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Why is Oyster Legal
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Anonymous
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Can someone explain how it is legal for Oyster, with all its special programs and benefits, to be a neighborhood school that only lets OOB kids in by lottery? Especially with Oyster being located in a largely white neighborhood? How is this not just one big violation of Brown v. Board of education and or discrimination laws. From where I sit, a specialized school like Oyster should be equally available to all students within a district, not just to those living in an exclusive neighborhood.
The process of admitting from two OOB lists - one for native Spanish speakers and one for native English -- seems like it is guaranteed to largely keep African-American students out. Most of OOB slots are going to go to Hispanic kids while the English speakers slots are all going to be filled with in-bounds white kids. Shouldn't Oyster be open to all on an equal basis (maybe still with two lotteries, one for native Spanish and one for Native English). Has no one tried to make this argument to the school district? What is their response? |
Anonymous
| I agree. I actually have been thinking about this for some time. Mainly from the perspective that Oyster is a SPECIALIZED school. So my logoc was comparing it to say School Without Walls where everyone has to actually apply. It really is NOT a neighborhood school since it offers the best DCPS bilingual *only?) option??? |
Anonymous
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I completely agree with you that while it may be "legal" it's definitely not in keeping with ideas of educational equity.
On the flip side, if you live in bounds for Oyster, and have a legitimate reason for not wanting your child to be in a dual language program (e.g. I know families of children with Autism or other disabilities that impact communication who feel that learning one language is enough of a challenge. Similarly, I know families whose children don't speak either English or Spanish and feel like English should be the priority), then you don't have choices. I know families who have sent their kids to expensive special ed schools, at the District's expense, because they couldn't get what they actually wanted which was a space in a general ed classroom where English was the primary language of instruction, such as the ones at Eaton. |
Anonymous
| That's a great question OP -- why is the city's only(?) full language immersion school an in-bounds school? As opposed to a city-wide lottery situation? |
Anonymous
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Wow. You know, when I first saw the subject of this thread I thought "Oh here's a lunatic looking to stir up trouble" but then I thought about it. You are SO right!
If you were talking about LAMB, Stokes, or Yu Ying that would be one thing - those are all CHARTER schools and everyone has the same opportunity to apply. But this is different! Oyster is a specialized immersion program that is only available to either A) upper middle-class and wealthy families, and the B) Hispanic families they import to enrich their learning experience. (Like the cleaning ladies who "enrich" their home environment.) How is this NOT a discriminatory situation? |
Anonymous
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My DS is a Pre-K student this year and this came up for me over and over as I was researching the OOB slots. I would love to join this fight.
Your points are exactly what I was thinking as I went through this process. I believe that the school system recognizes this and that is why they allowed Oyster to appear to be a part of the same OOB application process as the other schools during this past admission cycle. They had an admission process that was not transparent prior to this school year. |
Anonymous
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yet other neighborhood schools have
Montessori or Reggio Emilio programs, and several have 'partial immersion' Are those any more 'legal? |
Anonymous
| If you go to DCPS website, you see about 6 (neighborhood) schools deemed 'language immersion', some deemed STEM....all should be illegal, I guess.... |
Anonymous
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The difference between Oyster and those other 6 neighborhood schools deemed "language immersion" is at least 3 fold:
1) Oyster is the only one that runs separate lotteries based on your native language. That both improves the program because native speakers of both languages are in the classroom. And leads to an admission advantage for spanish speaking children because they compete with fewer applicants. 2) Oyster is the only school that requires a language competency test in Spanish for entrants after K. That improves the classroom because it is not constantly being diluted with chldren not familiar with spanish. Note the other DCPS schools haven't been doing this for long, so maybe they'll grow into this requirement. Charters address this by not admitting new kids (LAMB stops admits after K, Yu Ying after 2nd). 3) Oyster is the only school with 2 teachers, one with each native language, in each classroom. 4) Oyster has decades of successful implementation. Meaning everyone on the same "playbook" for knowing this program will work. That their children will emerge fluent. My children were at Shepherd during a failed attempt at introducing language immersion, similar to the Oyster model. The goal was to have 1 English speaking teacher, and 0.5 foreign languge teacher in each classroom. (e.g., the French/Spanish teacher taught half day in the PreK/ half day in the K). The program fizzled and has become 2 or 3 "special" periods in foreign language each week. Still more than most DCPS schools, but nowhere near fluency. None of the above factors were present at Shepherd. In addition, Shepherd had in place classroom teachers who were highly resistant to language instruction (not all, but a vocal minority/majority) who undermined the prgram at every chance. DCPS did not adequately fund. A vocal minority/majority of parents who did not support the program. A principal who quit in frustration (or due to incomptence) starting a series of turnovers that resulted in 7 principals in 2 academic years. Shepherd is a good school with exposure to foreign language, great art & music, smart involved parents and teachers. But languge fluency? Nope. Never. I suspect the other 6 DCPS elementary schools will be on various versions of this same path. |
Anonymous
| Doesn't Bancroft do bilingual education? And, there's DC Bilingual, which is a charter school doing bilingual education immersion too. They have openings in the upper grades. |
Anonymous
| Would parents (especially African American Parents) be interested in a complaint/law suit. I am not an attorney, so this is not a call for business by me, but rather, if so many people agree with OP, why is this situation allowed to continue? |
Anonymous
| Does this mean that all highly functional DCPS schools should be illegal? |
Anonymous
| Yes, Bancroft does have a dual language program and also has 2 teachers in ever classroom. |
Anonymous
I wouldn't consider Oyster highly functional. What are the Spanish speaking children really getting out of going to Oyster, but to help the non Spanish speaking children. Also don't feel there is a need to start a lawsuit! There are Spanish speaking people all around so your child should be able to pick it up. Language immersion doesn't only happen in school. Children in Africa, and Europe speak more than one language, not because they go to an immersion school. They speak it up naturally, because they are around people that speak different languages. That is just my opinion. BTW I am AA. |
Anonymous
I mean pick it up.... |