so if rhee is sending her older kid to deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why, oh why, doesn't anyone from Oyster just contact Chancellor Rhee and beg for help? It's clear that the Oyster Principal does not have the confidence of many of her parents and teachers. Are they waiting for someone to blow their top and do an expose for the press of how things go up close in Rhee's back yard? I know more and more parents and teachers are getting more and more emboldened to speak freely and without fear about why they are abandoning ship. Maybe with the safe harbours lined up already (like those of us in Deal boundary) there is nothing to lose and maybe something to gain for families with no option but to stay at Oyster. Who is in charge of Aguirre?? Who reviews her?

[e-mail]

She's most responsive on email.

[Anonymous]

Should we just email her this thread?

[Anonymous]

she doesn't have time to read such a long thread. just be brief and concise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:23, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Children who have been in Spanish immersion or a strong bilingual program throughout all or most of their elementary school years should be fully (or at least functionally) bilingual, so by middle school, they shouldn't be "studying" Spanish at all anymore. Instead, they'd be conducting some of their studies IN Spanish. So the Spanish component of the middle school curriculum should actually be expanding their horizons rather than limiting them.

Which brings up a question about Oyster and its current level of achievement: ARE most students fully bilingual/biliterate by the end of elementary school?

I think what 12:23 is getting at is that Deal has much more to offer. Kids at that age can really drive these decisions. My 4th grader is ecstatic about going to Deal in 6th - it really has a strong buzz among kids. In fact, one of the smartest things Deal does to promote the school is have former elementary students talk about their experiences at Deal to 4th and 5th graders. If Rhee's daughter isn't happy at Oyster, then she should make the change.

The problem with this statement is that there is such a wealth of information that proves smaller learning communities are better learning communities. Other factors being equal, small schools really are better. So the fact that Oyster isn't perceived to better than a gigantic midddle school like Deal means that something is wrong at Oyster.

http://www.nmsa.org/AboutNMSA/PositionStatements/SmallSchools/tabid/293/Default.aspx

[Anonymous]

that wasn't the point of my post - small vs. bigger learning environments - my point was that kids have a big say about where they want to go. From what I understand Deal is divided up into smaller learning communities so it doesn't feel like a large school.

[Anonymous]

Yes PP teams of 100 students. It works beautifully.

[Anonymous]

Does student interest in and parent flight to Deal extend to bilinguals as well? That would be truly troubling. Where would bilinguals go other than WIS (not doable for us)? We have 3 years to sort out MS. Does Oyster have a strategy to attract OOB multilinguals? There seem to be a lot of us east of woodley judging from bilingual waitlists at charters and expansion of immersion at some DCPS (bancroft new Tyleresque Spanish-only ps3 option). Any thoughts from families staying at OA ?

[Anonymous]

This is stupid. She can send her kid whereever she wants, just like the Obamas can. You may think it is political, but to it is a private and personal decision and she doesn't have to answer to anyone.

[Anonymous]

She's not POTUS with all of the security matters, either. She's an instructional leader of a small city school system who is not able to critically judge Ms. Liang-Aguirre, whose leadership style is to not lead at all. Rather than "fix" things at Oyster she's letting it languish and getting out. Anyway, how may of the thousands of DCPS families out there entering MS have the luxury of choosing between Oyster or Deal? Doesn't seem right in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is stupid. She can send her kid whereever she wants, just like the Obamas can. You may think it is political, but to it is a private and personal decision and she doesn't have to answer to anyone.

No, it's not stupid. Her choices reflect her votes of confidence or lack thereof. It's silly to pretend they don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is stupid. She can send her kid whereever she wants, just like the Obamas can. You may think it is political, but to it is a private and personal decision and she doesn't have to answer to anyone.

No, it's not stupid. Her choices reflect her votes of confidence or lack thereof. It's silly to pretend they don't.

Love, hate or indifferent, she and her children's father decided to live in boundary for Oyster-Adams/Deal pretty much sight unseen. Perhaps a bit naive about dual language immersion model, but not surprising the visual diversity could be welcoming for her mixed race kids.

Verdict on her is still out IMHO. But I do respect that at least she's been above board on this one point. No OOB shenanigans or promising one type of enrollment and doing another like her boss, jumping the OOB queue like some officials, or avoiding public altogether like many local pols.

Of course no parent has to answer for their school choice, unless of course they are running for office and choose to make it platform point and then renege. (Not that I'm sore about Fenty at Lafayette or anything.)

Was she really friends with Aquirre before or is this chisme? (Gossip)

[Anonymous]

Shenagin Schmadagin...this is not some brilliant stroke. All of her buddies have jumped the system and boundaries (her, Reinoso, Fenty, etc...). Yes they were really "friends", as in 15 years ago. Once Rhee was appointed she sent out an all points alert to her TFA buddies seeking interested comrades. Aguirre and her hubby responded and simply because they bow down to the Fenty regime will be protected no matter how poorly they perform (one runs Oyster, the other DPR).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is stupid. She can send her kid whereever she wants, just like the Obamas can. You may think it is political, but to it is a private and personal decision and she doesn't have to answer to anyone.

No, it's not stupid. Her choices reflect her votes of confidence or lack thereof. It's silly to pretend they don't.

Love, hate or indifferent, she and her children's father decided to live in boundary for Oyster-Adams/Deal pretty much sight unseen. Perhaps a bit naive about dual language immersion model, but not surprising the visual diversity could be welcoming for her mixed race kids.

Verdict on her is still out IMHO. But I do respect that at least she's been above board on this one point. No OOB shenanigans or promising one type of enrollment and doing another like her boss, jumping the OOB queue like some officials, or avoiding public altogether like many local pols.

Of course no parent has to answer for their school choice, unless of course they are running for office and choose to make it platform point and then renege. (Not that I'm sore about Fenty at Lafayette or anything.)

Was she really friends with Aquirre before or is this chisme? (Gossip)

Are you serious?? That is the very definition of naive.

Go Gray! (by the way...)

[Anonymous]

As a current O-A middle school parent, I would say that yes, Rhee is sending a clear signal. Unless Chancellor Rhee's daughter has an overriding interest in extra curriculars, she's not getting something substantially different coursewise at Deal.

I respond to many of the prior posts of containing anecdotal "the middle school failed" prattle, with facts from a post in a different thread, that actually contains facts. The success of the middle school can be seen simply in the fact of high school admissions: 12 to Walls, 1 to Maret, 1 to Banneker, 2 to Phelps, 3 to Burke and 2 to WIS out of 42. That gives this parent with a rising 8th grader hope, and makes me wonder what people in this thread would actually consider a "successful" program.

[Anonymous]

00:55: Thanks, impressive.

What do you think attracts so many OA rising high schoolers to Walls rather than Wilson? Is it that Walls allows them to continue their studies in Spanish at GW? (I'm guessing that Wilson can not accommodate Spanish studies at that level.)