Reply to Powell or Bridges?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I will try to be helpful.  We have our child at Bridges and think it is a great school and we have no plans to leave. The staff are fantastic, thoughtful and smart and know what they are doing.  And, staff is extremely accessible so we are able to get informal updates and have informal communications that would be more challenging to do in a larger school environment.  [b]We are high-SES and it does not bother us in the least bit that it is a Title I school and we do not see that this has been a detriment to our child's learning at all.  Our child is thriving so far and we appreciate and believe in the focus on literacy development.  [/b]The approach and feel of the school is not "fancy" at all, but if you spend any time at the school you will see that they spend their money on all of the right things. Of course we wish that Bridges had a permanent location and hold out hope that this will happen within the next year.  Our ideal would be for Bridges to be able to get the Sharpe Building, but who knows if that will happen.  As for Powell - we do not have first-hand knowledge of the school but know that some of our neighbors attend and seem optimistic. [/quote]

We are also at a title I bilingual school and I want to echo this in bold. I think people really overstate the "risk" that comes from your child attending ES with kids who don't all read at grade level. It's definitely more of an issue for MS and HS where behavioral choices and peer examples become important, but I just don't see any negative impact at ES.

I also think this distinction between bilingual by design vs by default is over-emphasized. It is true that some DCPS bilingual schools became bilingual because of the neighborhood population. But some of them then responded by providing high quality bilingual instruction. They made the transition, which was difficult and controversial in some cases, and really embraced the bilingual model.

So I think you need to dive deep into your neighborhood bilingual DCPS and see what you think of the program. Talk to a lot of teachers and parents and the principal. These days you are basically shut out of any bilingual DCPS that is not your IB, so there is no reason to research all the bilingual DCPSs unless you are thinking about moving neighborhoods. For most people it's really a choice between your local bilingual school if you have the option, or the charters.

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