Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in! My daughter is currently at Cooke, at I would love for her to continue on the IB track.

As for the language, well... her spanish is coming along!

Cooke is DCPS. This middle is for students who hve attended one of 4 charters.

Doesn't seem fair to exclude others who are bilingual, whether that was achieved through home life, residence abroad, attendance at other immersion schools (public/charter in or outside the area, or private such as WIS). There is a large underserved population of bi- and tri-lingual students in this city, and not all of them can get into or afford WIS for middle and high school. This school will have a much better chance of surviving the inevitable political scrutiny if it opens itself to serving ALL children who arrive with a demonstrable bilingual/biliterate background.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's always great to have a separate track for your low income students of color like Yu Ying. Something to be proud of and emulate no doubt.

Give it a rest!

Anonymous wrote:I'm in! My daughter is currently at Cooke, at I would love for her to continue on the IB track.

As for the language, well... her spanish is coming along!

Cooke is DCPS. This middle is for students who hve attended one of 4 charters.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone currently at Stokes think this has a chance of happening? The Board is checked out and uninterested,the administration is so over their heads with even managing an elementary school there is no way they can pull this off without an infusion of some real professional management at the school and/or a board that really functions as leaders. I suspect the same is true of the other charters.

-- An ex-Stokes parent

I see you're totally objective and without an axe to grind. That's refreshing.

Seriously, the school is announcing it, and Yu Ying and LAMB have real estate to commit to it. Chance of happening? Certainly! There's a very high demand for good middle and upper school options in DC. The opportunity to pursue the IB Diploma will likely appeal to many of the parents who carefully selected an immersion school. In fact, it will probably be an excellent recruiting tool, attracting parents who are supportive of the idea, and will push to see it realized.

Does anyone currently at Stokes think this has a chance of happening? The Board is checked out and uninterested,the administration is so over their heads with even managing an elementary school there is no way they can pull this off without an infusion of some real professional management at the school and/or a board that really functions as leaders. I suspect the same is true of the other charters.

-- An ex-Stokes parent

Yes, it's always great to have a separate track for your low income students of color like Yu Ying. Something to be proud of and emulate no doubt.

This would be awesome.

Anonymous wrote:If the Hebrew Immersion school get its charter, that seems like it could potentially be a good partner as another feeder school. According to this article, it sounds like they're making plans to open.

http://www.forward.com/articles/141654/

More here from Bill Turque. Apparently they're using "the Washington Yu Ying model" which suggests a cooperative relationship with Yu Ying.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/hebrew-language-charter-proposal-in-the-works/2011/11/30/gIQAFffaqO_blog.html

If the Hebrew Immersion school get its charter, that seems like it could potentially be a good partner as another feeder school. According to this article, it sounds like they're making plans to open.

http://www.forward.com/articles/141654/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alterations to all of the charters and a change to charter school admission rules that prevent language-based admission preference.

Why do they all have to be altered? And can't an entrance exam be required to get into this school (in English & target language)? There was a thread floating around about making a TJ in DC--they require an entrance exam.

First of all, none of them are currently chartered all the way through 12th grade, so that would have to be altered.

Second, they have to create a structure that allows their students preferential admission, without requiring an entrance exam (that would probably not conform to the charter law). However, if the DCI is chartered as an extension of their respective programs, then it shouldn't run into trouble. So, students graduating from the partner schools could automatically continue. However, if there were spaces left-over they could conceivably hold a lottery for new students. That would allow them to make a bigger school, and expand the scale, if they liked.

The new students wouldn't have the immersion experience in their background, but they could conceivably start studying one or more of the three languages beginning at the middle school level, and have a good background to pursue the IB Diploma when they hit 11th & 12th. After all, not every student around the world who goes after an IB Diploma began in an immersion school. It would be real leg up though. And the partner-school students could pick up a 3rd language, so coming from Stokes' French track, students could choose to pursue either Spanish or Chinese as a 3rd language, starting at middle school.

Look at WIS's website for an idea on how it could work.

Also, both Yu Ying and LAMB have been granted space at the (beautiful!) Walter Reed campus, so the DCI would have a building to work with.

It does sound like a dream come true!

I'm in! My daughter is currently at Cooke, at I would love for her to continue on the IB track.

As for the language, well... her spanish is coming along!

No- you can't provide preference for any admission criteria. And none of their charters go through 12th grade with a provision to integrate with other schools. Therefore their charters need to be significantly altered. YY is the only one that is even close to having an easy alteration to the charter, but due to attrition w/out admitting kids after 2nd grade the school has no chance of standing alone with a middle/high school.

Anonymous wrote:Alterations to all of the charters and a change to charter school admission rules that prevent language-based admission preference.

Why do they all have to be altered? And can't an entrance exam be required to get into this school (in English & target language)? There was a thread floating around about making a TJ in DC--they require an entrance exam.

Alterations to all of the charters and a change to charter school admission rules that prevent language-based admission preference.

excerpted from this weeks Stokes Banner (Issue XV)

"If approved, the DCI wold open in school year 2014-15 with 200 students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes and would eventually grow to its capacity of approximately 1,000 students in the 6th through 12th grades.

"This combined middle-high school would allow students to continue to pursue a rigorous academic program while building on the language and cultural immersion experiences from their primary schools [Stokes, LAMB, Mundo Verde and Yu Ying]...at DCI, students would have the opportunity to...earn the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme Certificate, followed by the globally-recognized prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma and/or International Baccalaureate Career-Related Certificate.

" '...(Stokes School Founder and Executive Director, Linda Moore)...cautions, however, that the board of trustees has not yet committed to middle school expansion and significant legal and financial challenges' confront the four schools that are exploring the development of DCI."

Would this not be a dream come true! What really has to happen to make this a reality?