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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the PP convinced that the DC Public Charter Charter Board, along with YY and DCI parents and admins, will sit up and notice eventually when the DCI seniors don't ace IBD Chinese exams, ha. Forget it. This isn't MOCO. Those responsible will declare victory regardless.

Banneker's IBD scores have been really low since the 1990s and nobody cares.  What will happen is that affluent DCI parents who are serious about kids scoring high on the tests will find pricey ways to supplement, with summer immersion camps etc. The difference between IB Standard Level and Higher Level, and Standard Diploma versus Bilingual Diploma will be lost on the rest. DCI won't even require all students to take the full IBD, which although this happens at suburban programs in this metro area (Rockville HS, Washington-Lee, Bethesda Chevy-Chase, Albert Einstein in Wheaton etc.).

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Actual Ib graduate here- the PP above "Heritage Dad"- has no clue what he's talking about. Students are required to take 3 higher level subjects and the remaining subsidiary subjects for the IB diploma. You don't get a "higher level" diploma.

Just ignore him. He must be so pathetic and sad if he spends all his time trashing a DC school when he's stuck out in MoCo. [/quote]

Unfortunately, he does seem to know what he's talking about, says this actual IBD graduate. Any "B Language" can be studied at the SL or HL, but only the HL for the fairly new Bilingual Diploma. The DCI program seems to be preparing Mandarin track students to take SL IB Chinese. Most parents will be thrilled with SL, but a few will wonder why HL wasn't in reach after the years of Mandarin immersion and partial immersion. Parents may want to raise the issue with admins once the DCI HS program is up and running at Walter Reed. DCI students w/out native speakers in the home are going to need weeks and weeks of full-on immersion experiences during summers to clear the HL speaking and listening bar. Maybe fundraising could be done eventually to support HL studies at DCI.

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Can someone name a public school that IS successfully preparing large numbers of non-native speakers for the HL Chinese diploma? How is that program different?[/quote]

There is no HL Chinese diploma, but there is a HL Chinese IBD certificate, and a Bilingual Diploma of which a good score (5+) on a HL language examination is a component.

To get an answer to your question, I recommend visiting Richard Montgomery HS (Rockville) to observe a Level 6/HL IBD Mandarin class, or one at Bethesda Chevy-Chase.  The IB Coordinators at these schools are welcoming to visitors. You're not going to see large numbers of students in these classes (non-native speakers or native), but there are always kids who've never lived in a Chinese-speaking home or country who go on to score 4s, 5s, and occasionally 6s, on HL Chinese. The two HS programs build on the College Gardens ES immersion program and the Herbert Hoover MS partial immersion program. Also, MoCo helps arrange and pay for middle and high school FARMs and moderate income non-native speakers to attend immersion summer camps in the US and China. In a nutshell, MoCo shoots for advanced Mandarin studies over quantity, a policy decision.[/quote]

Thanks, this is a great answer![/quote]

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