Future parents--heartburn over schooling--would love insight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22:19 is the new stupid. What makes you so sure that people in AU Park seek out a monolingual education? Because they may not be frothing at the mouth at the slight chance of getting into Yu Ying? Thankfully, people in AU Park don't have to worry about the gamble of charter school admittance and there's nothing stopping them from having their children learn a second language.

+1. The bilingual charter schools are overrated anyway. Without immersion MS options, collectively, the little kids in them, whose language skills generally aren't being reinforced at home (almost the entire Yu Ying population as there's no Chinese community behind the school, vs. Oyster, supported by a Latino community), are likely to have a hard time hanging onto their "fluency." CH parents in particular tend to use YY and others to escape not-so-great neighborhood schools, not because they have a connection to the immersion language/culture, or a definite path to Intl Bacca in HS.

You're better off starting with a solid IB ES school and seeing if lottery luck at an immersion school works for you later. Can't agree more with the poster who suggested that. Housing prices are rising a lot faster than salaries - it can be difficult to afford to move after you already have a kid or two.

Incorrect. All the immersion schools are developing a MS/HS that goes all the way up to the IB Diploma. So, the Chinese and Spanish language-learning can continue up to college admissions, at which point they may also have IB Diplomas. (I forget - can you get an IB Diploma at a DC HS? I know you can in FFX and MoCo, but I'm quite sure Wilson doesn't offer it.) Also, all those Chinese exchange students, and opportunities to house visiting teachers, and a school trip to China, etc. should provide plenty of opportunities to speak Chinese outside the classroom. Don't you think?

Seriously, complaining about imperfect (yet already functional) Chinese of some students who have another decade to perfect their mastery of the language translates into... sour grapes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Seriously, complaining about imperfect (yet already functional) Chinese of some students who have another decade to perfect their mastery of the language translates into... sour grapes.

Sour grapes about what? We pulled out of YY because, as American Born Chinese parents, we felt like zoo animals there. If we're going to be zoo animals, we'd much rather do it at our fine WOP IB school with more fellow Chinese parents than at YY. What we feel is relief, and bewilderment that DC Charter remains convinced that an immersion school can work well without more than a handful of Chinese parents and kids to model the language and culture for the non-Chinese, and without Chinese administrators. We're shooting for IB at a private or MoCo. Hint: 3,000 years of tradition, language and culture are a little hard to argue with....

[Anonymous]

What I don't understand about the posts from the Chinese community is this: won't your kids learn more Chinese at an imperfect YY than in a nice WOTP school? I grew up with a lot of ABCs (or immigrated while very young), and while their spoken Chinese (usually Cantonese) was very good (interacting with their families in Chinese etc, interpreting for parents etc), their reading/writing wasn't as good because their schooling was in English. Attending YY (even if their home language was Cantonese) would have helped with that (if it had been an option). So how do you deal with that as an ABC family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:geez! she doesn't even have kids yet! why not buy a house where she is happy now? She could sell or rent it out later if she is in the minority of people that A) have children and B) can't find any decent school options in DC.

I actually do not think there is data to support that this is a "minority" of parents that live outside school boundaries they consider acceptable. Additionally, have you missed all the prior posts of parents frustrated with DC schools that have no options because they are underwater on their homes and have struck out in the lottery. I think the OP can measure her own willingness to go with the risk of school issues v. comfort in buying in a known quantity, dealing with one or two years at "acceptable for PS3 and Pre-K" while you hope to do better in the lotteries would be a non-starter for me, other people have different levels of risk aversion. This thread has provided plenty of input for OP to make an informed choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I don't understand about the posts from the Chinese community is this: won't your kids learn more Chinese at an imperfect YY than in a nice WOTP school? I grew up with a lot of ABCs (or immigrated while very young), and while their spoken Chinese (usually Cantonese) was very good (interacting with their families in Chinese etc, interpreting for parents etc), their reading/writing wasn't as good because their schooling was in English. Attending YY (even if their home language was Cantonese) would have helped with that (if it had been an option). So how do you deal with that as an ABC family?

Language acquisition, and learning Chinese characters, isn't our only, our even our primary, concern. YY's set-up is simply too far removed from the E. Asian immigrant experience for most of us to want to get invovled. Just read these posts - are opinions are valued? We get laughed out of court for whatever we suggest (e.g Chinese administrators). We deal with being Chinese by emphasizing our culture in family and community circles. We are certainly not the most outward-looking immigrant group. Individuals may be different, but collectively, we aren't as inclined to reach out as Westerners. That's the way we're raised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22:19 is the new stupid. What makes you so sure that people in AU Park seek out a monolingual education? Because they may not be frothing at the mouth at the slight chance of getting into Yu Ying? Thankfully, people in AU Park don't have to worry about the gamble of charter school admittance and there's nothing stopping them from having their children learn a second language.

+1. The bilingual charter schools are overrated anyway. Without immersion MS options, collectively, the little kids in them, whose language skills generally aren't being reinforced at home (almost the entire Yu Ying population as there's no Chinese community behind the school, vs. Oyster, supported by a Latino community), are likely to have a hard time hanging onto their "fluency." CH parents in particular tend to use YY and others to escape not-so-great neighborhood schools, not because they have a connection to the immersion language/culture, or a definite path to Intl Bacca in HS.

You're better off starting with a solid IB ES school and seeing if lottery luck at an immersion school works for you later. Can't agree more with the poster who suggested that. Housing prices are rising a lot faster than salaries - it can be difficult to afford to move after you already have a kid or two.

Really? By whom?

