How tough is entering Yu Ying at kindergarten?

[Anonymous]

Would starting my kid at Yu Ying at kindergarten be too late in terms of learning the language? Appreciate anyone’s feedback who succeeded in getting a spot for kinder and took it. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

This almost never happens.

[Anonymous]

OP since your chances are slim, put it down and worry about the options in May.

[Anonymous]

If you end up getting a spot, I wouldn't worry about learning the language late. Your kid will catch up with the others, especially if you supplement at home. Actually if you supplement, your kid will probably be ahead of peers. I'm a YY PK parent and it seems like most kids don't speak or even understand basic Mandarin. How much is because of DL, I don't know but the kids entering K aren't fluent or even conversant in early education-level Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

Your child will be fine if you get a spot. We know a few families who arrived in K a couple of years ago and those kids are doing fine. One of the students had to get extra help in Chinese before school a few days per week, so the school does provide additional support for children who need it.

Also, keep in mind that the current PK-4 students have had little to no in-person Chinese instruction due to the pandemic so their language skills going into K are going to be lagging. The students who started at YY in PK3 had only about 7 months of school in person before everything shut down and there has been no in-person instruction yet this year. My PK4er will not be entering K with anywhere near same Chinese language skills that my older child had when entering K!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you end up getting a spot, I wouldn't worry about learning the language late. Your kid will catch up with the others, especially if you supplement at home. Actually if you supplement, your kid will probably be ahead of peers. I'm a YY PK parent and it seems like most kids don't speak or even understand basic Mandarin. How much is because of DL, I don't know but the kids entering K aren't fluent or even conversant in early education-level Mandarin.

I don't know but hardly any of the kids entering 5th grade aren't fluent or even conversant in basic kid Mandarin. Most speak like native speakers at age 3 or 4.

YY has never been a remotely serious immersion program. Hire a Mandarin speaking nanny this summer, insist that s/he only speaks Mandarin to your child, and only accepts Chinese in return after the first few weeks, and your kid will catch up to other others in a few months. Done.

Better question is, why bother? The kids lose a lot of English over the years in exchange for a little Chinese and a happy environment. Not worth it to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you end up getting a spot, I wouldn't worry about learning the language late. Your kid will catch up with the others, especially if you supplement at home. Actually if you supplement, your kid will probably be ahead of peers. I'm a YY PK parent and it seems like most kids don't speak or even understand basic Mandarin. How much is because of DL, I don't know but the kids entering K aren't fluent or even conversant in early education-level Mandarin.

I don't know but hardly any of the kids entering 5th grade aren't fluent or even conversant in basic kid Mandarin. Most speak like native speakers at age 3 or 4.

YY has never been a remotely serious immersion program. Hire a Mandarin speaking nanny this summer, insist that s/he only speaks Mandarin to your child, and only accepts Chinese in return after the first few weeks, and your kid will catch up to other others in a few months. Done.

Better question is, why bother? The kids lose a lot of English over the years in exchange for a little Chinese and a happy environment. Not worth it to us.

Could you elaborate on this? Yu Ying's test scores are higher than most of their "peer" HRCS, so on paper it looks like they're doing as well or better than expected. Are you comparing YY to a JKLM elementary/suburban schools or other DC charters? And I don't know much about the environment, but again is it any worse or different than any of the other HRCS?

[Anonymous]

YY's ELA PARCC scores have always been among the worst for white and upper middle-class kids in the city when pulled out by race and SES. YY parents commonly whitewash the situation by claiming that "bilingual" kids can't be expected to score high on ELA tests.

My own children, fully bilingual in Chinese and English (meaning that they were the only truly bilingual Chinese-speaking students in their grades at YY) scored low on ELA PARCC in 3rd grade, but by 5th grade they scored 5s. The great majority of the YY 4th and 5th graders speak Chinese at around the level my kids did at age 4, maybe age 5. I know this because I used to volunteer at all kinds of school events, speaking only Mandarin (my first language) to kids and asking them to reply in Chinese. We left the school just two years ago, not impressed with academics but not complaining about the cozy atmosphere.

You may be fine with all of the above, but I wouldn't drink the Kook-Aid. Go forward with your eyes open.

[Anonymous]

+100. This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY's ELA PARCC scores have always been among the worst for white and upper middle-class kids in the city when pulled out by race and SES. YY parents commonly whitewash the situation by claiming that "bilingual" kids can't be expected to score high on ELA tests.

