Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those who think additional schools can join the DCI cohort,to me it looks like even the 4 first schools won't be able to guarantee admission for all of their students. Do the math:

1000 kids in 7 grade levels from 6th to 12th. That is about 142 kids per grade. Split evenly by 4 feeder schools allows each school to send only 36 new 6th graders each year. How many kids are in the grade level cohorts at these schools?

You forget attrition. Folks in Wash DC are constantly on the move. Every year there are transfers out of these charters, many due to moves, some for other reasons. The feeder schools only accept new students up through the 2nd grade. That means they lose students in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade and have no way of replacing the the lost ones. I suspect there will be even MORE attrition after the 5th grade as some parents traditionally opt for privates or suburban schools at that point.

So relax, there will be plenty of room for your kid at DCI.

YY -- 2nd grade last entrance year
LAMB -- PreK last entrance year
Stokes -- accepts new students every year including 6th graders, current final year
MV --I don't know the policy on how long they accept new students, currently goes to 1st -- were there new students in this years 1st grade to replace attrition?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those who think additional schools can join the DCI cohort,to me it looks like even the 4 first schools won't be able to guarantee admission for all of their students. Do the math:

1000 kids in 7 grade levels from 6th to 12th. That is about 142 kids per grade. Split evenly by 4 feeder schools allows each school to send only 36 new 6th graders each year. How many kids are in the grade level cohorts at these schools?

You forget attrition. Folks in Wash DC are constantly on the move. Every year there are transfers out of these charters, many due to moves, some for other reasons. The feeder schools only accept new students up through the 2nd grade. That means they lose students in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade and have no way of replacing the the lost ones. I suspect there will be even MORE attrition after the 5th grade as some parents traditionally opt for privates or suburban schools at that point.

So relax, there will be plenty of room for your kid at DCI.

So relax, there will be plenty of room for your kid at DCI Agree with the relax part. Not so much with the "there will be plenty of room part". People keep putting out these anecdotal one-liners about attrition- "this is DC, people come and go, etc..." This DOES NOT translate to available room in charters and (potentially) DC. Please, parents, do you due diligence and get the numbers on attrition in DCPS and public charters. It is LOW. This is because as the Washington market continues to maintain stability, people are continuing to flock here. The transience is becoming less and less. Call the PCSB and DCPS to verify. Don't want to scare anyone, but the false hope BS needs to stop. The more people acknowledge the real situation, the more we as parents who have not gotten into an acceptable charter or public school can continue to press for reform. The people who are urging us to "relax" (not a bad idea because freaking out doesn't help either) and not worry about it have an agenda. They don't want their school getting toyed with cause their happy and set. If the rules keep changing because reform tends to impact everyone, it would rock their boat. I get that. But, it's awful to keep telling people false info. to keep the status quo.

Anonymous wrote:For all those who think additional schools can join the DCI cohort,to me it looks like even the 4 first schools won't be able to guarantee admission for all of their students. Do the math:

1000 kids in 7 grade levels from 6th to 12th. That is about 142 kids per grade. Split evenly by 4 feeder schools allows each school to send only 36 new 6th graders each year. How many kids are in the grade level cohorts at these schools?

You forget attrition. Folks in Wash DC are constantly on the move. Every year there are transfers out of these charters, many due to moves, some for other reasons. The feeder schools only accept new students up through the 2nd grade. That means they lose students in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade and have no way of replacing the the lost ones. I suspect there will be even MORE attrition after the 5th grade as some parents traditionally opt for privates or suburban schools at that point.

So relax, there will be plenty of room for your kid at DCI.

It all comes down to the parents. If you want your kid to succeed at an immersion charter, you either have to have at least one parent with heritage/connection to that langauge, OR you need to be willing to work damn hard (couple of hours a day) at helping your kid with the homework. Even then you probably won't get the tones right in a language like Chinese.

Another option might be to hire a Chinese or Spanish speaking nanny or au-pair and instruct them to only speak their native language to your kids.

Bottom line is that becoming fluent in a second language is hard work, even for the kids. It doesn't just happen automatically -- you've got to push for it and put a LOT of time into it. If you don't have some family tie or particular interest in China, probably better to go for Spanish. It's easier to see and use Spanish on a daily basis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:trust me, there are many students at these schools who aren't cutting it but whose parents insist on keeping them in language immersion because these are basically good, safe, sane schools and there are not that many options out there. if only all the kids were at these schools because their parents value the language and the immersion model. sigh. it is so obvious which ones do and which ones don't. and they will force their kids to go to the DCI for the same reason.

21:28 I agree with you but without many decent options and no testing-in for charters there isn't much the schools can do. I really wish all the schools can have prek3, prek4 and maybe K and 1st only in the target language, no English, so that the schools can attract more families who are interested in an immersion language school rather than a just going to a decent school b/c their other options suck.

Agree completely. Big difference in language ability between my 1st grader who went to a total immersion preschool in her target language her at three and four and my PK3 year old in "immersion" prek at a DCI feeder who still can't understand basic info in the target language. The school is using too much English when the focus should be on monolingual play in the "new" language.

This is why I'd rather attend a DCPS over a Charter for an immersion school.

