Reply to APS Fall boundary questionnaire

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We don’t need to eliminate option schools, we need more of them. Look, all of the option schools end up with crazy long wait lists, and[b] it isn’t because of where the school is located.[/b] Sure some parents just want oit if a neighborhood school, but many, many, many are actually there because they think the option school is providing a great curriculum. That is why we chose our option schools even though it had/has a lower ranking than our neighborhood school.  So offer more Ats models, more expeditionary leaning, more Montessori, more Spanish immersion. Clearly people are clamoring for that. [/quote]

Then why was there all that wailing about moving option schools? We don't need more option schools. This is the first year that immersion might not clear their entire waitlists and it's because they cut back the K Classes from 6 to 4. ATS is the only one that consistently has a crazy long wait list and it's expanding significantly with the move. [/quote]

ATS, Campbell, and Immersion have lots of applicants and long waitlists since they started publicly tracking and releasing the info. As does Pre-K Montessori. If they move the satellite Pre-K classes all to a central location, I expect that demand to decrease fairly significantly. Montessori has demonstrated the least demand for the primary years, and yet is being expanded through grade 8. It doesn’t make objective sense.

Eliminating option schools won’t help the demographics of the highest poverty neighborhood schools. The demographics remain highly segregated (with one exception, but the school couldn’t hold double its current student population anyway, and a boundary change to alleviate crowding would result in a tighter geographical area, and that would result in the same/current imbalance) just given the children in APS living within the geographical boundaries. Our geography is highly segregated, so are the neighborhood schools. [/quote]

For some reason they updated the waitlist information for last year as of Nov 6, 2020. https://www.apsva.us/school-options/school-transfer-data-2/pre-k-elementary-options-transfers-application-data-school-year-2020-21/

Immersion cleared their entire waitlists except for 29 non-Spanish speaking first graders. Everyone else was offered a spot. There's no demand for another Spanish immersion school. [/quote]

Agree.  the "demand" is a verbal demand from white parents wanting it for whatever reason.  And, because there isn't a waitlist for the native Spanish-speaking students, those same parents are arguing that the 50-50 instructional model should be changed.  [/quote]

It sounds like you're not at an immersion school  The reason immersion is in demand is because kids end up being bilingual.  The argument I hear time and again as to why there isn't more demand from Spanish speaking families is that many (not all, many) Spanish speaking students come from families with limited mobility, so they want a school that is close to where they live so they can get to activities and conferences when public transit isn't available.  Put immersion schools where there are large Spanish speaking populations and you'll have more Spanish speakers in the school.  I don't have data to back that up.  I see the logic but I recognize this may just be a convenient thing to believe.  I definitely know Spanish speaking families who sent their kids to Spanish immersion programs because they want the Spanish language education, and they drive their kids considerable distances to get there (though buses are an option).

I don't know the pedagogical arguments for and against having a 50-50 instruction model.  I simply know that there are multiple ways of doing "immersion" and that there are many immersion programs around the country that do NOT follow the 50-50 model.  Fairfax county calls it "one way" immersion when there are less than 50% native speakers.  They have one way immersion in French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.  They have "two way" (i.e. 50-50) immersion in Korean and Spanish.  [/quote]

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