Anonymous wrote:The spanish as a special is just fluff. After a few years your kid may know how to count, their colors, a few basic phrases, a few songs.

Don’t expect much else. It’s not like they are going to be able to actually have a conversation or read spanish.

If you really want language proficiency, the only route is immersion charter to DCI for public. If you want fluency, same route and supplement with summer immersion experiences.

Language exposure is still valuable. Not everyone is looking for immersion.

Many DCPS ESs have FL as a special. Ours does. It rotates with the other specials so is offered only a few times per week for less than an hour per class. It only succeeds in providing limited exposure to the particular FL and to FL in general. The students learn very little of the actual FL.

I think it’s mainly a marketing thing and the resources could be better spent elsewhere. YMMV

Foreign language as a special is fairly standard in DCPS schools. It will not develop a lot of language skills but does offer some early vocabulary and exposure that could be useful come middle school if the continue with the same language.

It's like any other special. Your kid will get okay exposure to music in music class, but they don't learn to competently play an instrument or develop strong singing ability attending a once a week class.

Watkins has Spanish as a special.

Thomson has Spanish as a special

Eaton has Chinese as a special.

I think most DCPSes opt to have a foreign language as a special. At LT, we have Spanish. The teacher is awesome, but there’s only so much kids can get out of one sub-1 hour class once a week.

The spanish as a special is just fluff. After a few years your kid may know how to count, their colors, a few basic phrases, a few songs.

Don’t expect much else. It’s not like they are going to be able to actually have a conversation or read spanish.

If you really want language proficiency, the only route is immersion charter to DCI for public. If you want fluency, same route and supplement with summer immersion experiences.

Ross has Spanish as a special, the Spanish teacher also teaches art (with a lot of Spanish), and the school has a Spanish class a couple mornings per week as a class before school (at 8 with a different provider).

Reframing (not OP) - which DCPS ES have a foreign language as a special, and for what grades? I learned to ask this at open houses last year, but only after I’d already been to a bunch. I stupidly assumed all ES would have at least some foreign language. They don’t! It seems that Title 1 schools sometimes opt to use their extra funding for foreign language, but some don’t. At wealthy schools it’s PTA funded, but some wealthy schools (Stoddert) don’t have any foreign language. Mann has Spanish that is PTA funded but only through 2nd (?) grade. SWS has French- is that in every grade?

Anonymous wrote:

What do you mean? Isn’t Yu Ying a thing? Sela?

Those are charter schools, not DCPS.

OP- you can look up the bilingual schools on DCPS'S school finder site.

Outside of Spanish, I'm only aware of charters: Stokes (french), Yu Ying (Mandarin), and Sela (Hebrew).

I know a few charters have Spanish as a special. I haven't heard of DCPS having a second language as a special.

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by core curriculum? Do you mean like a bilingual school like Oyster or Chisholm? If so, there’s only Spanish.

What do you mean? Isn’t Yu Ying a thing? Sela?

a bunch of schools have spanish as a special. core subject at ES level is really only the immersion schools

What do you mean by core curriculum? Do you mean like a bilingual school like Oyster or Chisholm? If so, there’s only Spanish.

And which foreign language options are there at each school?