Reply to Rank your top Spanish immersion programs

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Rank your top Spanish immersion programs"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP--I would say yes.  There is no dual immersion school (DCPS or charter) in the city with stronger test scores than Oyster.[/quote]

[b]Three things distinguish Oyster from other dual language programs, and I do not believe any of them truly tie to quality of instruction.[/b]  I recommend that incoming parents bear these things in mind and take a look at all of the DCPS dual language programs if that kind of program is intriguing to you.

So – Oyster’s advantages.

[b]29% free and reduced price meals. [/b] Bancroft is 77%, Marie Reed is 89%, and the rest are 99% free and reduced price meal schools.  We know that family income and school readiness go hand in hand.

[b]Percentage of English language learners: [/b] Oyster has 16%, Bancroft 65%, Bruce-Monroe 62%, Cleveland 21%, Marie Reed 58%, Powell 66%, Tyler 1%.  Cleveland and Tyler are the lowest percentage Latino/Hispanic, both are around 70% African-American where the others are 60-80% Latino/Hispanic.  Getting English language learners to perform on English language tests takes years and years .  The roughly 40% difference between Oyster and the majority Latino/Hispanic dual-language schools has to account for something.

[b]Test results: [/b] Oyster posted low 80s on percent proficient, Cleveland around 70%, and the rest are rising surprisingly fast but in the 40s, 50s and 60s in various measures, except for Tyler, which is not doing too well on proficiency, unfortunately.

[b]Growth/student progress ratings: [/b] The growth/student progress numbers are not particularly distinguishing among these schools.  If anything, Marie Reed had a surprisingly good Math growth rate last year.

My honest bet is that the difference between Oyster and the other schools is really not the quality of instruction.  It is what comes with the 50-70% difference in poverty/free meals numbers between the schools and the difficulties of preparing English language learners to excel on tests in English.

I would say to those who do not live within Oyster's boundaries or who lose out on Spanish-language charter programs in the lottery, go see the DCPS dual language schools and see if you are comfortable there and whether your children would be.  If they would be, think hard about the DCPS dual language school rather than envy what those at Oyster have, because the advantages Oyster appears to have seem to be more about what students bring with them into the school than in what happens inside the school.

I do not say that to knock Oyster, but to suggest that folks look past appearances and toward indicators of instructional quality - whether kids seem on task in class, whether teachers love what they are doing, and the curriculum seems well integrated and focused on things you want your child to learn.

I have my child in another DCPS dual language program and am happy with the school.
	See more here: http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Compare.aspx?tab=1&school=292,204,330,300,284,224,296 and here: http://www.learndc.org/schoolprofiles/view 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics