Anonymous wrote:My mother's town was predominantly immigrants from Poland, Italy and Quebec. Native English speakers were a minority. I see no difference between the immigrants of yesteryear and those of today.

And obviously you're an educator who teaches in one of the schools impacted by high FARMs and language barriers, right?

b/c you appear to know it all as you see "no difference" btw the two groups

My mother's town was predominantly immigrants from Poland, Italy and Quebec. Native English speakers were a minority. I see no difference between the immigrants of yesteryear and those of today.

Anonymous wrote:Hmmmm. My white grand-parents came from Poland, didn't speak English and my mother didn't speak English until she hit kindergarten! Is there a similar experience here to tell me that those little brown Hispanic kids are going to ruin it for precious WASP snowflake?

And, again, what are "red zone' and "green zone" references? Is MoCo Baghdad or something. Y'all are just weird people!

'

I can echo that situation with my own mother who also learned English in K.

But your point is still stupid - and I say that as an educator!

When Mom hit K, the teachers had no idea what to do with her. She was, however, the ONLY one in her white class (segregation, people) who didn't know English. So she sat and absorbed the language - and yes, learned. It can happen, especially when you have parents who are pushing you to learn and there are NO behavior issues in the classroom.

But when you have 10 out of 20 in that boat, the 10 - in this age - are the ones receiving the attention for several reasons - the most important one being the county mandate that we close the achievement gap.

In another instance, my friend's son was placed in a K class that was majority Hispanic. The teacher spoke to the class in Spanish more often than not, and at Back to School Night, they had to use a translator. And he's bilingual - but not in Spanish. So she switched him b/c he was acting up. And guess what? problem solved, no more behavior issues, report card improved

I fail to see how your outdated situation applies to today.


And blame Weast and society for red zone schools. Money finds money, honey! Areas with high rates of poverty are the ones housing the red zone schools. So a high concentration of poverty is found in parts of Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, Wheaton, etc. Look up Schools at a Glance and you'll see the FARMs rate per school. And yes, it affects instruction, sadly, as there aren't enough resources, classes can sometimes be too large or too demanding, teacher burnout is high, as is transience.

Again, I love hearing how everyone is an expert on education simply b/c everyone on these boards has attended school.

My daughter attended Pine Spring ES in Falls Church (Fairfax County). The school is 43 % Hispanic, 28% White and 46 % FARMS. We loved the school. The teachers and principal were excellent, the PTA active - all around a great school community. My daughter had friends she has kept through Middle School at Luther Jackson - another underrated school.

I encourage you to visit the school with and without your child, meet the principal and teachers and then decide.

The good news is that it's becoming less and less of an issue in DC with all of the emergent charters. If you "worry" about kids not fitting in, then pick a charter. Plenty of diversity means less worries about fitting in to the culture.

Start here: http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/19691/dcs-most-diverse-charter-schools/

Anonymous wrote:Hmmmm. My white grand-parents came from Poland, didn't speak English and my mother didn't speak English until she hit kindergarten! Is there a similar experience here to tell me that those little brown Hispanic kids are going to ruin it for precious WASP snowflake?

And, again, what are "red zone' and "green zone" references? Is MoCo Baghdad or something. Y'all are just weird people!

We now have kids who were born here, whose great great great grandparents were born here, yet now these kids are barely literate, and the mangle the language and can't even seem to master basic grammar. Their own grandparents spoke better English and valued education more than they do.

That's a problem.

While the march of time, technology and progress keeps moving forward, some of us are moving backwards.

Anonymous wrote:My kids both went to a FCPS elementary school in which white kids are outnumbered (I think their are something like 50 nationalities represented in the school's student population).

The school is small with small classes (fewer than 20 per class). Almost all of the teachers were fabulous, and the kids who are immigrants can speak English or learn very quickly. They do not inhibit learning. The classes divide the kids into groups for language arts and math early on and everyone gets the amount and type of attention they need. The school also has an AAP class in grades 3-6. My children never lacked for anything and they learned from an early age that friends come in all skin colors and accents.

We live very close to Haycock Elementary and a lot of white families transfer their kids there or send them to private school until they are able to enter Haycock's AAP program.

I chalk this up to pure racism and classism and it's pretty disgusting. I've heard stories of parents storming into the school's office to complain when they received information in the mail about registering for kindergarten. "I am NOT sending my child to THIS school!!!" I have neighbors who tried to convince me that there are 7 years olds in gangs roaming the hallways.

They pass on these lovely prejudices to their children too. Some of the kids from my kids' school (including mine) go on to Longfellow and McLean, where the other kids dub my kids' school the "ghetto school." Lovely.

I assume you're at Timber Lane, which splits between Longfellow/McLean and Jackson/Falls Church and has very different demographics than the rest of the Longfellow/McLean feeders.