My own children, fully bilingual in Chinese and English (meaning that they were the only truly bilingual Chinese-speaking students in their grades at YY) scored low on ELA PARCC in 3rd grade, but by 5th grade they scored 5s. The great majority of the YY 4th and 5th graders speak Chinese at around the level my kids did at age 4, maybe age 5. I know this because I used to volunteer at all kinds of school events, speaking only Mandarin (my first language) to kids and asking them to reply in Chinese. We left the school just two years ago, not impressed with academics but not complaining about the cozy atmosphere.

You may be fine with all of the above, but I wouldn't drink the Kook-Aid. Go forward with your eyes open.

Huh? When we were at YY, the PARCC scores were among the best in the city, certainly among charters. Our kids got a fine education at YY and were well prepared for private middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY's ELA PARCC scores have always been among the worst for white and upper middle-class kids in the city when pulled out by race and SES. YY parents commonly whitewash the situation by claiming that "bilingual" kids can't be expected to score high on ELA tests.

My own children, fully bilingual in Chinese and English (meaning that they were the only truly bilingual Chinese-speaking students in their grades at YY) scored low on ELA PARCC in 3rd grade, but by 5th grade they scored 5s. The great majority of the YY 4th and 5th graders speak Chinese at around the level my kids did at age 4, maybe age 5. I know this because I used to volunteer at all kinds of school events, speaking only Mandarin (my first language) to kids and asking them to reply in Chinese. We left the school just two years ago, not impressed with academics but not complaining about the cozy atmosphere.

You may be fine with all of the above, but I wouldn't drink the Kook-Aid. Go forward with your eyes open.

This PP ^ has a pathological obsession with YY and comments like this on Every. single. YY. thread. For YEARS. This poster thinks whatever he wanted is exactly what all other prospective and current families want, and that is simply not true (notice how OP didn't ask anything about any of this, and yet he needs to post multiple long replies about his grief with the school). So take these particular criticisms with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, I don't have a pathological obsession with anything.

But there's no way that just one poster has noticed YY's low ELA scores per their demographics and the kids' crappy Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YY's ELA PARCC scores have always been among the worst for white and upper middle-class kids in the city when pulled out by race and SES. YY parents commonly whitewash the situation by claiming that "bilingual" kids can't be expected to score high on ELA tests.

My own children, fully bilingual in Chinese and English (meaning that they were the only truly bilingual Chinese-speaking students in their grades at YY) scored low on ELA PARCC in 3rd grade, but by 5th grade they scored 5s. The great majority of the YY 4th and 5th graders speak Chinese at around the level my kids did at age 4, maybe age 5. I know this because I used to volunteer at all kinds of school events, speaking only Mandarin (my first language) to kids and asking them to reply in Chinese. We left the school just two years ago, not impressed with academics but not complaining about the cozy atmosphere.

You may be fine with all of the above, but I wouldn't drink the Kook-Aid. Go forward with your eyes open.

This PP ^ has a pathological obsession with YY and comments like this on Every. single. YY. thread. For YEARS. This poster thinks whatever he wanted is exactly what all other prospective and current families want, and that is simply not true (notice how OP didn't ask anything about any of this, and yet he needs to post multiple long replies about his grief with the school). So take these particular criticisms with a grain of salt.

You sound like the delusional and obsessive parent here, mom. OP is too new to know you, but she'll get to know you soon enough.

We'll take your knee-jerk defensive diatribes with a bag of salt, thanks.

[Anonymous]

OP, don't worry about starting YY at K.

As posters are telling you, the bar for speaking and understanding Chinese isn't set high at YY, more so during the pandemic.

If you're set on YY, supplement with Mandarin speaking babysitters over the summer and your kid will be fine for the Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YY's ELA PARCC scores have always been among the worst for white and upper middle-class kids in the city when pulled out by race and SES. YY parents commonly whitewash the situation by claiming that "bilingual" kids can't be expected to score high on ELA tests.

My own children, fully bilingual in Chinese and English (meaning that they were the only truly bilingual Chinese-speaking students in their grades at YY) scored low on ELA PARCC in 3rd grade, but by 5th grade they scored 5s. The great majority of the YY 4th and 5th graders speak Chinese at around the level my kids did at age 4, maybe age 5. I know this because I used to volunteer at all kinds of school events, speaking only Mandarin (my first language) to kids and asking them to reply in Chinese. We left the school just two years ago, not impressed with academics but not complaining about the cozy atmosphere.

You may be fine with all of the above, but I wouldn't drink the Kook-Aid. Go forward with your eyes open.

Huh? When we were at YY, the PARCC scores were among the best in the city, certainly among charters. Our kids got a fine education at YY and were well prepared for private middle school.

Not scores for UMC kids, no way. It's easy to compare PARCC scores for high SES students at YY with those at other schools. ELA scores are below average. Math average.