Reply to Positive Momentum in Alexandria?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just to elaborate on why I think dual immersion is a joke in Alexandria. Many of the teachers don't speak very good Spanish. I've spotted many errors in work brought home and I often hear that they just lapse into English or "Spanglish" to explain difficult concepts. Also, most children are lost and not comprehending by the time they get to 3rd or 4th grade, so they are learning neither the language or the subject matter. This seems to be lost on the schools, because the kids are still (barely) passing in the subject matter--they don't seem to think that dropping from an A student to a C student is worth investigating. So, these kids go on to middle school significantly behind their monolingual peers. And finally, where do they go with the dual immersion concept after elementary? Nowhere.

Obviously with bilingual or linguistically interested parents, the result can be different, but such children are clearly a very small minority within the program.[/quote]

[b]You're shortsighted and exaggerating.  According to information found though links on ACPS site http://www.cal.org/twi/toolkit/PI/P_QA/parent_a2.htm, research indicates that by middle school native/non-native English speakers in two way immersion "scored at or well above grade level in both languages by middle school; and both groups performed at comparable or superior levels compared to same-language peers in other educational settings. On norm-referenced standardized tests of reading and math achievement in English, native English speakers outscored their English-only peers in English-only classrooms. English language learners who had learned English in a TWI program scored significantly higher than their English language learning peers who had studies in other kinds of programs in the state and also performed on a par with native English speaking students in English-only classrooms (Lindholm-Leary, 2005; Lindholm-Leary & Borsato, in press)."[/b]

If you're focused only on what your child can do in 3rd or 4th grade, immersion isn't for you.  I also wasn't aware ACPS no longer provided foreign language instruction after 5th grade.  When did that happen?  But, if you think sending your kid to Spanish school on Saturdays rather than participating in an immersion classroom, good luck to you.  That works better for all of us.
[/quote]

This is general research conducted years ago. It is not specific research based on outcomes of the Alexandria dual immersion programs.

Basically, the schools that house the programs have large parent population who simply don't care if their kid is in a special program and don't really see the advantages. You are talking about a large segment of the population who see going and staying in school as well as graduating from high school as a major life achievement not a necessary stepping stone to higher education, better career, higher income.  Also, if the school serves a large immigrant population that is not Spanish speaking, then the kids are entering school as ELL learners to begin with. They need to get a grasp on English so I can see why a dual immersion program is not attractive to a family who has immigrated from Ethiopia for example.[/quote]

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