Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, there are always details that make every single school different from every other. But my understanding of BCC is that it is *quite* different. Biggest difference of all: BCC is not a "language-focused school", in that advanced language courses are offered but not required. Is every feeder school to BCC an immersion school? My understanding is no.

I'm sure BCC is an excellent school, and there is no such thing as "too many" great models of education. But you either don't understand or know the details of DCI's foci and model, or it's overly important to you not to give the innovative model the credit it deserves for being unique. And it IS unique, in several ways.

Whether DCI delivers on its great vision or not clearly remains to be seen. But it's very inaccurate to propose that the differences in structure and foci between DCI and BCC are somehow trivial.

Which is why I compared DCI to WIS and SSIMS, not to Westland. BCC and DCI are also very different in that BCC is a high school, and at this point DCI is a middle school.

One of the biggest problems I see with charters in DC is that they aren't willing to look to and learn from schools outside of the narrow sphere of charters to learn from. I work for a charter, I've sent my kids to charter, and it drives me around the twist when charters seek to "reinvent" something that someone else is already doing, as opposed to learning from other people's expertise.

What DCI is trying to do is wonderful. I hope they succeed. But if they're attitude is that they're the only school of their type, as opposed to connecting to and learning from other schools that are also IB, or multilingual, or blend multiple charters, then they'll have a much harder time becoming successful.

I have 2 questions after reading your post:

1) What exactly is it that you think DCI needs to learn and from which other schools? My understanding is that the main founders have spent immense amounts if time studying all sorts of schools. What specifically do you think DCI needs to learn and from which other schools?

2) what do you think DCI is "reinventing" unnecessarily? You say it makes you crazy, but you give absolutely no examples of specific things they're doing that is repetitive or unnecessary.

I understand your general sentiments, but please explain how they apply to DCI since you've posted them here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, there are always details that make every single school different from every other. But my understanding of BCC is that it is *quite* different. Biggest difference of all: BCC is not a "language-focused school", in that advanced language courses are offered but not required. Is every feeder school to BCC an immersion school? My understanding is no.

I'm sure BCC is an excellent school, and there is no such thing as "too many" great models of education. But you either don't understand or know the details of DCI's foci and model, or it's overly important to you not to give the innovative model the credit it deserves for being unique. And it IS unique, in several ways.

Whether DCI delivers on its great vision or not clearly remains to be seen. But it's very inaccurate to propose that the differences in structure and foci between DCI and BCC are somehow trivial.

But, it sounds like BCC has the advantage of excellent course offerings across the board, as opposed to a hyper-focus on language. Just pointing that out. Sounds like you could graduate from BCC with 2 foreign languages, an IB diploma, and still play competitive sports or take challenging math or science classes. The rest remains to be seen with DCI, but I bet it will be a great option no matter how it directly compares to a school like BCC.

I agree, that's why I said there's no such thing as "too many" great models. But the PPs point was to act as if there are only minimal differences between the 2, which is wrong. No one is trying to say one is better than the other, just straightening out the comments trying to dismiss DCIs concept as "common" or "the same". Hopefully if DCI works, there will be similar schools opening up.

Anonymous wrote:There is a real difference between being truly trilingual and having taken courses in a 3rd language for middle school /high school. I took a second language from middle through high school and would never call myself fluent in the language.

It's still a great concept but let's be realistic. The kids will be bilingual with proficiency in a 3rd language. That is not trilingual.

Please quote the person in this thread who mentioned "trilingual"? It wasn't me, and I don't see the word in anyone else's quote but yours. You're making a distinction in response to....who exactly?

Anonymous wrote:Sure, there are always details that make every single school different from every other. But my understanding of BCC is that it is *quite* different. Biggest difference of all: BCC is not a "language-focused school", in that advanced language courses are offered but not required. Is every feeder school to BCC an immersion school? My understanding is no.

I'm sure BCC is an excellent school, and there is no such thing as "too many" great models of education. But you either don't understand or know the details of DCI's foci and model, or it's overly important to you not to give the innovative model the credit it deserves for being unique. And it IS unique, in several ways.

Whether DCI delivers on its great vision or not clearly remains to be seen. But it's very inaccurate to propose that the differences in structure and foci between DCI and BCC are somehow trivial.

Which is why I compared DCI to WIS and SSIMS, not to Westland. BCC and DCI are also very different in that BCC is a high school, and at this point DCI is a middle school.

One of the biggest problems I see with charters in DC is that they aren't willing to look to and learn from schools outside of the narrow sphere of charters to learn from. I work for a charter, I've sent my kids to charter, and it drives me around the twist when charters seek to "reinvent" something that someone else is already doing, as opposed to learning from other people's expertise.

What DCI is trying to do is wonderful. I hope they succeed. But if they're attitude is that they're the only school of their type, as opposed to connecting to and learning from other schools that are also IB, or multilingual, or blend multiple charters, then they'll have a much harder time becoming successful.

