warrenox wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, no chance. I'm a native Chinese speaker who's watched Yu Ying closely for years, so I know that they're still struggling on many levels. They can't do dual/two-way immersion in this city, and many of their teachers (both from China and the US) aren't very experienced. Few in the YY community want to hear it, but many of the students only speak and understand a little Chinese after years in the program. I can't imagine Miner doing a good job with Mandarin, not when the poor Tyler Spanish Immersion parents can't even get DCPS to set up a verticially integrated MS program. The outlays for Mandarin at Miner could be considerable, and the enthusiasm great, without much in the way of results. But the odd Miner kid with home Chinese inputs would still do fine. We're leaning toward MoCo in search of greener pastures.

Reading your anonymous posting here, I'll take it that you didn't read anything above what you simply wrote.

Cliff note version: Immersion has great benefits that have nothing to do with whether you become fluent in a language.

You might read a thread before you post. Some people have already posted that a child at YY isn't going to be fluent unless there is a commitment at home as well. Moving to MoCo isn't what most people are looking to do when they are talking in the DC School Forum.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, no chance. I'm a native Chinese speaker who's watched Yu Ying closely for years, so I know that they're still struggling on many levels. They can't do dual/two-way immersion in this city, and many of their teachers (both from China and the US) aren't very experienced. Few in the YY community want to hear it, but many of the students only speak and understand a little Chinese after years in the program. I can't imagine Miner doing a good job with Mandarin, not when the poor Tyler Spanish Immersion parents can't even get DCPS to set up a verticially integrated MS program. The outlays for Mandarin at Miner could be considerable, and the enthusiasm great, without much in the way of results. But the odd Miner kid with home Chinese inputs would still do fine. We're leaning toward MoCo in search of greener pastures.

Anonymous wrote:

warrenox wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minor is a bridge too far for us, way too far. How many high SES/white kids in K this past year - 2? How many in 1st-5th, zero? What percentage of the catchment area is high SES/white now - 60%? Simply put, the arrangement is criminal. DCPS could easily give the gentrifiers a fighting chance of using the school, or Payne. Mandarin immersion won't do the job, folks. Nice try.

Could you please quote statistics instead of guessing? I'm interested in debating and working out solutions, but we have to have a honest dialogue.

Did you see my post above where 30 parents of children inbound to Miner met about how to help Miner change into the neighborhood school we would all like to see? What brought this about? Conversations about immersion for Miner. There isn't a program there yet, but just talking about a immersion program has spurred some people into becoming engaged.

What will do the job for you?

One can't come by official public school grade-by-grade demographic stats in this city because neither DCPS nor DCPC collects them. But you can always talk to parents with children in the school, and visit to peer into classroom windows. On my last visit to Miner, at a spring open house, I saw 2 white kids in one K class, and none in the other, or in any elementary class I got a look at. Does anybody have a different, more accurate head count to offer up?

DC could house a test-in GT ES program at Miner to help the school serve its catchment area, but won't so much as consider doing so.

If a Miner Mandarin program offered a Chinese dominant lottery, with speakers of dialects other than Mandarin (Cantonese, Hakka, Fujian) etc. eligible to enter it, at least the program would offer something Yu Ying doesn't, a path to dual/two-way immersion. Even with two lotteries, I'm not optimistic that parents would rush in, particularly Chinese speakers. As I said, a bridge too far for the great majority of gentrifiers living in the Miner District. I'd wager this will be the case for a decade or more. Good luck.

warrenox wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minor is a bridge too far for us, way too far. How many high SES/white kids in K this past year - 2? How many in 1st-5th, zero? What percentage of the catchment area is high SES/white now - 60%? Simply put, the arrangement is criminal. DCPS could easily give the gentrifiers a fighting chance of using the school, or Payne. Mandarin immersion won't do the job, folks. Nice try.

Could you please quote statistics instead of guessing? I'm interested in debating and working out solutions, but we have to have a honest dialogue.

Did you see my post above where 30 parents of children inbound to Miner met about how to help Miner change into the neighborhood school we would all like to see? What brought this about? Conversations about immersion for Miner. There isn't a program there yet, but just talking about a immersion program has spurred some people into becoming engaged.

What will do the job for you?

Anonymous wrote:Minor is a bridge too far for us, way too far. How many high SES/white kids in K this past year - 2? How many in 1st-5th, zero? What percentage of the catchment area is high SES/white now - 60%? Simply put, the arrangement is criminal. DCPS could easily give the gentrifiers a fighting chance of using the school, or Payne. Mandarin immersion won't do the job, folks. Nice try.