Any update on the MV school discipline issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is something to keep in mind when choosing a school.

All those bright shiny teachers that MV hired are cute, but they don't have the classroom experience needed to handle the kids. This is why I've never been attracted to the newer charters. The true test comes when the cute but wiggly 3 year olds turn into huge kids with undiagnosed hyperactivity. New teachers just don't know how to handle this.

Seasoned teachers learn how to redirect their problem students. Seasoned teachers learn that you spend 70% of your time with 2-3 kids so that the other 22 kids in the classroom can actually learn once those 2-3 kids have been settled down. New teachers think each child deserves equal attention and thus fail to spot the problems before they start. Two years ago, my child was in a 2nd grad classroom with a kid who was badly behaved. The seasoned teacher knew how to spot the signs of trouble, and the class functioned pretty well as a whole. In 3rd grade, my son was in the classroom again with this problem child, and the new teacher had no idea what to do and the child ruled the roost; punching and kicking the other kids and throwing chairs.

New charters don't necessarily mean new teachers. In our research there are quite a few "new" charters that have experienced teachers. In fact MV is one of them. We found that some of their teachers are quite experienced. I think ITS average master teacher has like 15 years experience. CMI has a lot of newer teachers but they started the kids really young so have time to grow and they also have very small classes. My thought with MV is just that they are too large. I really wish they would have grown at a better pace.

They had to expand or all the new spots would have gone to staff (new preference) or siblings. They ended up substituting one pr
disaster with another.

[Anonymous]

That may have been part of it but they also expanded to pay for their renovation (blamed it on a flat per pupil facility fee - which was unusual but still you shouldn't count on increases its because they happened in the past).

[Anonymous]

I'd much rather be in a school that has to do the renovation in portions or even sacrifice some aesthetics of a building than for a school to double when they can't even manage the student population they have. Also they only go to 4th grade now, imagine how much worse it will be when you have 4 classes of 5th graders in the mix.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it also hard for immersion schools to expand slowly when they work off a model of needing an even number of classes?

I'm not sure about the overall pace of MV expansion, but if they are going to end up with 4 kindergarten classes, then their most recent expansion, which increased the prek size so that they will no longer add a new cohort of kids for kindergarten, seems smart. Better to add kids early on, esp for a language immersion school.

[Anonymous]

Nothing about immersion requires an even number of classes.

I don't think this is a question of size but rather staff training (teachers, aides, psychologist/counselor, administrators) and preparedness for all situations.

[Anonymous]

Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Yes clearly I meant bilingual - it's the switching back and forth that may require even numbers of classrooms depending on the set up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Yes clearly I meant bilingual - it's the switching back and forth that may require even numbers of classrooms depending on the set up.

But you can also accomplish this by wrapping grades--ie, the same teaching team teaches k and 1st.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Yes clearly I meant bilingual - it's the switching back and forth that may require even numbers of classrooms depending on the set up.

But you can also accomplish this by wrapping grades--ie, the same teaching team teaches k and 1st.

But that doesn't make you more money to pay for your pretty new building. One would I think the profit they make off parent's back for aftercare would be enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Yes clearly I meant bilingual - it's the switching back and forth that may require even numbers of classrooms depending on the set up.

But you can also accomplish this by wrapping grades--ie, the same teaching team teaches k and 1st.

Is that right? Wouldn't you then need an even number of grades? And the same number of classes in each grade? I am not familiar enough with how MV expanded - but I would think that a charter would want to start expanding in earlier grades and then let those kids age up and have the upper grades expand only as those cohorts got older. If you wanted to add a third kindergarten class (and had kinder be bilingual) and had 3 kinder classes, you'd then need to add a third 1st grade class so that you could wrap the grades. I would think it would be better to add two more kinder classes than to add a new classroom of first graders off the lottery. I assume that is why YY added two classes as it's bubble year instead of one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Yes clearly I meant bilingual - it's the switching back and forth that may require even numbers of classrooms depending on the set up.

But you can also accomplish this by wrapping grades--ie, the same teaching team teaches k and 1st.

Is that right? Wouldn't you then need an even number of grades? And the same number of classes in each grade? I am not familiar enough with how MV expanded - but I would think that a charter would want to start expanding in earlier grades and then let those kids age up and have the upper grades expand only as those cohorts got older. If you wanted to add a third kindergarten class (and had kinder be bilingual) and had 3 kinder classes, you'd then need to add a third 1st grade class so that you could wrap the grades. I would think it would be better to add two more kinder classes than to add a new classroom of first graders off the lottery. I assume that is why YY added two classes as it's bubble year instead of one.

Clearly MV agreed with you. But we toured last year after being admitted, and it struck us as aan over-hyped school that was clearly going to have growing pains as a result of expanding too quickly. It's in devoplment phase. They should have maintained their size for a year or two more to make sure they could manage. Other parents may feel differently and be willing to ride it out. Personally, I prefer experience over shiny new untested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some immersion models require an even number of classes so that two classes can alternate days with and English teacher and target language teacher. Both YY and MV work like this in upper grades.

You are confusing immersion with bilingual. They are used interchangeably but they are not the same.

Yes clearly I meant bilingual - it's the switching back and forth that may require even numbers of classrooms depending on the set up.

But you can also accomplish this by wrapping grades--ie, the same teaching team teaches k and 1st.

Is that right? Wouldn't you then need an even number of grades? And the same number of classes in each grade? I am not familiar enough with how MV expanded - but I would think that a charter would want to start expanding in earlier grades and then let those kids age up and have the upper grades expand only as those cohorts got older. If you wanted to add a third kindergarten class (and had kinder be bilingual) and had 3 kinder classes, you'd then need to add a third 1st grade class so that you could wrap the grades. I would think it would be better to add two more kinder classes than to add a new classroom of first graders off the lottery. I assume that is why YY added two classes as it's bubble year instead of one.

Clearly MV agreed with you. But we toured last year after being admitted, and it struck us as aan over-hyped school that was clearly going to have growing pains as a result of expanding too quickly. It's in devoplment phase. They should have maintained their size for a year or two more to make sure they could manage. Other parents may feel differently and be willing to ride it out. Personally, I prefer experience over shiny new untested.

Stop it. Just stop picking on MV.

[Anonymous]

There were behavior issues before the current expansion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were behavior issues before the current expansion

This is a very important thing to remember.