You sound jealous. They DO have an MS/HS option, btw. They all get to go to the DCI - the collective immersion MS/HS which will do the full IB program including the IB Diploma.

Sounds better than Mandarin 1 and AP Spanish!!

[Anonymous]

The bilingual charter schools are overrated anyway.

Really? By whom?

You sound jealous. They DO have an MS/HS option, btw. They all get to go to the DCI - the collective immersion MS/HS which will do the full IB program including the IB Diploma.

I agree with the PP who thinks that immersion schools are overrated, and not just the charters. The charters don't support lotteries for bilingual kids, hardly inspirational, and Oyster, which does, has discipline problems. We pulled out of Oyster after 3rd grade for Sidwell last year because our very bright daughter was no longer getting nearly enough attention - too many rowdy low-income kids in her class distracting teachers (not PC to point this out, just the unvarnished truth). The planning for DCI is still vague and there aren't any HS charters attracting a sizeable middle-class cohort yet. Look at how more than 2/3 of the white kids at Wash Latin, where there is little ability grouping despite open lottery admissions, bail before HS.

Many of the immersion kids surely won't end up at DCI - upper-middle-class families still tend to jump ship for privates and the burbs along the way. My point is take the medium and long-term planning with a grain of salt, if not a bag of salt. Sure, it may work out as you say, but it may not, these being DC public schools.

[Anonymous]

Back to the question at hand. No one has said this outright so I will. If you have $800k for a house, you can definitely buy in the Brrent district, and, in my opinion, you should. It is a great area near everything including all the Navy Yard stuff. Plus you get a good school through 5th grade. But, you have to make a sacrifice ( can't have everything in this life ). You will have to buy small and/or run down. Personally, I would go for small. 10 years down the line, when you are feeling cramped you can sell at a profit, ask the principal to let your kid finish at Brent and move bigger somewhere else on the hill. But you have to suck it up and not have your dream house right now. You can have a good enough house in a dreamy neighborhood instead

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:geez! she doesn't even have kids yet! why not buy a house where she is happy now? She could sell or rent it out later if she is in the minority of people that A) have children and B) can't find any decent school options in DC.

A "minority of people"? Oh really?

I guess it depends on how you define "decent".

And really, why would you buy an $800K house and settle for a "decent" school?

I seriously don't get it. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don't understand about the posts from the Chinese community is this: won't your kids learn more Chinese at an imperfect YY than in a nice WOTP school? I grew up with a lot of ABCs (or immigrated while very young), and while their spoken Chinese (usually Cantonese) was very good (interacting with their families in Chinese etc, interpreting for parents etc), their reading/writing wasn't as good because their schooling was in English. Attending YY (even if their home language was Cantonese) would have helped with that (if it had been an option). So how do you deal with that as an ABC family?

Language acquisition, and learning Chinese characters, isn't our only, our even our primary, concern. YY's set-up is simply too far removed from the E. Asian immigrant experience for most of us to want to get invovled. Just read these posts - are opinions are valued? We get laughed out of court for whatever we suggest (e.g Chinese administrators). We deal with being Chinese by emphasizing our culture in family and community circles. We are certainly not the most outward-looking immigrant group. Individuals may be different, but collectively, we aren't as inclined to reach out as Westerners. That's the way we're raised.

Wow. You post on every thread you can about this, don't you?? You can believe that the school sought out Chinese-speaking administrators, but NO qualified ones were to be found for the top two spots. They tried. There is a Chinese administrator who is the coordinator of the Chinese language program at the school. The current principal has been taking Chinese lessons diligently. Sounds like it's a good thing you found something that meets your needs better. My question is, why do feel the need to so attack YY so much?? Why denigrate others' choices to have their kids learn Chinese there? I really hope this isn't some weird racial purity thing....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the question at hand. No one has said this outright so I will. If you have $800k for a house, you can definitely buy in the Brrent district, and, in my opinion, you should. It is a great area near everything including all the Navy Yard stuff. Plus you get a good school through 5th grade. But, you have to make a sacrifice ( can't have everything in this life ). You will have to buy small and/or run down. Personally, I would go for small. 10 years down the line, when you are feeling cramped you can sell at a profit, ask the principal to let your kid finish at Brent and move bigger somewhere else on the hill. But you have to suck it up and not have your dream house right now. You can have a good enough house in a dreamy neighborhood instead

I love how confident everyone seems to be in selling at a profit down the road. We've had an historic decade, and now everyone believes that home prices are destined to continue appreciating at a decent rate. What happens when interest rates go up and people can't afford to borrow as much? There are so many other factors that can impact housing. Just remember, from 1960 through the late 1990s home prices were relatively flat.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2011-Case-SHiller-updated.png

[Anonymous]

Clearly you don't live on Capitol Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly you don't live on Capitol Hill

Sure, Capitol Hill has been mostly insulated from the recent downturn, but there is a tipping point for every neighborhood. The gains can't go on ad infinitum. Someone who buys now may not expect to realize the gains that others in the past have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly you don't live on Capitol Hill

Sure, Capitol Hill has been mostly insulated from the recent downturn, but there is a tipping point for every neighborhood. The gains can't go on ad infinitum. Someone who buys now may not expect to realize the gains that others in the past have.

All depends where you buy. Prices have almost flatlined in the priciest areas, around the E. Market and Capitol South Metros, but they tipping point, if there is one, seems far off north of H. We bought there in 2003, right before the NY Ave. Metro opened. Our home value had more than doubled by last year, when we sold and moved south to a ES district offering greener pastures than J.0 Wilson.

[Anonymous]

We've also seen prices double near Stadium Armory metro since 2003.