Reply to New principal: how to improve Oyster-Adams

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Q: Will my child be bilingual when he/she leaves the [b][u]Primary Schoo[/u]l[/b]?
A: When the second language learning is happening exclusively at school, it is not our
expectation that every child will attain a truly bilingual status. The goal for many students is
strong language fluency and proficiency by the end of 5th grade. For most families who wish
for their child(ren) to be fully bilingual, significant support outside of school is necessary. (link: http://www.wis.edu/data/files/gallery/ContentGalle...ently_Asked_Questions_1213.pdf)

Even WIS, the gold standard for dual immersion education in this area states that most children will need SIGNIFICANT support outside of school to be fully bilingual. So please PP, tell us which magical schools around here have managed to produce these extraordinary bilingual and biliterate students…without significant outside support (who also come from English speaking homes) where all others have failed?!? [/quote]

Dear PP,

I am not bitter. I just want OA to improve where it realistically can.  Like WIS,  I don't expect children to be bilingual and biliterate by the end of elementary school. But by the end of MS it is an achievable objective as many other schools that are offering the AP exam have showed.

[/quote]

Well, at least we share the same goal that REALISTIC improvements are made at O-A.  While I strongly believe that Oyster is a great school with a long and proud history, there is always room for improvement.  However, it’s important to acknowledge that Oyster does a darn good job (great community and high test scores) considering it’s constraints (constant DCPS budget cuts and a lackluster outgoing principal)—the school’s shortcomings are really high class problems that other public schools would LOVE to have (i.e., Algebra II instead of Algebra I in 8th grade; more electives and sports extracurriculars; improved/updated website; less mean girl/boy (verbal) issues in middle school; and offering an AP Spanish class).

Btw, please don’t be duped into believing that WIS’ students, generally, achieve the bilingualism/biliteracy of which you speak with just 2-3 years of additional schooling.  There are many students at WIS (some of whom I know personally), who come from monolingual homes and they are still not at grade level in oral fluency and literacy in the target language at the end of 8th grade.  If that was not the case, WIS would make it crystal clear on its website that its students are balanced bilinguals by the end of middle school.  WIS can’t make that claim…so it doesn’t.  It’s also important to remember that WIS is FULL immersion in PK and K.  Oyster is 50/50 the entire way through.  WIS can hand-pick its classes at every grade level (usually 1/3 English, 1/3 Spanish and 1/3 bilingual).  Despite the dual lottery, Oyster has no real control over the percentage of English speakers after PK.  WIS draws from an almost uniformly upper middle class and wealthy population (0% to &lt;1% FARMS); Oyster is 25% FARMS.  WIS doesn’t have to worry about the DC-CAS (or any other test) in 3rd grade…Oyster does.  I say all of this to say that WIS has much more control over its curriculum and (largely affluent) student body, and yet it’s students’ don’t achieve much greater bilingualism/biliteracy than Oyster students without significant outside support in the target language.  Yes, Oyster can and should improve, but let’s also be realistic.   
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