Yu Ying parents, what are the school pros and cons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Upper grade kid: very inconsistent math program. My DC had huge gaps that seemed to be passed along that caught up with her this year. Some kids are fine, but we relied on just what the school taught. I had a hunch because she just wasn't working on the same things I did at that age, but hey I'm not a teacher so what do I know about math teaching sequences-- especially with the common core and all that. Unfortunately, that was wrong.
Once we figured out the problem and how deep the deficits were we got a tutor. Three months of intense work and she is now on track. Here is an example to help you: they never taught times tables when it typically happens so the teacher the following year assumed it had been done and moved on to things like area and perimeter, long division, etc. like they knew them. It was not just my daughter either. Some kids had learned them along the way but the ones who didn't pick them up on their own were at a deficit.

Can anyone give some suggestions on where to find a great math tutor for elementary age children or post a referral here? I am at a different HRCs and would like to supplement.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

If they are so bad in math how come they have such high DCCAS math scores?

[Anonymous]

how high are they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:how high are they?

~80% proficient. DC CAS standards are not exactly high...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how high are they?

~80% proficient. DC CAS standards are not exactly high...

Well, they are above 90% of the other DCPS (aprox.), being the highest score around 90% , so yes, they are high.

[Anonymous]

Pros: great community, superb teachers, great location and building, large outside space with nature center and playground.
Solid academics, very good art and music programs, Chinese teaching adapted to each kid, public school (free!) with bus service (not free) from Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Mt Pleasant and U street, great after school programs (including sports, chess, Chinese song and dances,...) at a reasonable price.

Cons: Not super strong in STEM, no American history so far (but Chinese history was done a bit). No American flag nor pledge of allegiance as far as we know (a bit of patriotism would not hurt.) A large emphasis on testing even at the K level.
Awful communication with management (they seem to have an insider circle and the rest of us is ignored).

Net result: Happy with the school as there are many more pros than cons -- We supplement at home for math/science and some world/US history.

Great school.

Good luck to everyone applying!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pros: great community, superb teachers, great location and building, large outside space with nature center and playground.
Solid academics, very good art and music programs, Chinese teaching adapted to each kid, public school (free!) with bus service (not free) from Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Mt Pleasant and U street, great after school programs (including sports, chess, Chinese song and dances,...) at a reasonable price.

Cons: Not super strong in STEM, no American history so far (but Chinese history was done a bit). No American flag nor pledge of allegiance as far as we know (a bit of patriotism would not hurt.) A large emphasis on testing even at the K level.
Awful communication with management (they seem to have an insider circle and the rest of us is ignored).

Net result: Happy with the school as there are many more pros than cons -- We supplement at home for math/science and some world/US history.

Great school.

Good luck to everyone applying!

Thanks, OP here! Very useful info, thanks everyone!

[Anonymous]

Genuine question: how exactly can you assess if the academics are strong or the math level is adequate? Kids are not taught the same curriculum now as when we were growing up, so what are you looking at to make that kind of assessment other than test scores, which I am not sure are very telling?

[Anonymous]

Look at grade level standards. Also, ask yourself, "Should my 4th grader know how to multiply... because her homework is asking her to do long division?"

[Anonymous]

Hi there, almost 9 years later, I’m finding myself looking at putting Yu Ying on my lottery list. I’d love to hear previous posters’ perspectives after some time has passed.

[Anonymous]

Hate to break it to you, but most of the kids we met at YY 8 or 9 years ago and keep up with now no longer study Chinese as teens. They're at schools that don't teach appropriately advanced Chinese, or don't teach Chinese at all, like BASIS, the original Latin, private schools or out of the DC area. Most are not at DCI and if they are at DCI, they're in pre-AP Chinese classes w/out peers who speak good Chinese. If they do study Chinese, they're spoken Mandarin doesn't seem to have advanced much past the YY 5th grade level. We know DC kids who speak good Mandarin, but they're not YY grads. These kids either grew up in the homes of native speakers or attend pricey Chinese immersion camps in the summers, e.g. Concordia in MN ($6,000/month) the DCI crowd doesn't bother with. Knowing all this, I'm no longer convinced that the YY and DCI 1-way immersion model, where kids only learn Chinese from teachers, is the right way to go. If you like YY for other reasons, go for it. You might want to process this info right now, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1

Try mathnasium

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break it to you, but most of the kids we met at YY 8 or 9 years ago and keep up with now no longer study Chinese as teens. They're at schools that don't teach appropriately advanced Chinese, or don't teach Chinese at all, like BASIS, the original Latin, private schools or out of the DC area. Most are not at DCI and if they are at DCI, they're in pre-AP Chinese classes w/out peers who speak good Chinese. If they do study Chinese, they're spoken Mandarin doesn't seem to have advanced much past the YY 5th grade level. We know DC kids who speak good Mandarin, but they're not YY grads. These kids either grew up in the homes of native speakers or attend pricey Chinese immersion camps in the summers, e.g. Concordia in MN ($6,000/month) the DCI crowd doesn't bother with. Knowing all this, I'm no longer convinced that the YY and DCI 1-way immersion model, where kids only learn Chinese from teachers, is the right way to go. If you like YY for other reasons, go for it. You might want to process this info right now, OP.

From best I can tell the average YY parent was more concerned about avoiding their neighborhood DCPS school than raising a Mandarin fluent child. Now if their kid ended up speaking Chinese, that’s a bonus, but it was never the primary reason.

[Anonymous]

Not smart to put your kid in 50% immersion for up to 8 years without caring if they retain the language. Pathetic.