Anonymous
10/29/2021 17:36
Subject: APS Immersion Boundaries
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I can not believe they are making a North/South split. We are a Claremont family and I do not think that is a good idea long term.
I think what they are going to do eventually is send the East side of the country (Rosslyn area) to Claremont. But since they can't do that right now, since that was the OLD Key zone, they are making this egregious decision to split the county at Rt 50. No one thinks that's a good idea.
No reason they couldn't do it now. They would be grandfathering everyone in at their current schools anyway and starting the new boundaries for rising kindergartners, yes?
The fact of the matter is, staff can't figure out such a complex issue; so they're taking the simple north/south geographical solution.
20 percent of the current key population is zoned to innovation. It would be a major disruption to move them.
Last year 15/21 innovation Spanish speakers applied to Key for K/1 compared to 8/125 at Carlin Springs and 3/72 at Barcroft (both for Claremont).
I would assume swapping those schools zoned would result in a net decrease of Spanish speakers applying.
Anonymous
10/29/2021 17:31
Subject: Re:APS Immersion Boundaries
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Yayyyy! This is the right set of recommendations for right now, IMO.
Wow, so looking at the data table, they just made Claremont a Title 1 school and Key will now be under 20% fr/l. Also, look at the imbalance of white kids now assigned to Key over Claremont and the imbalance of native Spanish speakers. How can they adopt this policy and talk about “equity.” Who was on this committee? JFC
There are white upperclass English-native speaking moms who have been pushing for a shift from the 50/50 instruction model - which solely caters to their interests to increase access to immersion and to make boundary shifts like this that are north/south instead of them having to go "all the way down to Claremont or Gunston" - next will be the push to move high school immersion out of Wakefield and make the 600 seats at the ed center opening next year a "world languages" program and house the immersion program.
The boundary process is part of a complete review of the immersion program. They are sticking with the 50/50 model so I guess those white moms will be upset.
They are planning to change the instruction mode such that K is 80 percent in Spanish as opposed to 50 percent now.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Community-DLI-Task-Force-Updates-Oct-26-FINAL.pdf
I guess they won't be so upset after all. It's the new enrollees that matter - you can't start immersion mid-way through elementary school without demonstrating sufficient proficiency in Spanish. A gradual shift in the instructional model is the only way to do it. So your comment about the 50/50 model seems a bit contradictory to what you're saying regarding their new policy. This only supports PP's contention about the instructional focus.
To be clear the 50/50 model means 50 percent native speakers. That is not changing (and why all the whining about north/south makes no sense - there are fewer Spanish speakers in the north but they go to key in much higher numbers, which is why Key is higher FRL than Claremont).
They also happen to do 50 percent instruction in Spanish. That will change to 80 percent for K at some point
Anonymous
10/29/2021 17:07
Subject: APS Immersion Boundaries
Anonymous wrote:I can not believe they are making a North/South split. We are a Claremont family and I do not think that is a good idea long term.
I think what they are going to do eventually is send the East side of the country (Rosslyn area) to Claremont. But since they can't do that right now, since that was the OLD Key zone, they are making this egregious decision to split the county at Rt 50. No one thinks that's a good idea.
No reason they couldn't do it now. They would be grandfathering everyone in at their current schools anyway and starting the new boundaries for rising kindergartners, yes?
The fact of the matter is, staff can't figure out such a complex issue; so they're taking the simple north/south geographical solution.