Reply to BASIS DC to open in 2012-2013

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Reply to "BASIS DC to open in 2012-2013"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]No, no and triple no. The PP implied that only Black students were placed in the non-immersion spots at Yu Ying. That is factually incorrect. There were white students who were also failing and thus placed in the non-immersion track. Their parents chose to pull them out of the school altogether. Some of the Black parents made the same choice. The students who remained happened to all be Black, but Blacks were not the only ones placed in the second track. If PP wanted to talk about the lengths charters extend to keep children who struggle in the school, there was absolutely no need, no need at all to bring race into the topic. [/b]

In your view. At present, black kids are the only ones on the second track, it's public knowledge, it's relevant, and it's shameful.  As one YY parent put it on his blog, "I'd rather see the city council vote pay for every kid on the non-immersion track to attend summer school in China, and to host a Chinese au pair, than to continue to justify this apartheid."  Splitting hairs on the issue won't help.  The real issue is class.  Language immersion (and the taking of 6-10 AP classes) tends to work best in families with the resources to provide instruction/inputs at home (e.g. trips to China, Chinese-speaking parents, Direct TV from Beijing, Chinese-speaking babysitters).  In DC, the great majoriy of such families happen to be white - stating the obvious and racism are somewhat different.  Canadian academic studies have proven that, overall, low, and even moderate-income kids, don't do nearly as well in either language immersion or elite HS programs as their well-heeled classmates without all sorts of extra help (e.g. generally provided at government expense in civilized Canada).  As a practical matter, did YY provide the extra help from the get go?  Will BASIS provide it?  Of course not, much too expensive in cash-strapped DC.  Some of the poor kids will still do well against the odds, giving BASIS and YY cause to move forward.  Consider letting PPs politely raise issues they see as relevant without playing the PC cop.

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BUT does this mean well heeled kids and families aren't ALLOWED to have programs in language immersion or advanced academics because not every kid can succeed in them?  What does this say about our public schools? Lowest common denominator anyone?[/quote]

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