Immersion programs in MoCo

[Anonymous]

The red zone schools' additional per pupil expenditure is largely "focused academic support" funds that allow for smaller class sizes. While smaller class sizes are good, they are not a panacea for the problems that affect many lower-income downcounty students (and thus affect the learning environment for their more affluent peers).

[Anonymous]

To add to you PP, if small class sizes trumped all, why are all these folks applying for immersion to escape their local schools. The TItle I schools have class sizes of 14, and the immersion programs located in the same schools have 20+, and waitlists over 200...

[Anonymous]

To echo poster 20:06 On the surface those small class sizes sound lovely...until you realize that schools very carefully sprinkle the few highly able, higher SES, attended preschool, etc. kids among the classes so that they may never have an academic peer group. Schools are willing to do some grouping, even across grade, for math, but language arts or anything else? Fuhgeddaboutit.

[Anonymous]

I know- I almost fell over when I realized this mid-may "early orientation" was to asses who was high SES so they could divide those kids up among different classrooms.

Obviously, most parents in these districts can't take off from work in May to go to an optional pre-orientation for their kids for K. From the looks of that orientation, I was in Bethesda!

[Anonymous]

What is SES?

[Anonymous]

SES = socio-economic status (?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know- I almost fell over when I realized this mid-may "early orientation" was to asses who was high SES so they could divide those kids up among different classrooms.

Obviously, most parents in these districts can't take off from work in May to go to an optional pre-orientation for their kids for K. From the looks of that orientation, I was in Bethesda!

Yes, all those higher-SES families you saw at orientation who might be your child's natural peer group? Forget about seeing them in class. For all you know, you'll be the only involved class parent and your child will have no academic peers for reading, writing, social studies, science, etc. That meeting was to identify you for separation, nothing else. Now your child will be asked to serve as the model citizen for everyone else. 5 years old and already asking not what MCPS can do for her, but what she can do for MCPS...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know- I almost fell over when I realized this mid-may "early orientation" was to asses who was high SES so they could divide those kids up among different classrooms.

Obviously, most parents in these districts can't take off from work in May to go to an optional pre-orientation for their kids for K. From the looks of that orientation, I was in Bethesda!

Are you serious? They really do this?! I saw a flyer for the orientation at Takoma Park Elementary School. Is this the purpose of it? Sheesh!

[Anonymous]

So are you better off not having your child attend the orientation? I know they wanted to know what kind of child care my DS had been in (if any), and that they had him write his name, etc. But they certainly didn't have us write down our income! Are they just checking out the car we drove and the clothes we had on??

[Anonymous]

I skipped the orientation, but I'm pretty sure they will know DS economic status based on his attending preschool, and our living in the neighborhood with single family homes as opposed to apartments.

[Anonymous]

When 2/5 of kindergartners are in immersion and there is a huge ESOL population, what does it matter? Randomly assigning your child to a particular classroom will still ensure that your child is one of the few not in bilingual education. At our orientation I observed quite a number of parents whose English was apparently limited since the administrators were speaking to them in Spanish (note: our orientation did not look like Bethesda). I imagine the school will really be challenged to meet the needs of immersion and ESOL alone, let alone English speaking kids learning in English who will be all over the spectrum in terms of ability, some of whom may enter kindergarten already reading, others not knowing their letters. I don't know how they'll pull it off but I hope it will be okay.

[Anonymous]

Understandably, most people on this thread have incoming kindergartners (myself included). It seems from speaking to people in my neighborhood that many of these concerns have not come to pass at our diverse downcounty school (Oakland Terrace). Yes, there is a huge range of ability/knowledge in each K classroom but the teachers handle the diversity very well and the high SES kids are not shortchanged. Few people in my neighborhood actually wish that they lived in Bethesda. I am certainly reassured that my neighborhood is filled with very well-educated parents who are very happy with the school, including the diversity of SES there. Not sure what these same parents think about the middle and high school options but just wanted to throw that out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Understandably, most people on this thread have incoming kindergartners (myself included). It seems from speaking to people in my neighborhood that many of these concerns have not come to pass at our diverse downcounty school (Oakland Terrace). Yes, there is a huge range of ability/knowledge in each K classroom but the teachers handle the diversity very well and the high SES kids are not shortchanged. Few people in my neighborhood actually wish that they lived in Bethesda. I am certainly reassured that my neighborhood is filled with very well-educated parents who are very happy with the school, including the diversity of SES there. Not sure what these same parents think about the middle and high school options but just wanted to throw that out there.

This is reassuring to hear. Some of the posts on this thread (e.g., if we don't get immersion, we'll have to go private) made me worry a little. I live in Woodmoor, and our K-2 school is a Title I school with a diverse population, but when you just look at the hard numbers, the kids seem to do pretty well on the tests (to the extent that is important). And while we're still a few years off from kindergarten, there are tons of neighborhood families that send their kids to the public schools, and the few I'v'e talked to seem happy with them, so I figure they cannot be that horrible. I will also say that it seems a substantial number of older nieghborhood kids are in the middle and high school for the neighborhood too (Eastern and Montgomery Blair).

[Anonymous]

I was curious about demand v. supply in immersion so I spoke to John Rotier (sp?) in the MoCo Division of Consortia Choice and Application Program Services (DCCAPS) who handled the lotteries. I got info on two schools for the 2009-2010 lottery-Rock Creek Forest and Sligo Creek.

For RCFES, there were 363 applicants for 50 spots with 23 already allocated to siblings. In other words, 340 incoming K kids entered the lottery for 27 available spaces, so less than 8% chance of admission. There were 53 applicants for 4 open slots for the first grade. Mr. Rotier said that this is the most popular immersion program in the county.

For Sligo Creek there were 216 applicants for 50 slots, again with 23 siblings. So 193 in the lottery for 27 spots, or about 14% chance of admission. For 1st grade, there were 55 applicants for zero spots.

He also told me that some folks in Potomac have been calling with their concern that they shouldn't have to go downcounty to get Spanish or French immersion and they want that in their own schools. I agree wholeheartedly with that-I wish they'd get their own program and let those of us downcounty have access to our own neighborhood schools. He also said that due to budgetary constraints that such a thing is not projected to happen in the near future. I do want to give it up for Mr. Rotier who was very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will also say that it seems a substantial number of older nieghborhood kids are in the middle and high school for the neighborhood too (Eastern and Montgomery Blair).

I do wish we could hear from some of these parents on the forums, those who haven't followed the herd to Bethesda or private schools once their kids are older. I know they're out there. Are they comfortable with the the educational rigor? With the safety of the school? With the diversity, or lack of (in our cluster, many FARMS and ESOL students)?

I keep feeling like the message is flee, flee. But what if those of us engaged parents stayed in the affordable neighborhoods we like and sent our children to local public schools all the way through? That might change the stats a bit. That's the way I'm leaning, but I don't want to do it at the expense of my child's learning opportuities or safety.