Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 22:23     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:13:06, so I agree that Immersion programs and other such gimicks are here to stay. But I do not think that your family or your DC is a prize to be won by DCPS. [b]You are a number, for now, but a someone who is not in DC for the long haul.[/b[


This really is kind of silly; as if bonus points are awarded for long-term residency.

What we need in DC is massive numbers of middle-class residents. Residents who will actually pay taxes. It's not altogether clear that "someone who is not in DC for the long haul" is less desirable than someone who is in DC for a childless decade, then the first decade of their child's life (before moving elsewhere). I know for a lot of old school DC residents, a fetish is made over whether or not you're a native, but the truth is that middle-class people move. That's life in the modern era.

And so long as the total number of middle-class people in DC is on an upward trend, and we're keeping those numbers up, I don't think it particularly matters if that population is somewhat transient.

Hell, we're probably better off with a wealthy, transient, and younger population in DC. Especially when compared to the multiple generations of "lifelong residents" who've never held a job, and are raised by parents who've never held a job either.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 22:20     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Am surprised about Francis Stevens and Garrison to some extent.
Francis-Stevens has 200 kids in PS to 8 with 24% in boundary. It will feed to Hyde-Addison. Ross will take over Garrison space.


And then Ross can expand enrollment and continue being a successful school for more kids. Win-win. Some tiny charter will then take over the Ross building.


This is pretty explosive info for anybody living in Dupont/Logan. Who the heck is letting out this information?!?
pure speculation
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 21:51     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
13:06, so I agree that Immersion programs and other such gimicks are here to stay. But I do not think that your family or your DC is a prize to be won by DCPS. You are a number, for now, but a someone who is not in DC for the long haul.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 13:06     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:...if allowed in- are counseld out around K/1 when they cannot 'keep up' with dual language. Also, DC CAS testing starts in 2nd grade now. And the highest SI class at Tyler is now 4th. I would disagree that its not enough time to see data. Last year the 3rd grade class should have seen great gains- and clearly did not. They are in the bottom 40 lowest performing schools. Turns out, segregation does not work (so far) for either group.


This is probably a discussion for another thread but while we're at it: I think what you're pointing to is a general difficulty to make "immersion" work past the early grades, when academics and subject matters start to become more important. Neither the charter school system nor DCPS has a significant basis on which to make an affirmation that this works. I'm an anecdotal data point: I learned statistics in French (not my mother tongue) because I was immersed in a French school system for those years. Were I to be tested in stats in my mother tongue I'd be an utter failure. We could do away with testing immersion programs in English but instead test them in their target language, but that frankly makes no sense since those kids, for the most part, eventually need to excel in stats, biology, trigonometry, chemistry, physics, literature etc. in English not Spanish. It's naive to think that they'll just happen to learn all these subjects in English, because that's the language spoken at home, at parties, among friends, in newspapers, on TV. But that's not where they'll learn subject matter.
Rather, I think this city has not thought immersion through. It's been an attractive concept to keep families with young children in the system. In speaking with many I often get the impression that they haven't thought immersion through in any meaningful way past the acquisition of basic spoken and written skills.
But maybe I'm missing some big chuck of logic somewhere.


For better or worse, immersion programs are the only thing that make some families consider public education in DC at all. If we had not got our DC into an immersion school starting in preK, DC would be in private. As it is, DC may stay in public school through middle school whereas before we would never have considered it a possibility beyond elementary. Even though we are at a charter that'll feed into DCI, DC will go to private school for high school.
Anonymous
Post 11/23/2012 12:39     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Am surprised about Francis Stevens and Garrison to some extent.
Francis-Stevens has 200 kids in PS to 8 with 24% in boundary. It will feed to Hyde-Addison. Ross will take over Garrison space.


And then Ross can expand enrollment and continue being a successful school for more kids. Win-win. Some tiny charter will then take over the Ross building.


This is pretty explosive info for anybody living in Dupont/Logan. Who the heck is letting out this information?!?
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 16:29     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?

Sigh. I see the tensions at Tyler are still high. And the parents who volunteer and work for the SI kids, are also more than happy to use the Title I funds that there kiddos have nothing to do with brining in. Its not a gift from the SI kids.


by Title I funds -- you mean the free school lunches the SI kids generally don't need or even want? Do the SI volunteers get credit for travelling door to door soliciting timely enrollment completion for all Tyler families rather than having some kids just show up on the first day of school so the school gets its full DCPS budget allocation?

I have no dog in this fight. I just know a number of Tyler families (granted, its SI) and you're way off the mark.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 15:08     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
*spewed out my diet pepsi* Did I read that post correctly? The tension is not only high but the ignorance is among the clouds.

Again Ward 6 has the most housing projects, so a neighborhood school is out of the question for those children.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 15:03     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:^ Without giving away too much information, I can tell you that what you think of SI at Tyler is just not true. I wish it was, I really do. But its not. The kids from the gardens, if allowed in- are counseld out around K/1 when they cannot 'keep up' with dual language. Also, DC CAS testing starts in 2nd grade now. And the highest SI class at Tyler is now 4th. I would disagree that its not enough time to see data. Last year the 3rd grade class should have seen great gains- and clearly did not. They are in the bottom 40 lowest performing schools. Turns out, segregation does not work (so far) for either group.