My child is nothaving this problem at hert immersion charter...and we came from a DCPS immersion school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:trust me, there are many students at these schools who aren't cutting it but whose parents insist on keeping them in language immersion because these are basically good, safe, sane schools and there are not that many options out there. if only all the kids were at these schools because their parents value the language and the immersion model. sigh. it is so obvious which ones do and which ones don't. and they will force their kids to go to the DCI for the same reason.

21:28 I agree with you but without many decent options and no testing-in for charters there isn't much the schools can do. I really wish all the schools can have prek3, prek4 and maybe K and 1st only in the target language, no English, so that the schools can attract more families who are interested in an immersion language school rather than a just going to a decent school b/c their other options suck.

Agree completely. Big difference in language ability between my 1st grader who went to a total immersion preschool in her target language her at three and four and my PK3 year old in "immersion" prek at a DCI feeder who still can't understand basic info in the target language. The school is using too much English when the focus should be on monolingual play in the "new" language.

This is why I'd rather attend a DCPS over a Charter for an immersion school.

Are these kids becoming fluent or not? Also, which charters immersion a aren't cutting it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:trust me, there are many students at these schools who aren't cutting it but whose parents insist on keeping them in language immersion because these are basically good, safe, sane schools and there are not that many options out there. if only all the kids were at these schools because their parents value the language and the immersion model. sigh. it is so obvious which ones do and which ones don't. and they will force their kids to go to the DCI for the same reason.

21:28 I agree with you but without many decent options and no testing-in for charters there isn't much the schools can do. I really wish all the schools can have prek3, prek4 and maybe K and 1st only in the target language, no English, so that the schools can attract more families who are interested in an immersion language school rather than a just going to a decent school b/c their other options suck.

Agree completely. Big difference in language ability between my 1st grader who went to a total immersion preschool in her target language her at three and four and my PK3 year old in "immersion" prek at a DCI feeder who still can't understand basic info in the target language. The school is using too much English when the focus should be on monolingual play in the "new" language.

This is why I'd rather attend a DCPS over a Charter for an immersion school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:trust me, there are many students at these schools who aren't cutting it but whose parents insist on keeping them in language immersion because these are basically good, safe, sane schools and there are not that many options out there. if only all the kids were at these schools because their parents value the language and the immersion model. sigh. it is so obvious which ones do and which ones don't. and they will force their kids to go to the DCI for the same reason.

21:28 I agree with you but without many decent options and no testing-in for charters there isn't much the schools can do. I really wish all the schools can have prek3, prek4 and maybe K and 1st only in the target language, no English, so that the schools can attract more families who are interested in an immersion language school rather than a just going to a decent school b/c their other options suck.

Agree completely. Big difference in language ability between my 1st grader who went to a total immersion preschool in her target language her at three and four and my PK3 year old in "immersion" prek at a DCI feeder who still can't understand basic info in the target language. The school is using too much English when the focus should be on monolingual play in the "new" language.

Anonymous wrote:trust me, there are many students at these schools who aren't cutting it but whose parents insist on keeping them in language immersion because these are basically good, safe, sane schools and there are not that many options out there. if only all the kids were at these schools because their parents value the language and the immersion model. sigh. it is so obvious which ones do and which ones don't. and they will force their kids to go to the DCI for the same reason.

21:28 I agree with you but without many decent options and no testing-in for charters there isn't much the schools can do. I really wish all the schools can have prek3, prek4 and maybe K and 1st only in the target language, no English, so that the schools can attract more families who are interested in an immersion language school rather than a just going to a decent school b/c their other options suck.

Anonymous wrote:not if they add in DC Bilingual....

Is that actually on the table, or just a wish of someone on DCUM? I can't say I've heard that rumor floating around regarding discussions of the consortium, but maybe PP knows something more.

trust me, there are many students at these schools who aren't cutting it but whose parents insist on keeping them in language immersion because these are basically good, safe, sane schools and there are not that many options out there. if only all the kids were at these schools because their parents value the language and the immersion model. sigh. it is so obvious which ones do and which ones don't. and they will force their kids to go to the DCI for the same reason.

The point of the school is to provide a middle and high school for the feeders. All the schools have their main entry yrs at prek3, prek4. This way they are avoiding the problems of having large numbers of students entering middle and high school who are below grade level and need remediation. If they do, they have no one to blame (DCPS) but themselves. Also, those students who could not function academically in a bilingual/immersion environment would not be interested in continuing this type of education into middle and high school and go elsewhere.

This way DCI gets a self selected cohort of high achieving dual language students without needing test-in admissions. DCI's model will not work if they accept many new students not from their feeders. The only reason to take in students not from their feeders is to keep up their enrollment numbers.

not if they add in DC Bilingual....

Attrition will make it so that the numbers are pretty close. I bet there will still be some spaces available, especially during the beginning years.

For all those who think additional schools can join the DCI cohort,to me it looks like even the 4 first schools won't be able to guarantee admission for all of their students. Do the math:

1000 kids in 7 grade levels from 6th to 12th. That is about 142 kids per grade. Split evenly by 4 feeder schools allows each school to send only 36 new 6th graders each year. How many kids are in the grade level cohorts at these schools?