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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But isn't the non-immersion class an effort to serve the underachieving students, rather than allowign them to continue to under-achieve in the immersion class. This is what I don't get - people who think (i) the school should serve all, but (ii) cry foul when they try to. It's almost like the complainers are mortally offended that the school doesn't have a magic want to wave to make all students excel.

I agree with this.

Based on this discussion I went back on looked at the DC CAS results. If you look not at the underachieving students, but at the advanced students you can see that advanced African American and non African American (White/Asian/Hispanic) students achieve equally. For math there were equal numbers of advanced students (2 AA and 2 nonAA) and for reading AA students did better (only one advanced in reading, an AA student). If you look at the scores for procient + advanced: reading = 12 AA and 10 nonAA; math =11 AA and 9 nonAA, so more or less equal. What this tells me is that no one is being held back because of his/her race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is rank speculation on my part, but the class has about 35% economically disadvantaged students in it. I'd bet that many of the students moved into the non-immersion class are also economically disadvantaged. And in DC, an unfortunate reality is that there's a good chance that virtually all of those students are also AA. Of course, this is based exclusively on looking at the yearly report card, without any personal knowledge of the school, so it might be completely wrong. I'm sure someone will tell me if it is.

Actually, looking at the data 50% of economically disadvanced students achieved proficiency in both math and reading.

[Anonymous]

So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

You may have concluded that - "we" did no such thing. Chinese is not being abandoned in the non-immersion track, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

You may have concluded that - "we" did no such thing. Chinese is not being abandoned in the non-immersion track, you know.

The charter is Chinese immersion for all children, correct. All of the children are not immersed in Chinese pursuant to the charter, correct. Some children are pulled out and receive an hour or two a week of Chinese language, a la Eaton, correct. The reason for the alacarte Chinese classes are because the low SES students were not testing well in English, correct. Therefore, suffice it to say that YU Ying has been unable to provide the full educational experience to low SES students that it has provided to all students, pursuant to the school's own charter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

More misinformation from someone with no first hand knowledge. If you are an actual parent in the class where these kids are, it is so easy to poke holes in your statement.

A) These classes are really small. Parents in these classes have known the children their kids have been with for 4 years now.
B) Since the classes are small, you get to know the other families and kids pretty well.
C) There are low SES black kids at Yu Ying who are performing fine in Chinese. Others are struggling.
D) How do I know this? My child is friends with them and I talk to their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

To me the school did a courageous thing. Instead of bowing to issues of race, class, or parent pressure, they used data to make decisions and let the chips fall where they would. As a parent of a child in the upper grade, I too, was worried about the decision to offer a different language model to some students. The school put in a lot of work (a huge document) responding to all questions (whether civil or not), held a special PA meeting, met with each identified family and student individually, and kept it color-blind. What more do people want? If the school had chosen to ignore the continued pattern of failure in both English and Chinese for these students, would they have been accused of not caring whether this group succeeded or not? Would we be yelling at them for passing kids along without doing something more before middle school? We know retention is not the answer. You can't have it both ways. These kids were all receiving special intervention before being identified for this model and are being included with their peers for all but reading and math (and of course, they get Chinese in an instructional vs. immersion method).
C'mon people: get real about the hard choices we all have to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

You may have concluded that - "we" did no such thing. Chinese is not being abandoned in the non-immersion track, you know.

The charter is Chinese immersion for all children, correct. All of the children are not immersed in Chinese pursuant to the charter, correct. Some children are pulled out and receive an hour or two a week of Chinese language, a la Eaton, correct. The reason for the alacarte Chinese classes are because the low SES students were not testing well in English, correct. Therefore, suffice it to say that YU Ying has been unable to provide the full educational experience to low SES students that it has provided to all students, pursuant to the school's own charter.

You got this from a half-assed post someone put together in 10 minutes, and are accepting it as fact, even when another PP demonstrated that it can't be the entire story. That post even said in it that it is entirely speculation. (I know it was half-assed speculation and written in 10 minutes, because I wrote it.) You have a real career ahead in non-critical thinking. I think the Tea Party is hiring.

The school could keep all the kids in immersion class, you know, allowing them to flounder and get further and further behind in both English and Chinese. That would address your whining about “unable to provide the whole education experience,” right? But do you really think that is in the students’ best interest? Both the ones who are struggling and the ones who aren’t? I don’t.

News flash – bilingual is hard. Chinese bilingual? I can’t even imagine. Not every kid is going to succeed. The school is trying to HELP those who aren’t succeeding in an incredibly difficult program. Woudl you prefer they not do this? I have two other questions for you:

What is your suggested option, if not the non-immersion track?

Why the apparent vested interest in arguing that YY is a failure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

To me the school did a courageous thing. Instead of bowing to issues of race, class, or parent pressure, they used data to make decisions and let the chips fall where they would. As a parent of a child in the upper grade, I too, was worried about the decision to offer a different language model to some students. The school put in a lot of work (a huge document) responding to all questions (whether civil or not), held a special PA meeting, met with each identified family and student individually, and kept it color-blind. What more do people want? If the school had chosen to ignore the continued pattern of failure in both English and Chinese for these students, would they have been accused of not caring whether this group succeeded or not? Would we be yelling at them for passing kids along without doing something more before middle school? We know retention is not the answer. You can't have it both ways. These kids were all receiving special intervention before being identified for this model and are being included with their peers for all but reading and math (and of course, they get Chinese in an instructional vs. immersion method).
C'mon people: get real about the hard choices we all have to make.

