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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]These pathways are so bogus.[/b] IB?  Really?  How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB. [/quote]

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson. 
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.[/quote]

+100

I can't even believe this.  
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it. 
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.  
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6?  I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.[/quote]

I hate all the options too.  I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all.  And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well.  [b]At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county. [/b] [/quote]

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree.   Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county.   We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.  [/quote]
I understood that many immersion students take the capstone AP Spanish lit class as Freshman or Sophomores, so that 218 isn't spread across all four years.  I think there's another seminar class available after the AP capstone, but that seems more optional, especially if the student is taking many other AP classes to try to get into a selective college.[/quote]
If you look at the course offerings, there are really only two years of HS immersion classes (biology, chemistry, algebra, geometry and AP spanish), not counting a senior project and a seminar course.  Everything else would be done by freshman or sophomore year.  [/quote]

There is an AP Spanish literature course that I think is usually taken junior year. Maybe it's not required, I don't know? The senior project applies to every Wakefield student, not just immersion. And any student who takes AP Research can use that project as their senior project requirement for graduation. The AP Capstone classes and the senior project are the advantages of Wakefield, imo. I think the project is much more valuable than "senior experience" days. And AP Seminar and AP Research partially make-up for the lack of extensive research papers in the ELA curriculum these days.[/quote]

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