Reply to Oyster relocating?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Oyster relocating?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I'm also an outside observer with no stake in this, but I see an argument with the above: most of the non-Spanish kids start Oyster in K. Only a handful get in during pre-K, and there is no PS program. So at most you would be giving the English-dominant kids one year of full immersion, with a few possibly getting two.[/quote]

That's a really good point.  Tough situation, with the demographics moving against you.[/quote]

Actually, quite a few of Oyster's IB English-dominant kids are bilingual (like my DC) from having attended a Spanish immersion preschool for years.  So when my child arrived in K, she had already received 4 years of Spanish instruction/immersion.  This fall’s PK class will have 25 Spanish-dom. kids (out of 35).  Oyster’s three K classes usually total 75 kids (25/classroom).  If you have 25 rising K Span-dom. kids (from the aforementioned PK class), plus 5 more added in K, then you have 30 Spanish-dom. kids out of 75 (that’s 40% Spanish-dom).  Included in that 75 K class will be at least 10 kids like mine (bilingual, but they come from an English speaking home).  So now, you have AT LEAST 40 Spanish-dom and bilingual kids—that’s 53% (better than 50/50) of the K class that speaks and understands the target language.  If you make Oyster full immersion for PK and K, that should be all you need to tip the scales.  Show me the will (on Oyster’s part), and I’ll show you the way.

My kid is already in so we’re fine either way.  I just think that moving the school is a bad idea for Oyster.  No other immersion school in DC (charter or DCPS) can touch Oyster’s test scores.  That fact is not unrelated to the predominately affluent, well-educated IB (both English and Spanish dom.) families who send their well-prepared children to Oyster.  If you eliminate that important (but often overlooked) ingredient, watch the test scores slide as well (to say nothing of the fundraising).  
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics