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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm not a YuYing parent. Even so, I wasn't too impressed that only 15 DCI seniors (!) earned IB Diploma last year. I also wasn't wowed by how their average points pass total rate was in the 20s (ask admins).

When parents complain that too many DCI students can barely speak target languages they've studied since they were little kids, they're not crazy, they're stating a fact.

The low IBD pass rate and poor speaking skills are linked. This is a curriculum developed in Europe and Canada, where immersion is mostly taken more seriously than in this city.

[/quote]

8:45 here. I agree with both of these points. They're not popular in DC, but it's not crazy to expect higher standards from these programs. There are clearly very smart kids from all over the city that don't appear on paper to be challenged to perform to the best of their abilities. Getting an IB Diploma is great, but barely passing with the minimum score that is significantly below the average for the IB program is not wonderful. And achieving intermediate language skills after a decade of study in an immersion program is also not particularly noteworthy. I wish DC parents would demand better, but the win-lose nature of the lottery makes it very hard to look critically at your own school and be able to meaningfully lobby for change. That's DC for you, for better or worse.[/quote]

+1000. As long as most families in immersion are primarily motivated to enroll by push factors--weak in-boundary schools--and there aren't lotteries for native speakers, where's the momentum for change going to come from?  DCI feeder students get passed up the chain with good grades for speaking a language, since it's seen as unfair to punish those whose families can't afford to supplement, meaning that there's no wake-up call on lagging language skills.

If you disagree that parents are drawn to DCI feeders and DCI more by pull than push factors, ask yourself why so few Upper NW parents go for immersion.  You could also ask yourself why hardly any native speakers of Chinese and French who raise their kids bilingual bother with Stokes and YY, or stay long if they get spots and enroll.  Stakeholders don't seem to be asking these important questions.  No need to bother because wait lists are long.

Average school IBD pass point totals internationally are in the 30s, while the several DC public IBD programs post scores in the 20s (Eastern, Banneker, DCI).  Yet our ed leaders present these programs as first-rate.  It's bunk.[/quote]

Honestly, what is wrong with you?  Do you feel like it is your job to warn people off of DCI and its feeders?  If so, why?  It didn't work out for you, I get it.  But lots of families are very happy with DCI and its feeders. I know, I know, you think we're all ignorant and superficial and just generally bad parents.   But lay off.  DCI is doing an objectively excellent job educating a very diverse student body, and giving parents what they want. And apparently doing it well enough that DCI students had remarkable success in the college application process this year.   And why do you always pretend to have the inside track on all of it??  Seriously, get a life.
 (I think that will be confirmed by IB diploma success as well).  [/quote]

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