Reply to Yu Ying - Transferring to Yu Ying from another state

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I believe the law allows for tracking, and for testing to be done for tracking.  A school could well test for proficiency and if the incoming student is several grade levels behind what they consider appropriate, they could put them in that lower grade level.  So if someone had ideas about having their unprepared 4th grader going to a school where they would only be on par with 1st graders, the school could place them in 1st grade.[/quote]

I'm sure that makes sense in your brain, and it sounds like you're making a sincere effort to add to this conversation.  But this is a horrible idea - a 4th grader is 9-10 yrs old.  1st graders are 6-7 yrs old.  Putting a 10 yr old in with 6 yr olds?  Do you have any sense of how that would be for the 10 yr old from a socio-emotional perspective?  And how older kids would see and probably tease that 10 yr old for being in a 1st grade class?  This is a terrible idea.[/quote]

That's the point.  It's a terrible idea to put a 9-10 year old in with 6-7 year olds, but it's also just as terrible of an idea to put a kid with little or no Mandarin proficiency in with an immersion group of kids who are 4 years in.[/quote]

So because the kid is not on fourth grade level Mandarin, Spanish! French, whatever, the kid should be held back academically if she wants to learn a second language. How ridiculous. What if the kid is on grade level or above in English or math. [/quote]

Isn't the point of immersion to be that the language is part of the ENTIRE curriculum?  Meaning, for that 4th grade math you also need to know the Mandarin terms involved, to include all Mandarin math terms for grade 1-4?  It sounds like you aren't really grasping the concept of immersion and instead think it's just a separate Mandarin class.[/quote]

I know exactly what it means.  I've been involved with it for the last five years.  You still did not answer the question regarding a kid who is proficient in 5th grade math and reading being placed in second grade math because he cannot speak or read Mandarin, especially when one year later, the school will offer sixth grade to non-mandarin speaking students. [/quote]

It's not up to me to answer that question since I'm not the one running the show, but in my opinion, if it were to happen, something would have to change.  Either the student would have to get a whole lot of rapid, intensive, tailored tutoring to catch up on all the concepts that they didn't have (and I don't think there's any extra money that's going to materialize for that) or they would have to go into a separate track that's very watered down with regard to the language component - which would defeat the purpose of immersion.  I don't know what magical solution you had in mind, but in my opinion, it ends up being problematic any way you slice it.[/quote]

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