Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

I would only send your kid to this school if they fit into one of the categories below:
1. Spanish/Hispanic background and the language is regularly spoken in the home.
2. The child is from a State Dept/foreign service family and has lived in a Spanish speaking country and was exposed to the language during their language formative years.
3. Rich kid with Spanish speaking nanny who has spoken Spanish to them since they were a baby.

With the exception of kids who are born with exceptional linguistic abilities, kids who have not had previous exposure to the language are at a HUGE disadvantage. They start slow, but by second grade, it seemed as if they were expecting students to be nearly fluent. Those of us who have had to learn Spanish or any other language in an academic setting know that this is nearly impossible. And if students fall behind in Spanish, they will fall behind in all of the subjects that are taught in Spanish, especially math. That being said, I understood Spanish well enough to see that the math instruction at Key was simply bad and not very rigorous. It took two years of tutoring and moving to another school to undo all of the damage. More generally, we tried to seek extra help for our kids in learning the Spanish language and no one cared. They only care about English learners. It is not all bad. There are some wonderful, caring teachers and a very friendly parent community. But, in my opinion, the education and curriculum is deficient in comparison to other schools and it is simply not worth it for kids who are not native speakers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think that the School Board will get rid of one of the Spanish Immersion schools? Does a small county like Arlington really need two? Is the demand still there?

Both schools have wait lists.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think that the School Board will get rid of one of the Spanish Immersion schools? Does a small county like Arlington really need two? Is the demand still there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

I would only send your kid to this school if they fit into one of the categories below:
1. Spanish/Hispanic background and the language is regularly spoken in the home.
2. The child is from a State Dept/foreign service family and has lived in a Spanish speaking country and was exposed to the language during their language formative years.
3. Rich kid with Spanish speaking nanny who has spoken Spanish to them since they were a baby.

With the exception of kids who are born with exceptional linguistic abilities, kids who have not had previous exposure to the language are at a HUGE disadvantage. They start slow, but by second grade, it seemed as if they were expecting students to be nearly fluent. Those of us who have had to learn Spanish or any other language in an academic setting know that this is nearly impossible. And if students fall behind in Spanish, they will fall behind in all of the subjects that are taught in Spanish, especially math. That being said, I understood Spanish well enough to see that the math instruction at Key was simply bad and not very rigorous. It took two years of tutoring and moving to another school to undo all of the damage. More generally, we tried to seek extra help for our kids in learning the Spanish language and no one cared. They only care about English learners. It is not all bad. There are some wonderful, caring teachers and a very friendly parent community. But, in my opinion, the education and curriculum is deficient in comparison to other schools and it is simply not worth it for kids who are not native speakers.

To undo the math damage - did you move them to private or to another APS school?

Math is one of the bigger concerns for me. On the one hand, math is math in whatever language you do it. But it's so important to get a good foundation on it, that it's off to me that they are teaching it in Spanish. That would be the one thing I would want them to learn in English. If there are issues with the curriculum, wouldn't that affect the native Spanish speakers also?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

I would only send your kid to this school if they fit into one of the categories below:
1. Spanish/Hispanic background and the language is regularly spoken in the home.
2. The child is from a State Dept/foreign service family and has lived in a Spanish speaking country and was exposed to the language during their language formative years.
3. Rich kid with Spanish speaking nanny who has spoken Spanish to them since they were a baby.

With the exception of kids who are born with exceptional linguistic abilities, kids who have not had previous exposure to the language are at a HUGE disadvantage. They start slow, but by second grade, it seemed as if they were expecting students to be nearly fluent. Those of us who have had to learn Spanish or any other language in an academic setting know that this is nearly impossible. And if students fall behind in Spanish, they will fall behind in all of the subjects that are taught in Spanish, especially math. That being said, I understood Spanish well enough to see that the math instruction at Key was simply bad and not very rigorous. It took two years of tutoring and moving to another school to undo all of the damage. More generally, we tried to seek extra help for our kids in learning the Spanish language and no one cared. They only care about English learners. It is not all bad. There are some wonderful, caring teachers and a very friendly parent community. But, in my opinion, the education and curriculum is deficient in comparison to other schools and it is simply not worth it for kids who are not native speakers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

pros—generally nice people.
cons—academic rigor (ymmv)

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

Anonymous wrote:Have there been any updates? Happy to hear the principal reinstated. We were interested in Key prior to this incident, and had generally heard good things. After the incident we are nervous. We know it's a lottery, so who even knows if we would get a spot.

Are there any current parents out there who can share pros and cons of the school? We want our child to learn a second language, we value a close knit community and socioeconomic and racial diversity. BUT, most important to us is a safe environment and high standards / good teaching / emphasis on academics. Are those available at this school as well? Obviously no school is perfect, so I am curious what current parents like and wish were different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see anywhere in the Arlnow article where it says the graffiti threats were a repeated problem, as a PP says upthread. If that’s in a different article, will someone please link it?

Katherine says her child and a friend formed a detectives club to figure out who wrote them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see anywhere in the Arlnow article where it says the graffiti threats were a repeated problem, as a PP says upthread. If that’s in a different article, will someone please link it?

From ArlNow: “After winter break ended, students at the dual-language, Spanish immersion school, also called Escuela Key, began noticing “bad words,” or “malas palabras,” on the bathroom stall. Katherine says her child and a friend formed a detectives club to figure out who wrote them.

It had been going on for weeks.