Immersion programs in MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
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.

This is entirely consistent with what I've learned about previous years. I contacted someone official (not the person you referred to - it was a woman) and she said that they haven't had any 1st grade spots for French Immersion at Sligo Creek for the previous 2 years. So this makes at least 3 years in arow.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the poster who got the numbers.

I wonder how I drew waitlist #208 for french Immersion at Sligo if there were only 193 people on the waitlist? I must have really really bad luck (or they have some blank numbers in there somewhere?)?

Ah well....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to the poster who got the numbers.

I wonder how I drew waitlist #208 for french Immersion at Sligo if there were only 193 people on the waitlist? I must have really really bad luck (or they have some blank numbers in there somewhere?)?

Ah well....

If you read the numbers post carefully, there were 216 applicants. The 193 figure comes from subtracting out the siblings, but there weere still 216 official applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to the poster who got the numbers.

I wonder how I drew waitlist #208 for french Immersion at Sligo if there were only 193 people on the waitlist? I must have really really bad luck (or they have some blank numbers in there somewhere?)?

Ah well....

This is the poster who got the numbers. Interesting! They don't start the wait list at #51 (there are 50 slots total at Sligo, right?) so something doesn't add up. According to the DCCAPS provided numbers, there wouldn't be more than 166 people on the wait list for K. It seems they are underreporting or confused. I will tell you that when I spoke to DCCAPS they did not have numbers ready. They sat there and compiled the numbers while I waited. They also seemed to be confusing the grades. I was told that at Sligo there were a total of 288 applicants across all grades, with 216 for K. Also, initially they gave me numbers for RCF that didn't make sense and I had to make them go back to the drawing board. This process doesn't seem to be automated at all (it used to be a popsicle draw, not sure if they still do that). The person I spoke with was very nice but I don't think that transparency is something they feel is important. I am thinking I should make this request in writing and ask them to publish the numbers. Seems to me the accurate info should be available to the public.

[Anonymous]

PP please do! I would really appreciate that.

[Anonymous]

As a parent with kids in MoCo, I can say from experience that the staff in the admin offices aren't very good with numbers. I don't think they mean to mislead, however they just don't have that facility. Or nobody is making them have that facility.

[Anonymous]

I also would appreciate MCPS publishing the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent with kids in MoCo, I can say from experience that the staff in the admin offices aren't very good with numbers. I don't think they mean to mislead, however they just don't have that facility. Or nobody is making them have that facility.

That bothers me though. This is a huge school system with lots of money. We are not asking them to do higher math, only simple arithmetic. Expecting them to accurately report what happened to a few hundred applications is not a very high expectation. Their inability to perform simple bookkeeping functions raises some questions about MCPS and the whole special programs process.