[Anonymous]

Charter schools are a mortal threat to DCPS teacher's unions.

[Anonymous]

Or a mortal threat to a quality education. All that extra cash in grants and yet charters still aren't getting better numbers?

Pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Pathetic or not.

Parental choice, vouchers, and charter schools are a mortal threat to teacher's unions across the country.

The quality of U.S. unionized public education does not rank well internationally, despite the amazing per pupil funding.

All the administrators, healthcare benefits, and pensions sure are expensive!