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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are also making a hard choice between sticking around for DCI or departing for Basis.  I’d be curious to hear your thought process if you don’t mind sharing, PP.  Also, do you plan to maintain the foreign language outside of Basis?  I don’t mean to derail this thread.  I have concerns about potentially preparing for Basis coming out of an immersion school where most of the academic challenge derived from the foreign language component.[/quote]

We just made this tough decision for our rising 5th grader and opted for BASIS because academics rank higher than language. Either way we figured we would have to supplement something but language is lower in priority than math, writing, study skills, self-advocacy etc.  We were torn on the size of DCI as there appears to be a growing number of activities but we were concerned that many of the behavior and classroom management issues at our feeder would persist at DCI. Our child is also below grade level in Spanish reading and after all these years still doesn’t feel comfortable speaking Spanish. We included our child in the decision making process and they prefer advanced Math and Science over any instruction in Spanish. Spanish immersion was likely not the best fit for our child but we stuck with it for DCI as a backup option for Walls and Latin for high school. We do have a younger child that has picked up Spanish a lot easier (started in Pk3 instead of K) so that decision will be even more difficult when the time comes.[/quote]

+1.

DCI IB scores are well below the global average in part because many kids don't achieve anything close to fluency in whatever track they follow.  So, at DCI, you end up with the worst of both worlds: less rigorous curriculum and subpar language skills.

In fairness to DCI, language instruction in the US is poor, so that result is not surprising.  If you really want your kid to learn a language well, supplement and send them to summer immersion programs overseas.

Also, BASIS isn’t really dumping foreign languages before 8th grade.  Kids used to do Latin in 5th and 6th and pick a foreign language for 7th.  Instead, starting next year, they will now have a writing class in 5th (which will cover Greek and Latin roots) and take linguistics in 6th and 7th.  [b]The linguistics classes lay a foundation for study in a foreign language, so the kids have a head start in 8th. [/b] And kids will stick with the same foreign language they select in 8th grade until they graduate (so, 5 years of the language).[/quote]

You're drinking the Kook-Aid on this one, PP.  If you want kids to learn to speak, read and write languages during the critical preteen years, you teach them languages, intensely and well. You don't goof around with linguistics. I say this as polyglot European with a grad degree in cultural anthropology, which has a strong linguistics component.

What BASIS does is admit dozens of 4th graders who come out of DCPCS ES immersion programs for Chinese, French, Chinese and possibly Hebrew. Instead of making any effort to build on the kids' strong base in these languages from 5th-7th grades, Basis withholds language support before 8th grade. Then, in 8th, the immersion kids are offered instruction that's less challenging than what they got in 4th grade.

To BASIS, immersion language knowledge is of no value whatsoever. Rather than help the immersion grads excel in languages in MS, like they can in math, BASIS leaves families to their own devices to retain language knowledge. The UMC immersion families tend to hang on with tutors and immersion camps, while low SES families can't.

This is what happens in a top-down charter franchise run from a HQ out West. Because the immersion families at BASIS lack a better public MS option for instruction in core subjects, they suck up the crappy language policy without complaint.  Even those who want DCI for MS can't necessarily get a spot. In a state, the immersion families could appeal to a state oversight board with oversight over language instruction in public schools. In the DC burbs, grads of ES immersion programs are generally entitled to appropriate language instruction further up the chain.[/quote]

I mean ... BASIS is not a language immersion school.  Am I missing something? The whole point of the charter system is that schools get to develop different approaches to education.  Not sure why BASIS should also be expected to be an immersion school? [/quote]

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