Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, MV8 is on the list for first, second, and third grade. Guess everyone who wanted to go got in by kindergarten, and it's not appealing enough for families to trade up later.

Honestly starting immersion that late isn't a good idea.

This is my favorite local DC take, as though no one has ever learned a language starting later than kindergarten. I used to help run a graduate level language immersion program that was successful, even for monolingual students.

That’s great, and graduate students are independent and motivated. Many parents don’t want to put in the extra work helping kids catch up on Spanish.

Or, parents do want their kids to learn the language but the school fails in getting the kids the right kind of help, and ultimately the experience for all students is diluted when kids enter late.

At least my kids get plenty of experience translating for their new classmates, and that's a skill, right?

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that it's hard to get into Stuart Hobson but there's no wait list for 5th grade at JO Wilson and only one on the wl at Watkins.

SH didn't admit anyone off the lottery on day 1. My guess is that SH is having a bit of a challenge figuring out what the IB enrollment situation will look like so they are being safe by not opening up any seats in the lottery and waiting until closer to school starting. Anecdotally there are definitely some kids enrolling at SH from Basis and other schools when those kids decide they want a more traditional MS environment. I think there are also some kids at TR 4th who have recently been heading to SH as well. That doesn't seem an unreasonable approach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, MV8 is on the list for first, second, and third grade. Guess everyone who wanted to go got in by kindergarten, and it's not appealing enough for families to trade up later.

Honestly starting immersion that late isn't a good idea.

This is my favorite local DC take, as though no one has ever learned a language starting later than kindergarten. I used to help run a graduate level language immersion program that was successful, even for monolingual students.

That’s great, and graduate students are independent and motivated. Many parents don’t want to put in the extra work helping kids catch up on Spanish.

Anonymous wrote:I’m confused why is this list considered a bad thing for the schools on it?

It is not.

Interesting that it's hard to get into Stuart Hobson but there's no wait list for 5th grade at JO Wilson and only one on the wl at Watkins.

Anonymous wrote:I’m confused why is this list considered a bad thing for the schools on it?

Because it can indicate low demand, especially if it's a school that has historically high demand. But there are a lot of factors that go into whether schools have short waitlists. If a school has a long waitlist for a particular grade and reacts by hiring an additional teacher and making offers to fill the class, that's not a bad thing.

I’m confused why is this list considered a bad thing for the schools on it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, MV8 is on the list for first, second, and third grade. Guess everyone who wanted to go got in by kindergarten, and it's not appealing enough for families to trade up later.

Honestly starting immersion that late isn't a good idea.

This is my favorite local DC take, as though no one has ever learned a language starting later than kindergarten. I used to help run a graduate level language immersion program that was successful, even for monolingual students.

That response is how parents rationalize the immersion school they've been telling their friends and families about when they realize that the non-language academics at their immersion school are sub-par and their upper ES kids aren't actually bilingual. To admit that a kid could enter an immersion program after ECE and be fine would shatter the mythology.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, MV8 is on the list for first, second, and third grade. Guess everyone who wanted to go got in by kindergarten, and it's not appealing enough for families to trade up later.

Honestly starting immersion that late isn't a good idea.

This is my favorite local DC take, as though no one has ever learned a language starting later than kindergarten. I used to help run a graduate level language immersion program that was successful, even for monolingual students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, MV8 is on the list for first, second, and third grade. Guess everyone who wanted to go got in by kindergarten, and it's not appealing enough for families to trade up later.

Honestly starting immersion that late isn't a good idea.

Students coming in to the school aren't necessarily having immersion for the first time. They may have come from any of the many Spanish schools in the area, or speak Spanish full-time at home, or-- get this-- have recently moved here from a Spanish-speaking country.

This, plus kids in the immersion DCPS that don’t have an acceptable feeder would try to lottery into DCI feeders. The MV situation is a combination of over expanding, issues with the school, and lack of DCI guarantee. We had kids switch to our “less desirable” immersion DCPS from MV this year. Also have kids leave for schools with a better feeder pathway every year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, MV8 is on the list for first, second, and third grade. Guess everyone who wanted to go got in by kindergarten, and it's not appealing enough for families to trade up later.

Honestly starting immersion that late isn't a good idea.

Students coming in to the school aren't necessarily having immersion for the first time. They may have come from any of the many Spanish schools in the area, or speak Spanish full-time at home, or-- get this-- have recently moved here from a Spanish-speaking country.