It's unfortunate that terms like that get bandied about, but Longfellow/McLean students are encouraged to help out more at Timber Lane than at any other Longfellow/McLean feeder school, and at least the Longfellow/McLean boundaries seem to reflect a conscious effort to diversify the enrollment at Longfellow/McLean. If you just looked at the boundary maps, you'd think the Timber Lane neighborhoods assigned to Longfellow/McLean would be at Kilmer/Marshall or Jackson/Falls Church instead. But sending half of the school to Longfellow/McLean, including some of low-income apartments off Lee Highway, is consistent with the concept that lower-income students fare better if they have the opportunity to attend schools with kids who also come from more affluent families.

I've actually thought FCPS could do the same thing with Cooper/Langley, and send some of the lower and moderate-income areas of Reston now assigned to Hughes/South Lakes to Cooper/Langley, while moving some of the neighborhoods in Great Falls to Herndon MS/Herndon HS, and some of the neighborhoods in the Herndon area to Hughes/South Lakes.

First of all, don't feed your kids breakfast. Send them to school unwashed (preferably for several days) and in old, unlaundered clothes. In the winter, send them out without a oat, hat and gloves. Make sure they are sho on school supplies. For dinne, processed foods only. No computer for homework, or they have to share it among the kids and adults. That should help them fit in.

Anonymous wrote:

And, again, what are "red zone' and "green zone" references? Is MoCo Baghdad or something. Y'all are just weird people!

Something about "red zones" and "green zones":

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/leadingforequity/pdf/HarvardCase-DifferientiatedTreatment.pdf

MCPS now refers to "focus schools" instead of "red zone schools" -- I assume that the criteria are the same, but I don't know that.

Hmmmm. My white grand-parents came from Poland, didn't speak English and my mother didn't speak English until she hit kindergarten! Is there a similar experience here to tell me that those little brown Hispanic kids are going to ruin it for precious WASP snowflake?

And, again, what are "red zone' and "green zone" references? Is MoCo Baghdad or something. Y'all are just weird people!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In many cases, second language learners (my personal experience in the "red zone" as an educator) are illiterate in their own language. I think your idea is creative; don't get me wrong - and actually forward thinking. But literacy would still be the biggest challenge for many kids.

?

Most kindergarteners are illiterate in any language.

No, clearly not

These kids have limited vocabulary, cannot fully form a sentence (orally), have syntax issues (orally), and little word recognition. Yes, it can happen in K! And when you compare white kids (who have had all the advantages in the world) to those from Spanish-speaking countries where neither parent is educated, there's a gap from the start.

Don't even comment if you have no experience in this area.

Just stop now before you make an ass of yourself.

Anonymous wrote:My kids both went to a FCPS elementary school in which white kids are outnumbered (I think their are something like 50 nationalities represented in the school's student population).

The school is small with small classes (fewer than 20 per class). Almost all of the teachers were fabulous, and the kids who are immigrants can speak English or learn very quickly. They do not inhibit learning. The classes divide the kids into groups for language arts and math early on and everyone gets the amount and type of attention they need. The school also has an AAP class in grades 3-6. My children never lacked for anything and they learned from an early age that friends come in all skin colors and accents.

We live very close to Haycock Elementary and a lot of white families transfer their kids there or send them to private school until they are able to enter Haycock's AAP program.

I chalk this up to pure racism and classism and it's pretty disgusting. I've heard stories of parents storming into the school's office to complain when they received information in the mail about registering for kindergarten. "I am NOT sending my child to THIS school!!!" I have neighbors who tried to convince me that there are 7 years olds in gangs roaming the hallways.

They pass on these lovely prejudices to their children too. Some of the kids from my kids' school (including mine) go on to Longfellow and McLean, where the other kids dub my kids' school the "ghetto school." Lovely.

You're so right! The racism and classism in this area is so disheartening.

Anonymous wrote:You go elsewhere.

I feel bad saying it, but it's the reality. Your white, wealthy kid might be ok in PreK, but even by K the other kids will make his life miserable. We had to leave a school that was great on paper, but socially horrible. Some people will remember me posting before, about the kids who invited my five-year-old "get your white ass out of here".

Yeah, typical liberal hypocrisy here! My Pappy always used to tell me that you were better off in the South where you knew people were comin' from than in the North where they were all two-faced!

Anonymous wrote:In many cases, second language learners (my personal experience in the "red zone" as an educator) are illiterate in their own language. I think your idea is creative; don't get me wrong - and actually forward thinking. But literacy would still be the biggest challenge for many kids.

?

Most kindergarteners are illiterate in any language.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typically the schools with high concentrations of English learners don't teach Spanish. The idea being that the English learners need to get up to speed to eventually be ready for testing by the third grade. So even if her child wanted to learn Spanish, chances are the school wasn't facilitating that. It's surprising that MCPS is so disinterested in leveraging the mixed language opportunities that present themselves with lots of Spanish speakers and lots of English speakers attending the same school - everyone could benefit from additional immersion or partial immersion opportunities, but tests matter more to the school district than genuine learning opportunities for all children.

In many cases, second language learners (my personal experience in the "red zone" as an educator) are illiterate in their own language. I think your idea is creative; don't get me wrong - and actually forward thinking. But literacy would still be the biggest challenge for many kids.

But with all due respect, the parent of a nonminority student who speaks English at home would want her child to focus on English literacy at the typical age appropriate level for English speakers.