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[quote=Anonymous]PP above writes: [Arlington] Kids can’t do IB diploma track if they have not taken languages since 7th so no, many kids can’t do the track. It’s not because they can’t get a B average but because of the language pre-requisite.

WL yes has more languages but the actual courses are just SL and HL in the language and don’t offer any other variety of courses taught in the language such as literature, social studies, etc. It is very limited

Let’s be real here, the only kids doing IB in Arabic are native speakers because no school in Arlington is offering kids Arabic starting in 7th on, neither for the other languages in the IB diploma. Same with Mandarin, etc..

That is why the program is so small because Arlington public schools don’t have IB middle schools offering languages.  And why it opens doors to other students just to get 150 kids or whatever.

The school does not provide any immersion programs abroad or study abroad.  You need to do immersion in the summer on your own.

I write: Sure, let's "be real," versus pushing an inaccurate take on the quality of immersion/partial immersion instruction at DCI and in its feeders. Thomas Jefferson MS in Arlington uses IB Middle Years curriculum, requiring language from 6th grade. The school teaches Arabic and other languages via a virtual UVA program on demand. The other neighborhood middle schools provide language instruction, too, with Dorothy Hamm leading the pack (best MS language teachers in the system).

When my DCI middle schooler took social studies and PE in the target language we discovered what a gimmicky joke the arrangement was. Few students could handle content so the right-out-of-grad-school teachers often lapsed into English to teach, and accepted it in return. We've found that standards for speaking and understanding at W-L have been higher than at DCI (in top group for language instruction). I point out YuYing cut its immersion summer program a decade back and DC has no public universities offering summer immersion to teens at in-state tuition like VA does. Many of my kid's classmates in Arlington do weeks of summer immersion study, in this country and/or abroad, every year while hardly anybody we knew at a DCI feeder and at DCI bothered with it, even if they had the dough. Study abroad trips at DCI were fun, but pricey and didn't include serious immersion.

Arlington lets more than 50 OOB students per year lottery into W-L to pursue IBD alongside in-boundary W-L students. DCI/DCPCS has no such comprehensive system to attract and retain high school IBD talent. W-L doesn't offer IBD for all, preferring to serve only high-achieving and serious students, the way IBD is supposed to work. Without firm prerequisites, DCI's IBD program is undeniably watered down. The scarcity of native speakers at DCI off the Spanish track doesn't help either (different story at W-L).

We might have stuck around in DC for Walls if my 3.8 GPA kid had been given a fair shot of entry (wasn't even granted an interview).

You can't fool everybody here, PP. IBD-for-all at DCI is a drag and parents know it. Quality beats quantity in VA for us. DCI families who can afford private high school or crack Walls generally leave. By contrast, from what I've seen, in Arlington, committed IB families stay. [/quote]

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