Oyster- Adams in US News...thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can set up all the supposed dual immersion public school programs you want (charter of DCPS) to keep affluent families happy. As the article points out, its attracting enough low-income native speakers to ensure successful immersion that's the trick.

Yeah, the whole "low income Latino" thing in the article made me kinda wonder if the author actually talked to any Latino students/parents at Oyster. Sure there are some low income Latino families, but there are a LOT of professionals, embassy staff, NGO employees.

Fits the scrappy diversity narrative. The truth in DC is that most families in DC who "value diversity" are happy if it tips towards embassy staff, NO employees etc. They can have their cake and eat it too. I don't blame them-just think it's humorous when they get super congratulatory about attending a "diverse" school. Yes, in one way. But not in another. If they wanted another they'd bus themselves to some low ses neighborhoods and attend the in bound. Just saying.

As a former Oyster parent, this imputation of motives seems weird. We sent our kid to Oyster as our inboundary school. As Spanish speakers, we were delighted it was bi-lingual. Our kid was friends with kids from many places, ethnicities and SES, although they did tend to skew toward wealthy. The difference, for me, was that it was a group of parents who worked hard to not take for granted that kids could pay for things and to make sure that everyone could participate equally. Were they all Mother Theresa? Of course not, but my consistent experience was that people's heart was in the right place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can set up all the supposed dual immersion public school programs you want (charter of DCPS) to keep affluent families happy. As the article points out, its attracting enough low-income native speakers to ensure successful immersion that's the trick.

Yeah, the whole "low income Latino" thing in the article made me kinda wonder if the author actually talked to any Latino students/parents at Oyster. Sure there are some low income Latino families, but there are a LOT of professionals, embassy staff, NGO employees.

Fits the scrappy diversity narrative. The truth in DC is that most families in DC who "value diversity" are happy if it tips towards embassy staff, NO employees etc. They can have their cake and eat it too. I don't blame them-just think it's humorous when they get super congratulatory about attending a "diverse" school. Yes, in one way. But not in another. If they wanted another they'd bus themselves to some low ses neighborhoods and attend the in bound. Just saying.

As a former Oyster parent, this imputation of motives seems weird. We sent our kid to Oyster as our inboundary school. As Spanish speakers, we were delighted it was bi-lingual. Our kid was friends with kids from many places, ethnicities and SES, although they did tend to skew toward wealthy. The difference, for me, was that it was a group of parents who worked hard to not take for granted that kids could pay for things and to make sure that everyone could participate equally. Were they all Mother Theresa? Of course not, but my consistent experience was that people's heart was in the right place.

I agree- current Oyster family. We scrimp to live in bounds with a single parent, because we wanted a school that we could walk to and had a path thru middle school. Friends are diverse- and do range across income levels. We've always felt welcome to the community, and happy to see families engaged from across all walks of life. We are not hispanic, but bilingual, and that truly does allow us to meet all of hte families. We also have Chinese, Ethiopian and African American families for additional diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can set up all the supposed dual immersion public school programs you want (charter of DCPS) to keep affluent families happy. As the article points out, its attracting enough low-income native speakers to ensure successful immersion that's the trick.

Yeah, the whole "low income Latino" thing in the article made me kinda wonder if the author actually talked to any Latino students/parents at Oyster. Sure there are some low income Latino families, but there are a LOT of professionals, embassy staff, NGO employees.

Fits the scrappy diversity narrative. The truth in DC is that most families in DC who "value diversity" are happy if it tips towards embassy staff, NO employees etc. They can have their cake and eat it too. I don't blame them-just think it's humorous when they get super congratulatory about attending a "diverse" school. Yes, in one way. But not in another. If they wanted another they'd bus themselves to some low ses neighborhoods and attend the in bound. Just saying.

As a former Oyster parent, this imputation of motives seems weird. We sent our kid to Oyster as our inboundary school. As Spanish speakers, we were delighted it was bi-lingual. Our kid was friends with kids from many places, ethnicities and SES, although they did tend to skew toward wealthy. The difference, for me, was that it was a group of parents who worked hard to not take for granted that kids could pay for things and to make sure that everyone could participate equally. Were they all Mother Theresa? Of course not, but my consistent experience was that people's heart was in the right place.

