Many of the teachers don't speak very good Spanish. I've spotted many errors in work brought home and I often hear that they just lapse into English or "Spanglish" to explain difficult concepts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't understand the incessant criticism of the Alexandria City public system.

We enrolled our child at two very well-known, and I think highly-regarded, private schools. We experienced invasive parents, truly weak academics, and Lord Of The Flies behavior even among the younger kids. We found private school heads to be behaviorally similar to legal recruiters.

We yanked our daughter out, in disgust, and sent her to an ACPS school (Charles Barrett) starting in third grade. It has been more wonderful than I imagined any school could be, especially once her very patient third grade teacher got her up to speed in math after very weak prior instruction. We know several private-school refugees in the ACPS system. We've toured GW, we know many GW parents and kids, and we've been to TC repeatedly. We know many recent grads, all of who have done genuinely well. The ACPS that has been described in these messages is completely unknown to us.

We've heard only a few real ACPS horror stories, and they were molehills compared to what we've directly observed at private schools. And the vast majority of the area private schools basically do not accommodate more academically advanced students.

This says more about the poor quality of the privates in Alexandria than it does about ACPS, although I have def. heard good things about Barrett (which is the overflow school for Tucker and other schools that are getting too crowded now).

The issue in ACPS really isn't the elementaries anyway. It's the middle schools.

The most popular privates (SSSA, Alexandria Country Day, Burgundy Farms, Browne, Ireton, Blessed Sac, Grace Episcopal, etc.) generally are a notch or three below the quality of comparable privates in the DC area.

what evidence do you have to support this statement?

Purely anecdotal and based on perceptions. SSSA and Country Day aren't particularly selective. Burgundy Farms has a great experiential philosophy but is perceived to be academically week. The Catholics aren't particularly stellar. They're just fine, but nothing to write home about the way the more elite schools in this area are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to elaborate on why I think dual immersion is a joke in Alexandria. Many of the teachers don't speak very good Spanish. I've spotted many errors in work brought home and I often hear that they just lapse into English or "Spanglish" to explain difficult concepts. Also, most children are lost and not comprehending by the time they get to 3rd or 4th grade, so they are learning neither the language or the subject matter. This seems to be lost on the schools, because the kids are still (barely) passing in the subject matter--they don't seem to think that dropping from an A student to a C student is worth investigating. So, these kids go on to middle school significantly behind their monolingual peers. And finally, where do they go with the dual immersion concept after elementary? Nowhere.

Obviously with bilingual or linguistically interested parents, the result can be different, but such children are clearly a very small minority within the program.

You're shortsighted and exaggerating. According to information found though links on ACPS site http://www.cal.org/twi/toolkit/PI/P_QA/parent_a2.htm, research indicates that by middle school native/non-native English speakers in two way immersion "scored at or well above grade level in both languages by middle school; and both groups performed at comparable or superior levels compared to same-language peers in other educational settings. On norm-referenced standardized tests of reading and math achievement in English, native English speakers outscored their English-only peers in English-only classrooms. English language learners who had learned English in a TWI program scored significantly higher than their English language learning peers who had studies in other kinds of programs in the state and also performed on a par with native English speaking students in English-only classrooms (Lindholm-Leary, 2005; Lindholm-Leary & Borsato, in press)."

If you're focused only on what your child can do in 3rd or 4th grade, immersion isn't for you. I also wasn't aware ACPS no longer provided foreign language instruction after 5th grade. When did that happen? But, if you think sending your kid to Spanish school on Saturdays rather than participating in an immersion classroom, good luck to you. That works better for all of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't understand the incessant criticism of the Alexandria City public system.

We enrolled our child at two very well-known, and I think highly-regarded, private schools. We experienced invasive parents, truly weak academics, and Lord Of The Flies behavior even among the younger kids. We found private school heads to be behaviorally similar to legal recruiters.

We yanked our daughter out, in disgust, and sent her to an ACPS school (Charles Barrett) starting in third grade. It has been more wonderful than I imagined any school could be, especially once her very patient third grade teacher got her up to speed in math after very weak prior instruction. We know several private-school refugees in the ACPS system. We've toured GW, we know many GW parents and kids, and we've been to TC repeatedly. We know many recent grads, all of who have done genuinely well. The ACPS that has been described in these messages is completely unknown to us.

We've heard only a few real ACPS horror stories, and they were molehills compared to what we've directly observed at private schools. And the vast majority of the area private schools basically do not accommodate more academically advanced students.