Anonymous wrote:I think it just remains to be seen whether DCI can deliver.

Can they teach stellar math and science at the high school level or will all the resources be devoted to languages? This liberal arts focus may be what some want, but it seems to be trying to promise all things to all people.

I do hope it works out though!

DCI is a language focused school since all its feeders are all immersion language schools where all the kids have been taught 50% of the time in the target language since K, all subjects. Some people seem to think the immersion schools offer language classes when the model is that everyone is taught the entire curriculum in both English and either Spanish, French or Mandarin.

Saying that it is not a STEM focused school and then saying that DCI "promise all things to all people" does not make any sense.

Anonymous wrote:Sure, there are always details that make every single school different from every other. But my understanding of BCC is that it is *quite* different. Biggest difference of all: BCC is not a "language-focused school", in that advanced language courses are offered but not required. Is every feeder school to BCC an immersion school? My understanding is no.

I'm sure BCC is an excellent school, and there is no such thing as "too many" great models of education. But you either don't understand or know the details of DCI's foci and model, or it's overly important to you not to give the innovative model the credit it deserves for being unique. And it IS unique, in several ways.

Whether DCI delivers on its great vision or not clearly remains to be seen. But it's very inaccurate to propose that the differences in structure and foci between DCI and BCC are somehow trivial.

But, it sounds like BCC has the advantage of excellent course offerings across the board, as opposed to a hyper-focus on language. Just pointing that out. Sounds like you could graduate from BCC with 2 foreign languages, an IB diploma, and still play competitive sports or take challenging math or science classes. The rest remains to be seen with DCI, but I bet it will be a great option no matter how it directly compares to a school like BCC.

There is a real difference between being truly trilingual and having taken courses in a 3rd language for middle school /high school. I took a second language from middle through high school and would never call myself fluent in the language.

It's still a great concept but let's be realistic. The kids will be bilingual with proficiency in a 3rd language. That is not trilingual.

Sure, there are always details that make every single school different from every other. But my understanding of BCC is that it is *quite* different. Biggest difference of all: BCC is not a "language-focused school", in that advanced language courses are offered but not required. Is every feeder school to BCC an immersion school? My understanding is no.

I'm sure BCC is an excellent school, and there is no such thing as "too many" great models of education. But you either don't understand or know the details of DCI's foci and model, or it's overly important to you not to give the innovative model the credit it deserves for being unique. And it IS unique, in several ways.

Whether DCI delivers on its great vision or not clearly remains to be seen. But it's very inaccurate to propose that the differences in structure and foci between DCI and BCC are somehow trivial.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Future DCI parent here! If the haters are coming out the school must be good! So excited for it and the kids! See you soon when my kid starts. He's in a Spanish immersion feeder now, but is fluent in French, so I'm hoping he can take some courses in French to get a context away from home. No where else in the country would this be even a remote possibility.

Silver Spring International, and Washington International are both schools that have both French and Spanish immersions options at the middle school level, and are in this metro area. I'm sure there are many such schools around the country.

I think DCI is a great thing, and I hope it succeeds but it's not that rare of a model.

I didn't realize they combined five other charter schools.

NP, I also didn't realize those other 2 schools expect every student who goes K-12 to graduate fluent in 2 languages (English and first immersion language) PLUS proficient in a 3rd language.

It's true, there is a lot of hype around DCI that may be a bit over-excited, but PP saying "it's not that rare a model", please enlighten us where 5 bilingual charters representing 3 immersion languages collaborated to form an IB, language and "world citizen"-focused middle and high school where K-12 kids are expected to learn 3 languages? If it's not rare, name even 2 (even 1!) other similar models in the US.

The PP said that what was unique was a middle school where a child who had done immersion classes in Spanish might have the possibility of taking high level classes in French. I named two other schools, that offer Spanish immersion, and French immersion and the opportunity to take a third language. At least one of them (WIS) is IB, and requires the third language for kids who enter middle school proficient from their elementary school.

If you are going to say that your idea of a "unique model" is one that's exactly the same, then we could say that about every school. Nitpicking that it has to be 5, not 4 or 6 charter programs, not public school programs, that feed into the school to be comparable is absurd.

My kid attends BCC, an IB school to which students from Spanish Immersion feed (via Rock Creek Forest/Westland). Kids at BCC who came from Spanish Immersion can absolutely graduate with an IB diploma, fluent in Spanish and English and having studied a third language to the IB HL level (Chinese or French, they also offer Arabic at SL). I didn't mention it, because they don't have a French immersion program that feeds into it.

I think it just remains to be seen whether DCI can deliver.

Can they teach stellar math and science at the high school level or will all the resources be devoted to languages? This liberal arts focus may be what some want, but it seems to be trying to promise all things to all people.