I agree- current Oyster family. We scrimp to live in bounds with a single parent, because we wanted a school that we could walk to and had a path thru middle school. Friends are diverse- and do range across income levels. We've always felt welcome to the community, and happy to see families engaged from across all walks of life. We are not hispanic, but bilingual, and that truly does allow us to meet all of hte families. We also have Chinese, Ethiopian and African American families for additional diversity.

It fits the articles scrappy diversity narrative. And I totally get you as parents and the choices you made, but you hit the rare DC happy varied yet skewed well resourced jackpot (or scrimped to get there) and bask in its glow. There is another kind of diversity in DC that is real and hard. It's called low-SES. You can learn many new languages that way as well, but most parents who attend Oyster are not seeking that. Let's be clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea why you are so insecure regarding the desirability of your children's school. It's really odd but mostly kind of funny.

+1

That poster is craaaaaazy.

And you are an Oyster Stalker. Too bad you're children couldn't get in, bitter bitch.

LOL this is the first time I've ever posted on an Oyster thread. You are nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea why you are so insecure regarding the desirability of your children's school. It's really odd but mostly kind of funny.

+1

That poster is craaaaaazy.

And you are an Oyster Stalker. Too bad you're children couldn't get in, bitter bitch.

LOL this is the first time I've ever posted on an Oyster thread. You are nuts.

NP. Please find another thread/start a new one to continue this silly argument. Some of us would like to discuss the thread topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea why you are so insecure regarding the desirability of your children's school. It's really odd but mostly kind of funny.

+1

That poster is craaaaaazy.

And you are an Oyster Stalker. Too bad you're children couldn't get in, bitter bitch.

LOL this is the first time I've ever posted on an Oyster thread. You are nuts.

NP. Please find another thread/start a new one to continue this silly argument. Some of us would like to discuss the thread topic.

Different poster- EVERY oyster thread ends up with some deranged oyster parent insisting that all of D.C.is somehow jealous. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea why you are so insecure regarding the desirability of your children's school. It's really odd but mostly kind of funny.

+1

That poster is craaaaaazy.

And you are an Oyster Stalker. Too bad you're children couldn't get in, bitter bitch.

LOL this is the first time I've ever posted on an Oyster thread. You are nuts.

NP. Please find another thread/start a new one to continue this silly argument. Some of us would like to discuss the thread topic.

Different poster- EVERY oyster thread ends up with some deranged oyster parent insisting that all of D.C.is somehow jealous. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

I'm not an Oyster parent, but I am interested in applying to immersion schools so I follow all of these threads. I have to disagree with you. A lot of these Oyster threads end with some person talking about yelling teachers or librarians. It's really annoying and it constantly derails the threads. If that person (I assume it's the same person with an ax to grind) didn't constantly come on Oyster threads with the same story from who knows when, I think that the Oyster threads would be a lot more peaceful and helpful. Just like the ridiculous Heritage mom/dad on the YY threads. Both of those people suck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought Oyster lacked good system wide positive discipline and character Ed. But the individual teachers were lovely and doing their best. The opposite of bullies. That's risible. The scary ones were some of the completely demandy parents! [/quote

This. My DC attended Oyster-Adams through grade 4 and we left precisely for this reason. Teachers are great but unduly focused on test scores and not much else. We cared just as much about what kind of person our DC would become. Many families left after grades 3 and 4, reluctantly I might add. So the grade 5 retention figure is a bit misleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought Oyster lacked good system wide positive discipline and character Ed. But the individual teachers were lovely and doing their best. The opposite of bullies. That's risible. The scary ones were some of the completely demandy parents! [/quote

This. My DC attended Oyster-Adams through grade 4 and we left precisely for this reason. Teachers are great but unduly focused on test scores and not much else. We cared just as much about what kind of person our DC would become. Many families left after grades 3 and 4, reluctantly I might add. So the grade 5 retention figure is a bit misleading.