Amen sister! Or brother!

[Anonymous]

I am a parent of a lower-grade child at YY so don't know about the upper grades but did view the class during my tour and heard a bit about it. I counted the number of kids and I recall it being quite small (10?). The administrator said that they had tried other methods (tutoring, etc.) but it had not been enough. I can completely understand the arguments/concerns about the class being all-AA and perhaps the stigma that comes with being in a "different" class. Children can perceive tracking no matter how it is sliced and diced - red/blue versus advanced/non-advanced. But I like what a PP said about parents wanting differentiation (gifted) but not when it is for under-achieving students. Do the parents of the students in the class believe that their children do need the extra help? That class is getting a lot of extra attention - half the size of the other classes. From a resources point of view, the school is investing much more per child in that class than in the others. I don't know the details but at what grade did these kids come into the school. I think starting later is tougher. For the PK kids who are in 100 percent immersion, I think the scenario will be much different. But then again, some students do struggle more than others. If a child needs a lot of extra time with English, what should the school do? There was another thread on this topic earlier this year where a poster said that if a student doesn't achieve written/oral proficiency in English by grade five, it is very difficult to achieve it later. I don't have the data but I do agree that English trumps all. I consider foreign language important obviously (I've enrolled my child and have studied a few languages on my own) but we are fortunate that English is such a dominant world language. Even after writing a ton, university, etc, I still feel like my writing could be improved tremendously. Good writing and speaking skills (English) are ESSENTIAL for any job. Foreign language skills are a nice plus but nothing beats strong English skills. For those who don't like the differentiated curriculum model, what do you propose for this current batch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what we have concluded is that Yu Ying is incapable of providing it's charter mission to low SES students. That is also a problem. Low SES families need not apply, for your child will not, I repeat, will not, receive a dual language education. Just be happy you get a slot in the lottery.

You may have concluded that - "we" did no such thing. Chinese is not being abandoned in the non-immersion track, you know.

The charter is Chinese immersion for all children, correct. All of the children are not immersed in Chinese pursuant to the charter, correct. Some children are pulled out and receive an hour or two a week of Chinese language, a la Eaton, correct. The reason for the alacarte Chinese classes are because the low SES students were not testing well in English, correct. Therefore, suffice it to say that YU Ying has been unable to provide the full educational experience to low SES students that it has provided to all students, pursuant to the school's own charter.

So, your conclusion is that they should remain in the 50/50 model despite failing in English? Were you aware that the corporations that build prisons make their estimates on where and how large to build their facilities based on the 4th grade reading scores of inner-city males?

Not bringing these students up to speed in English would be a moral failure.

[Anonymous]

I just really don't get the outrage here (especially from people who aren't even a part of the school!). What would the outraged have happen? Because a small number of kids are not doing well in Chinese - a notoriously difficult language - Yu Ying is in violation of its charter....and.....what? Therefore should close? Therefore is a failure? Even though there are many students who are served well, who are doing well?

Everything isn't for everybody. Maybe a school like Yu Ying should be more of a magnet, where it's not blind admissions but is based on something, and retention is based on something, too. But DC is absolutely opposed to anything that even hints at differentiation, and serving the lowest common denominator, every single time, is not that way to promote excellence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu ying is now a mostly white and asian school. Was majority african american, but no longer the case with lower grades. Yu Ying "tracks" underachieving students into non-immersion track to "catch up" for the standardized tests.

All kids in the "catch-up" track are African American. They have essentially figured out a way to track the underperforming black kids away from the white and Asian middle class kids.

There is something terribly wrong with this. They found a way to track the black kids away from the white and Asian kids. If immersion is pRt of the charter, how can Yu Ying not provide immersion to these children. I smell a rat, but it's hidden behind the walls.

ITA. I had followed the school a few years ago, as was interested for my kids. But, hadn't heard this. I would be so upset about this, whether I had a kid on the fast or slow track. Tracking elementary kids means the school is doing a terrible job. And, people complain about the tracks at Wilson. That's nothing compared to this. Way to tell a group of kids that they deserve less.

[Anonymous]

I know it has been mentioned briefly, but seriously, why aren't the underperforming students held back? I know the school needs to advance the student to allow for room for rising students and doing this will directly affect funding, but that seems like such a disservice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu ying is now a mostly white and asian school. Was majority african american, but no longer the case with lower grades. Yu Ying "tracks" underachieving students into non-immersion track to "catch up" for the standardized tests.

All kids in the "catch-up" track are African American. They have essentially figured out a way to track the underperforming black kids away from the white and Asian middle class kids.

There is something terribly wrong with this. They found a way to track the black kids away from the white and Asian kids. If immersion is pRt of the charter, how can Yu Ying not provide immersion to these children. I smell a rat, but it's hidden behind the walls.

ITA. I had followed the school a few years ago, as was interested for my kids. But, hadn't heard this. I would be so upset about this, whether I had a kid on the fast or slow track. Tracking elementary kids means the school is doing a terrible job. And, people complain about the tracks at Wilson. That's nothing compared to this. Way to tell a group of kids that they deserve less.

What a pity that we can't track you in a remedial thread for DCUM. Your objections have been addressed, multiple times, on this thread. Whereas those who make the objections, have yet to put up a cogent rebuttal. It's almost as if you can't read English. That's too bad, because you can't even blame it on having spent too much time learning Chinese.