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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm guessing that well-resourced suburban school systems are far less inclined to push parents around than DC public, because they have every reason to expect parents to push back (obvious point). E.g. when I politely asked if my children could opt out of mandatory non-immersion language classes at our DCPS in the single language taught (because we speak another at home) at no cost to the school, including in staff time, the world languages central team came down on us like a ton of bricks.  It's standard for DC public schools to force all students to study a language they teach, even if a student speaks, reads and writes another world language well for their age, and the family is against adding a third language. Not so in Fairfax, MoCo or Arlington. Talking to the their world language coordinators was like landing on a verdant planet after leaving Tatooine or Jaku.  We were told that the suburban school districts actively build on "family language resources," at every step of the way, en route to students earning top scores on AP and IB language exams testing a language spoken at home.  Better planning and greater flexibility will surely come to DC public over time, as more parents challenge (politely or not). 
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What did you propose your kids do while all their classmates were participating in language class? Who was going to watch them? Why were you against your kid taking some lessons in a third language?[/quote]

We proposed that we extract our kids from the language classes to tutor them in English. We believe that they need more English instruction than monolingual peers get at school, not instruction in a third language with no connection to the very difficult language we speak at home (DCPS won't provide us with ELL services during the language classes, or any other time, because they consider our kids' English to be a little too good).  When OSSE got involved, DCPS backed down.  We've taken our kids out the language classes all year (staying within the school building), and will continue to do so as long as they're in DCPS.  We don't mind, but the writing is on the wall for us to bail from relatively inflexible DC public after ES.  [/quote]

I think there's a mis-perception that the suburban schools cater to parents ....  I think it's more of a case of you know what you're getting & take it there.  All of the choice and charters in DC -- and the buying of 'extras' via PTA dues and auctions -- add to the fire that things should be more malleable.  At the MoCo school I went to & where the next generation of my niece/nephew go to - they sign up for their language course & take it.[/quote]

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