Reply to Fairfax Adding Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES)?

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Reply to "Fairfax Adding Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES)?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]21:18  Both the FLES program and the immersion program teach core math and science instruction.  One just teaches less of it. In other words, even in the FLES schools, children are pulled away from math and science instruction in English and taught math and science instruction in the foreign language instead during their FLES time.[/quote]

My children were at a FLES school until they switched for AAP. They were taught math and science in English and their FLES language instruction was not at all math or science related. It was just treated as another special during the week. [/quote]

This (the latter) was our experience when my child moved from base school to an AAP center between second and third grades in 2009. FLES instruction was twice a week, very basic, and not in any way tied to other topics -- certainly kids were not doing any math or science in Spanish (unless learning to count in Spanish would be considered doing math). Has the program changed in the past four years so that kids are expected to do substantial science and math instruction in their FLES language? I find that troubling -- math and science get so much attention as subjects in which kids need to get up to speed very quickly and get a very solid grounding before they move up; why would FCPS teach those topics to elementary students in a different language? Really would like to know from parents who have been there. Maybe it's great -- I don't know but I can't see that working well in terms of ensuring kids are getting a solid background for math and science.

Also, what about when kids move into middle school? If their middle school does not offer the language they had in FLES in elementary, it seems like the FLES experience was kind of a waste. I know several families who were not thrilled with FLES for that exact reason -- the language their school was assigned for FLES was one that was not on offer in either of the two middle schools that kids from that elementary school would be attending in 7th and 8th grades. 
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