Reply to Asking for Advice - Rejection from Oyster-Adams Preschool

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The DC school handbook used to say "if a student resides in a home in which Spanish is spoken regularly, it is likely the student will pass assessment."  Now the handbook is conspicuously silent on what "Spanish dominant" actually means.  There is a complete lack of consistent standards across schools and drastically different interpretations and enforcement policies.  This, coupled with the timing of the test (post-lottery), means parents like the OP who have every reason to believe their child is Spanish dominant, will find themselves not only denied entry to their matched school, but at the end of the waitlist of every other school they might otherwise have chosen.  This is a a lawsuit waiting to happen.  Of course, [b]it's really only a problem at Oyster where the principal seems determined to use the test to push a political agenda[/b] rather than a reasonable or commonsense understanding of the child's Spanish proficiency.
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What do you mean she is pushing a political agenda?  Of what sort?  I am not disagreeing with you, I am just trying to understand more of what you mean.[/quote]

You don't have to read very far between the lines to see she is applying a socio-economic and cultural standard to the Spanish dominant slots.  Just attend the open house or ask her directly.  "There will be a test, parents attend, but your Spanish speaking nanny is not welcome, no matter how much time they spend with your child."  You may or may not agree with her position from a social justice standpoint, but the fact is, these types of statements have nothing to do with the child's language proficiency.  She's very clear that her passion is closing the achievement gap for low income Hispanic families and preserving their cultural heritage.  I'm not arguing for or against these goals, but applying them for a test clearly intended and defined as a measure of a child's spoken language ability seems wrong.  Even if you dismiss this as speculation, it is a fact that the standards applied to determining Spanish dominance and completely and wildly inconsistent across dual language schools, meaning there is no way a parent can reasonably try to gauge whether their child will pass the test.  The story of the OP is a particularly egregious example.
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If the test was clearly intended to assess proficiency and not dominance wouldn’t it be called the Spanish proficiency test?  It has always been clear to me that the goal of the test is to make sure that 1) both cultures are represented in the community, 2) to preserve the ideals of two way immersion in which there are both ELL and SLL’s in the classroom 3) improve the education we offer kids whose primary language is Spanish.

Giving priority based on proficiency and not dominance makes no sense in that context.  It also opens up issues of discrimination, since many kids with disabilities, and kids in other at risk categories (e.g. low income, foster children, homeless children) don’t have proficiency in any language at 3.

Given all that, I always assumed that it was a test of language dominance.[/quote]

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