Entry into DCI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI bit off a lot when they opened, especially at the high school level.

To get their charter they put forward a plan to meet the needs of both college-bound students AND non-college bound students. In contrast, right or wrong, Latin and BASIS are only focused on college admissions for all.

"IB for all" means implementing both the IB career program and the IB diploma program. There are few other high schools in the US who are offering the career program, and certainly no other brand new charter schools doing it.

They are also struggling with teacher retention. Some of the teachers whose contracts were not renewed needed to go; others are leaving for greener pastures elsewhere.

While many of us think of DCI as new, this is its 6th year of operations. For comparison, this is BASIS' 7th year (opened with 5th-8th); and DCI's 6th.

What do you think makes the "greener pastures" greener? (no sarcasm, legitimately curious as a feeder parent)

For teachers?

More money, less administrative turnover (how many MS principals has DCI been through - 3?), established school vs. start up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
While many of us think of DCI as new, this is its 6th year of operations. For comparison, this is BASIS' 7th year (opened with 5th-8th); and DCI's 6th.

It's DCI's 5th year as a school. They opened in 2013-14.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
While many of us think of DCI as new, this is its 6th year of operations. For comparison, this is BASIS' 7th year (opened with 5th-8th); and DCI's 6th.

It's DCI's 5th year as a school. They opened in 2013-14.

They have students in 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
While many of us think of DCI as new, this is its 6th year of operations. For comparison, this is BASIS' 7th year (opened with 5th-8th); and DCI's 6th.

It's DCI's 5th year as a school. They opened in 2013-14.

They have students in 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

They opened with both 6th and 7th. Students were kept at the feeders for 6th in anticipation of DCI opening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ typo. DCI opened only with 6th graders

You are incorrect. It opened with 6th and 7th grades.

[Anonymous]

One thing that I think would help at DCI is having all students enter at 5th for a pre-middle school type year.

Even when most students come from just 5 elementary schools, the curriculums they had are different enough that students enter with different levels of preparedness. There is a sound academic reason that Latin and BASIS start at 5th, and that first year is quite different than 6th-8th, and that is to try to get them leveled up as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

How would the feeders react to losing even more fifth graders than they already do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would the feeders react to losing even more fifth graders than they already do?

If I had to choose between taking a spot at Basis (assuming I won the lottery that year) and waiting to see if I win the lottery the next year to take my 50% chance at DCI, I would take it, even if I would have preferred DCI. So maybe it makes sense to open DCI up at 5th. But then, that is letting lottery issues dictate how the kids are educated, and I've read that delaying middle school is better. So I guess I'm just unsure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would the feeders react to losing even more fifth graders than they already do?

If entry to DCI at 5th became the standard path, then they would adjust and reduce the class size -- at least at the schools that will eventually exceed their DCI allocation of seats.

And if this change could ensure help ensure better outcomes at DCI, I think they'd almost have to get on board. Taking kids from all sorts of different schools is challenging because even among well prepared, grade level students there are differences in depth of mastery, and always a few concepts that are missed or taught in different sequences.

Way back in the day, we went through this at LAMB (with kids who are now in 12th grade). The school was chartered for and intended to be Pk3-6, which is the Montessori model for upper elementary. But largely because middle schools across the city (save for Cap City and Latin at the time) began in 6th, LAMB decided not to offer 6th after all. The parents affected were upset, but had about 15 months warning and figured out other solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kid earned top grades for almost everything at YY and in 6th grade at DCI. We switched to a private for 7th grade, where we were told that his Mandarin was weak and his math and ELA were mediocre. We scrambled to catch up with his new classmates, causing us all a lot of stress. So glad we've stopped drinking the Kool-Aid.

This type of thing makes me a bit skeptical. Doesn't the private have an interest in making you feel like you made the right choice? Doesn't the private have an interest in holding themselves out as better (partly to justify their cost)?

I'm sure the private has more kids going to top colleges - some, if not most of it, has nothing to do with the private itself though; it has more to do with privilege and ability to supplement and cultivate than actual merit.

This is from a blog post about Silicon Valley, but it bears on so many aspects of life - here's the link to the full post https://medium.com/social-capital/techs-diversity-problem-february-24-2019-snippets-56d0fd2fa62e, and below is a blurb that seems most relevant.

Today, we’re going to talk about the dark side of this codified set of social rules: it is not equal-opportunity. It works for some people and not for others.

