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[quote=Anonymous]In thinking about the future of the school, and particularly in discussing the "two way immersion model", I think it's important to recognize what teachers acknowledge privately --- the school does not do a very good job of teaching Spanish to English dominant kids or of teaching Spanish grammar and orthography (i.e. Spanish as language) to any kids.  There are two reasons for this:

- Everyone seems to assume that English dominant kids will "just pick up" Spanish, so they don't teach Spanish as a second language, they just speak it at the kids.

- English is the language of the playground, lunchroom and and in fact ANY student-student conversation at the school. All day every day.  Bringing in more kids who have a Spanish speaking grandparent or parent but who speak and prefer English (like many current "Spanish dominant" kids) will not change this dynamic .  [u]Instruction[/u] in Spanish is not Spanish [u]immersion[/u].  All of the true English learners I know who've gone through the school have developed fabulous English in a short time... and lost ground in Spanish.

Unless the school could somehow get 50% true English [u]learners[/u], the TWI model is not a valid basis for uprooting the school and going against the wishes of the community.

Furthermore, [b]the LSAT's acknowledged failure to connect with the Spanish dominant community[/b]  suggests that the [b]chances of getting a large number of true Spanish dominant kids[/b] to apply to and attend a citywide application-only school are [b]remote at best[/b].

Finally, given the ongoing chaos and leadership issues at the school, the prospect of the current team taking on that kind of a project is terrifying.  [/quote]

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