Anonymous wrote:I posted earlier- had two kids go through DKFI. One tested into French 2 for 9th grade (private HS), the other into AP French (ERHS). Both had other DKFI students in their classes. I had always heard that immersion students become fluent speakers, but their reading and writing skills are not necessarily as advanced, which is why they don't always test at the highest level on placement tests. Not sure how true it is.

That was my experience teaching some graduates from DKFI. Great speakers but the grammar wasn't as good as I'd expected it to be. However it was impressive to me that they could get such fluency in 9 years of immersion and also a pretty great work ethic. All were very brilliant students and have ended up in Georgetown for one, the USNA for another and one who didn't end up going to our school got a full ride boarding at a northeast private school. If they test into AP for high school then that's honestly pretty great. They definitely wouldn't get better in a private or public regular middle school language class. And the cultural element they brought too was very good. You could tell the teachers and school had made a point to teach them about various francophone countries. They spoke highly of the school. This was a few years ago. Hopefully it's still as good as they made it sound !

Anonymous wrote:For awareness, unless things have changed, those kids do not get any high school credit for their language immersion in middle school. So, unless they do two years of a third language in middle school, they will need to complete 2 years of language in high school. Not a huge deal for some kids but if they are going into a specialty program like Science and Tech or VPA there isn't much room in the schedule for electives.
I think if they are in IB, the requirement is 4 years.

My kid from DKFI got high school credit for two years of French and two years of Russian. Some of his classmates chose not to take any foreign language in HS, since they already met the graduation requirement.

For awareness, unless things have changed, those kids do not get any high school credit for their language immersion in middle school. So, unless they do two years of a third language in middle school, they will need to complete 2 years of language in high school. Not a huge deal for some kids but if they are going into a specialty program like Science and Tech or VPA there isn't much room in the schedule for electives.
I think if they are in IB, the requirement is 4 years.

I posted earlier- had two kids go through DKFI. One tested into French 2 for 9th grade (private HS), the other into AP French (ERHS). Both had other DKFI students in their classes. I had always heard that immersion students become fluent speakers, but their reading and writing skills are not necessarily as advanced, which is why they don't always test at the highest level on placement tests. Not sure how true it is.

I think that could be because high schools aren't in the habit of putting 9th graders with juniors and seniors, so even if their level is higher than French 2 ( which it would be for most because they do the European framework tests earlier on and to test into DKFI, a child needs to be able to pass A2 for example for 5th grade. So by the time they get to middle school they are probably able to work towards B1 even though they might still be at A2 when they finish because B1 is already quite difficult. In any case, I don't think high schools would put them ahead by 3 years, though I know some like college park academy give the option of doing online courses at their level for languages.