How are the retention figures misleading. I'm an Oyster parent and the letter I received said that 5th grade retention was in the 90% range. That's not 100%, so doesn't that account for families, like yours, who leave the school?

[Anonymous]

^^

How are the retention figures misleading. I'm an Oyster parent and the letter I received said that 5th grade retention was in the 90% range. That's not 100%, so doesn't that account for families, like yours, who leave the school?
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[Anonymous]

Is the retention figure calculating those that stay from 4th to 5th?

[Anonymous]

Former OA, IB, bilingual Latino family here who took 2 kids out at different years for a variety of reasons.

People often ask me about OA. I'd like to point them toward actual numbers rather than bias them from our experiences.

Has there been any analysis of when and why students leave and where they go? Do they do surveys?

I can speculate from our experience and anecdotes of about a dozen other families similar to ours. But I never heard an official explanation or analysis.

No OA administrator ever asked us why we pulled a born-bilingual, middle class, in-boundary kid out of what should have been the ideal K-8 school. Not even after the first one left. You'd think they'd be at least curious after we took one out pre-3rd grade and the other pre-6th. Several other families told me the same thing. One said an administrator told her "we're not going to beg you to stay. There are plenty of people on the waitlist." A teacher told me "they just want to fill the middle school. They don't care if leave before 5th."

Is there info out there on the website or newsletter that folks think is accurate regarding retention?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former OA, IB, bilingual Latino family here who took 2 kids out at different years for a variety of reasons.

People often ask me about OA. I'd like to point them toward actual numbers rather than bias them from our experiences.

Has there been any analysis of when and why students leave and where they go? Do they do surveys?

I can speculate from our experience and anecdotes of about a dozen other families similar to ours. But I never heard an official explanation or analysis.

No OA administrator ever asked us why we pulled a born-bilingual, middle class, in-boundary kid out of what should have been the ideal K-8 school. Not even after the first one left. You'd think they'd be at least curious after we took one out pre-3rd grade and the other pre-6th. Several other families told me the same thing. One said an administrator told her "we're not going to beg you to stay. There are plenty of people on the waitlist." A teacher told me "they just want to fill the middle school. They don't care if leave before 5th."

Is there info out there on the website or newsletter that folks think is accurate regarding retention?

Would you be willing to share why you left? (Or pulled out your children at different points?)

We are still in the lower grades, but left a HRCS. The difference in the approach at Oyster- with the support of the pull out teachers for reading, the counselor, the school psychologist, plus all of the existing programs like the library and excellent PE teacher- is markedly better. In our cohort, they've even ensured that the class sizes meet the kids needs. The principal has been very willing to adapt and adjust as needed throughout the course of the year, a trait that we didn't see with other administrators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former OA, IB, bilingual Latino family here who took 2 kids out at different years for a variety of reasons.

People often ask me about OA. I'd like to point them toward actual numbers rather than bias them from our experiences.

Has there been any analysis of when and why students leave and where they go? Do they do surveys?

I can speculate from our experience and anecdotes of about a dozen other families similar to ours. But I never heard an official explanation or analysis.

No OA administrator ever asked us why we pulled a born-bilingual, middle class, in-boundary kid out of what should have been the ideal K-8 school. Not even after the first one left. You'd think they'd be at least curious after we took one out pre-3rd grade and the other pre-6th. Several other families told me the same thing. One said an administrator told her "we're not going to beg you to stay. There are plenty of people on the waitlist." A teacher told me "they just want to fill the middle school. They don't care if leave before 5th."

Is there info out there on the website or newsletter that folks think is accurate regarding retention?

I'm interested in hearing more about retention as well. My DC is in the 3rd grade, and based on the class directory (all three classes) there doesn't appear to be a single new student. That is an indication that there were no available spaces to fill. My 3rd grader told me that no one left her grade, but I don't think that she's the most reliable reporter. However, I do think that's an indication that there was very little attrition from 2nd to 3rd grade this year.

[Anonymous]

Another family here in 2nd grade- I know of classmates who moved out of state or out of the country. Two kids local to DC are at new schools- one private while the other moved out of bounds.

So we have a few new friends- and miss those having new adventures in their new locales!

Outside of these moves, everyone else returned.