Seriously? By "if allowed in" do you mean if they successfully gain entry to PS3 lottery for ECC like all kids do citywide for DCPS. I'm no statistician either, but I would argue you have a lack of significant sample size. Besides, I'd rather see a breakdown of SI vs ES -- I strongly suspect the SI is being dragged down by the overall poor performance of ES. Not sure how that hurts the successful SI kids, but I can see where the active parents who volunteer and fundraise tirelessly and help produce good outcomes may instill resentent.

Sigh. I see the tensions at Tyler are still high. And the parents who volunteer and work for the SI kids, are also more than happy to use the Title I funds that there kiddos have nothing to do with brining in. Its not a gift from the SI kids.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 15:01     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:...if allowed in- are counseld out around K/1 when they cannot 'keep up' with dual language. Also, DC CAS testing starts in 2nd grade now. And the highest SI class at Tyler is now 4th. I would disagree that its not enough time to see data. Last year the 3rd grade class should have seen great gains- and clearly did not. They are in the bottom 40 lowest performing schools. Turns out, segregation does not work (so far) for either group.


This is probably a discussion for another thread but while we're at it: I think what you're pointing to is a general difficulty to make "immersion" work past the early grades, when academics and subject matters start to become more important. Neither the charter school system nor DCPS has a significant basis on which to make an affirmation that this works. I'm an anecdotal data point: I learned statistics in French (not my mother tongue) because I was immersed in a French school system for those years. Were I to be tested in stats in my mother tongue I'd be an utter failure. We could do away with testing immersion programs in English but instead test them in their target language, but that frankly makes no sense since those kids, for the most part, eventually need to excel in stats, biology, trigonometry, chemistry, physics, literature etc. in English not Spanish. It's naive to think that they'll just happen to learn all these subjects in English, because that's the language spoken at home, at parties, among friends, in newspapers, on TV. But that's not where they'll learn subject matter.
Rather, I think this city has not thought immersion through. It's been an attractive concept to keep families with young children in the system. In speaking with many I often get the impression that they haven't thought immersion through in any meaningful way past the acquisition of basic spoken and written skills.
But maybe I'm missing some big chuck of logic somewhere.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 14:57     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I work at Amidon. I'd recomend coming to visit the school becuase you can learn more with your own two eyes than you will on DCUM (it's not like the school gets dicussed much on here). I would especially recomend visiting a early childhood classroom (Kindergarten on down) because the tools program is very strong in our school.

And while I can understand why parents might be reluctant to send their children to this school, a culture doesn't change magically by shifting demographics. It changes when parents enroll their children in the school and contibutes to the school culture.


I am not generally a grammar stickler and cut people lots of slack, but truly when a person who works ( teaches?) At a school makes multiple spelling/grammar errors, it makes me think twice about the school.


Remind me not to type things on my phone.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 14:39     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:^ Without giving away too much information, I can tell you that what you think of SI at Tyler is just not true. I wish it was, I really do. But its not. The kids from the gardens, if allowed in- are counseld out around K/1 when they cannot 'keep up' with dual language. Also, DC CAS testing starts in 2nd grade now. And the highest SI class at Tyler is now 4th. I would disagree that its not enough time to see data. Last year the 3rd grade class should have seen great gains- and clearly did not. They are in the bottom 40 lowest performing schools. Turns out, segregation does not work (so far) for either group.


Seriously? By "if allowed in" do you mean if they successfully gain entry to PS3 lottery for ECC like all kids do citywide for DCPS. I'm no statistician either, but I would argue you have a lack of significant sample size. Besides, I'd rather see a breakdown of SI vs ES -- I strongly suspect the SI is being dragged down by the overall poor performance of ES. Not sure how that hurts the successful SI kids, but I can see where the active parents who volunteer and fundraise tirelessly and help produce good outcomes may instill resentent.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 14:17     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
^ Without giving away too much information, I can tell you that what you think of SI at Tyler is just not true. I wish it was, I really do. But its not. The kids from the gardens, if allowed in- are counseld out around K/1 when they cannot 'keep up' with dual language. Also, DC CAS testing starts in 2nd grade now. And the highest SI class at Tyler is now 4th. I would disagree that its not enough time to see data. Last year the 3rd grade class should have seen great gains- and clearly did not. They are in the bottom 40 lowest performing schools. Turns out, segregation does not work (so far) for either group.
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 14:12     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:^ You know nothing about what happens in Tyler ES, so you are likely an SI parent. Keep on believing what you want to think about the school, and ignore the reality. How many Potomac Gardens kids are in SI?


No. . . I'm not a Tyler parent, but to answer your question there are as many enrolled as wish to enroll
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 13:56     Subject: Where's the list Kaya?
^ You know nothing about what happens in Tyler ES, so you are likely an SI parent. Keep on believing what you want to think about the school, and ignore the reality. How many Potomac Gardens kids are in SI?
Anonymous
Post 11/20/2012 13:00     Subject: Re:Where's the list Kaya?
Anonymous wrote:Tyler still has only a quarter of its students testing on grade level. Big problems.


Tyler SI has only been in place since 05/06 SY and even that started with PS3. Tyler SI kids have barely even reached the testing grades, not that the standarized tests given to upper ES schools really tell anything about a school, especially for the lower grades.

Anonymous wrote:Or, it changes in the way the culture of the school 'changed' at Tyler ES in Cap Hill. Spanish Immersion was rolled in for the white kids and the rest of the students were left out.


The rest of the IB kids get priority to enroll in SI. If they choose the regular program over the SI how are they being "excluded"?