I do hope it works out though!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Future DCI parent here! If the haters are coming out the school must be good! So excited for it and the kids! See you soon when my kid starts. He's in a Spanish immersion feeder now, but is fluent in French, so I'm hoping he can take some courses in French to get a context away from home. No where else in the country would this be even a remote possibility.

Silver Spring International, and Washington International are both schools that have both French and Spanish immersions options at the middle school level, and are in this metro area. I'm sure there are many such schools around the country.

I think DCI is a great thing, and I hope it succeeds but it's not that rare of a model.

I didn't realize they combined five other charter schools.

NP, I also didn't realize those other 2 schools expect every student who goes K-12 to graduate fluent in 2 languages (English and first immersion language) PLUS proficient in a 3rd language.

It's true, there is a lot of hype around DCI that may be a bit over-excited, but PP saying "it's not that rare a model", please enlighten us where 5 bilingual charters representing 3 immersion languages collaborated to form an IB, language and "world citizen"-focused middle and high school where K-12 kids are expected to learn 3 languages? If it's not rare, name even 2 (even 1!) other similar models in the US.

Entry year at all the feeders are pK3/pk4 so it's a preschool - high school IB program. And it's public and free and open to everyone in DC through the lottery. Love to hear if there are other schools even remotely close.

If there are, it's doubtful they include French, Spanish, and Chinese. The multi-lingual (including non-Western languages) nature of the school is innovative.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Future DCI parent here! If the haters are coming out the school must be good! So excited for it and the kids! See you soon when my kid starts. He's in a Spanish immersion feeder now, but is fluent in French, so I'm hoping he can take some courses in French to get a context away from home. No where else in the country would this be even a remote possibility.

Silver Spring International, and Washington International are both schools that have both French and Spanish immersions options at the middle school level, and are in this metro area. I'm sure there are many such schools around the country.

I think DCI is a great thing, and I hope it succeeds but it's not that rare of a model.

I didn't realize they combined five other charter schools.

NP, I also didn't realize those other 2 schools expect every student who goes K-12 to graduate fluent in 2 languages (English and first immersion language) PLUS proficient in a 3rd language.

It's true, there is a lot of hype around DCI that may be a bit over-excited, but PP saying "it's not that rare a model", please enlighten us where 5 bilingual charters representing 3 immersion languages collaborated to form an IB, language and "world citizen"-focused middle and high school where K-12 kids are expected to learn 3 languages? If it's not rare, name even 2 (even 1!) other similar models in the US.

Entry year at all the feeders are pK3/pk4 so it's a preschool - high school IB program. And it's public and free and open to everyone in DC through the lottery. Love to hear if there are other schools even remotely close.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Future DCI parent here! If the haters are coming out the school must be good! So excited for it and the kids! See you soon when my kid starts. He's in a Spanish immersion feeder now, but is fluent in French, so I'm hoping he can take some courses in French to get a context away from home. No where else in the country would this be even a remote possibility.

Silver Spring International, and Washington International are both schools that have both French and Spanish immersions options at the middle school level, and are in this metro area. I'm sure there are many such schools around the country.

I think DCI is a great thing, and I hope it succeeds but it's not that rare of a model.

Isn't WIS an exclusive private school? And Silver Spring International is a bilingual middle school? And both are French/Spanish?

That's nice, but it's not exactly in the same league as a trilingual program which includes the full HS IB Programme with the IB Diploma.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Future DCI parent here! If the haters are coming out the school must be good! So excited for it and the kids! See you soon when my kid starts. He's in a Spanish immersion feeder now, but is fluent in French, so I'm hoping he can take some courses in French to get a context away from home. No where else in the country would this be even a remote possibility.

Silver Spring International, and Washington International are both schools that have both French and Spanish immersions options at the middle school level, and are in this metro area. I'm sure there are many such schools around the country.

I think DCI is a great thing, and I hope it succeeds but it's not that rare of a model.

I didn't realize they combined five other charter schools.

NP, I also didn't realize those other 2 schools expect every student who goes K-12 to graduate fluent in 2 languages (English and first immersion language) PLUS proficient in a 3rd language.

It's true, there is a lot of hype around DCI that may be a bit over-excited, but PP saying "it's not that rare a model", please enlighten us where 5 bilingual charters representing 3 immersion languages collaborated to form an IB, language and "world citizen"-focused middle and high school where K-12 kids are expected to learn 3 languages? If it's not rare, name even 2 (even 1!) other similar models in the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Future DCI parent here! If the haters are coming out the school must be good! So excited for it and the kids! See you soon when my kid starts. He's in a Spanish immersion feeder now, but is fluent in French, so I'm hoping he can take some courses in French to get a context away from home. No where else in the country would this be even a remote possibility.

Silver Spring International, and Washington International are both schools that have both French and Spanish immersions options at the middle school level, and are in this metro area. I'm sure there are many such schools around the country.

I think DCI is a great thing, and I hope it succeeds but it's not that rare of a model.

I didn't realize they combined five other charter schools.