People in power have known for a long time that in a free society where you can’t simply use force to preserve your empire, the best tools for preserving power aren’t explicit, and they aren’t even economic; they’re social. If you leave it up to hard work and economics alone, your position at the top will erode quickly: talent, motivation and grit are distributed across the population in a way that most definitely does not favour the powerful. The world is full of people who are hungrier than you, more talented than you, will work harder than you, and want it more than you. So, naturally, we’ve evolved all kinds of institutions whose purpose is to make sure that the gates of opportunity will be favourably open for those who come from the right zip codes and who have the right parents. Institutions like elite schools and country clubs, other distinguishing factors like speech and accents, and even social graces like table manners play a real social role in making sure that “the right people” can always preserve a natural head start over the much larger (and, usually, more capable) group of people who do not have that advantage.

These days, it’s quite frowned upon to admit this openly; we like to talk about how we live in much more of a meritocracy. But a lot of the time, the “merit” that goes into that meritocracy is essentially a codified expression of existing advantage: think of elite universities that evaluate extracurricular activities in high school as admission criteria, for instance. Spending lavishly on piano lessons and educational vacations early in life, as a way of gaining admission into Swarthmore, then GSB, and then a coveted junior position on an elite career path is a fantastic way for power to buy itself another generation. Furthermore, the meritocracy perception only gets stronger, because among that peer set, the people who do the best are in fact the ones who are the most talented, work the hardest, and generally deserve it most. For the most part, among the modern elite, people look around at their peers and see a pretty good correlation between how well they’re doing and how hard they’re working. The trick is to make sure you’ve adjusted your blinders appropriately, so that the illusion remains vivid.

Come on, parents who can afford to host au pairs during the elementary years, pay for tutors, and enroll their DCI students kids in summer immersion camps abroad, generally wind up with kids who languages than those who can't afford the external inputs to support language acquisition. Unless a big ethnic community is on the scene to help provide these inputs to poor kids, they have to be bought, or provided by a school system. The issue isn't merit/ability/worthiness it's the absence of essential inputs in urban school systems where gimmicky, quick-fix approaches to instruction tend to trump what works.

My cleaning lady's kid attends one of the two MoCo Mandarin immersion programs. The family doesn't speak Chinese at home. Her child attends an immersion camp at his school for a month of each summer for free,and receives extensive free tutoring (with a native-speaking tutor) in a small group with other low-SES students throughout the school year.

YY and DCI don't bother with those sorts of supports. It's a shame.

[Anonymous]

YY and DCI can't afford to offer those sorts of supports -- which at DCI would also need to be offered to students on the French and Spanish track. It is expensive and not feasible under the curren per pupil allocation they receive from the city.

DCI does raise funds to send students on excursions to other countries, so perhaps they could be convinced to instead spend that money on language reinforcement programs over the summer. It is a big lift to raise enough, and families that can afford to pay also pay for a portion of their child's trips.

But given DCI's international mission, which includes language fluency but isn't only about language fluency, I doubt the administration would go for it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, because DCI admins aren't serious about graduating students capable of scoring high on IB Diploma language tests, not even at the Standard Level (vs. the Higher Level).

That's why some of us look to WIS and privates for more serious language instruction, and work hard and pay a lot to supplement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY and DCI can't afford to offer those sorts of supports -- which at DCI would also need to be offered to students on the French and Spanish track. It is expensive and not feasible under the curren per pupil allocation they receive from the city.

DCI does raise funds to send students on excursions to other countries, so perhaps they could be convinced to instead spend that money on language reinforcement programs over the summer. It is a big lift to raise enough, and families that can afford to pay also pay for a portion of their child's trips.

But given DCI's international mission, which includes language fluency but isn't only about language fluency, I doubt the administration would go for it.

They definitely won't go for it. Admins are under almost no pressure to up the program's game academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, because DCI admins aren't serious about graduating students capable of scoring high on IB Diploma language tests, not even at the Standard Level (vs. the Higher Level).

That's why some of us look to WIS and privates for more serious language instruction, and work hard and pay a lot to supplement.

You're right. Parents that can't afford WIS are probably just not working hard enough. Arghhhh!! You really should just move to Bethesda if you can't look beyond your little word to imagine what it's like to not be high SES (and yes, yes you are so don't even bother with how you work so hard to provide).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY and DCI can't afford to offer those sorts of supports -- which at DCI would also need to be offered to students on the French and Spanish track. It is expensive and not feasible under the curren per pupil allocation they receive from the city.

DCI does raise funds to send students on excursions to other countries, so perhaps they could be convinced to instead spend that money on language reinforcement programs over the summer. It is a big lift to raise enough, and families that can afford to pay also pay for a portion of their child's trips.

But given DCI's international mission, which includes language fluency but isn't only about language fluency, I doubt the administration would go for it.

How much is MoCo spending per student at such schools?

Also, don't feed the Chinese language trolls.