This says more about the poor quality of the privates in Alexandria than it does about ACPS, although I have def. heard good things about Barrett (which is the overflow school for Tucker and other schools that are getting too crowded now).

The issue in ACPS really isn't the elementaries anyway. It's the middle schools.

The most popular privates (SSSA, Alexandria Country Day, Burgundy Farms, Browne, Ireton, Blessed Sac, Grace Episcopal, etc.) generally are a notch or three below the quality of comparable privates in the DC area.

what evidence do you have to support this statement?

Anonymous wrote:Just to elaborate on why I think dual immersion is a joke in Alexandria. Many of the teachers don't speak very good Spanish. I've spotted many errors in work brought home and I often hear that they just lapse into English or "Spanglish" to explain difficult concepts. Also, most children are lost and not comprehending by the time they get to 3rd or 4th grade, so they are learning neither the language or the subject matter. This seems to be lost on the schools, because the kids are still (barely) passing in the subject matter--they don't seem to think that dropping from an A student to a C student is worth investigating. So, these kids go on to middle school significantly behind their monolingual peers. And finally, where do they go with the dual immersion concept after elementary? Nowhere.

Obviously with bilingual or linguistically interested parents, the result can be different, but such children are clearly a very small minority within the program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't understand the incessant criticism of the Alexandria City public system.

We enrolled our child at two very well-known, and I think highly-regarded, private schools. We experienced invasive parents, truly weak academics, and Lord Of The Flies behavior even among the younger kids. We found private school heads to be behaviorally similar to legal recruiters.

We yanked our daughter out, in disgust, and sent her to an ACPS school (Charles Barrett) starting in third grade. It has been more wonderful than I imagined any school could be, especially once her very patient third grade teacher got her up to speed in math after very weak prior instruction. We know several private-school refugees in the ACPS system. We've toured GW, we know many GW parents and kids, and we've been to TC repeatedly. We know many recent grads, all of who have done genuinely well. The ACPS that has been described in these messages is completely unknown to us.

We've heard only a few real ACPS horror stories, and they were molehills compared to what we've directly observed at private schools. And the vast majority of the area private schools basically do not accommodate more academically advanced students.

This says more about the poor quality of the privates in Alexandria than it does about ACPS, although I have def. heard good things about Barrett (which is the overflow school for Tucker and other schools that are getting too crowded now).

The issue in ACPS really isn't the elementaries anyway. It's the middle schools.

The most popular privates (SSSA, Alexandria Country Day, Burgundy Farms, Browne, Ireton, Blessed Sac, Grace Episcopal, etc.) generally are a notch or three below the quality of comparable privates in the DC area.

Anonymous wrote:I really don't understand the incessant criticism of the Alexandria City public system.

We enrolled our child at two very well-known, and I think highly-regarded, private schools. We experienced invasive parents, truly weak academics, and Lord Of The Flies behavior even among the younger kids. We found private school heads to be behaviorally similar to legal recruiters.

We yanked our daughter out, in disgust, and sent her to an ACPS school (Charles Barrett) starting in third grade. It has been more wonderful than I imagined any school could be, especially once her very patient third grade teacher got her up to speed in math after very weak prior instruction. We know several private-school refugees in the ACPS system. We've toured GW, we know many GW parents and kids, and we've been to TC repeatedly. We know many recent grads, all of who have done genuinely well. The ACPS that has been described in these messages is completely unknown to us.

We've heard only a few real ACPS horror stories, and they were molehills compared to what we've directly observed at private schools. And the vast majority of the area private schools basically do not accommodate more academically advanced students.

Anonymous wrote:I really don't understand the incessant criticism of the Alexandria City public system.

We enrolled our child at two very well-known, and I think highly-regarded, private schools. We experienced invasive parents, truly weak academics, and Lord Of The Flies behavior even among the younger kids. We found private school heads to be behaviorally similar to legal recruiters.

We yanked our daughter out, in disgust, and sent her to an ACPS school (Charles Barrett) starting in third grade. It has been more wonderful than I imagined any school could be, especially once her very patient third grade teacher got her up to speed in math after very weak prior instruction. We know several private-school refugees in the ACPS system. We've toured GW, we know many GW parents and kids, and we've been to TC repeatedly. We know many recent grads, all of who have done genuinely well. The ACPS that has been described in these messages is completely unknown to us.

We've heard only a few real ACPS horror stories, and they were molehills compared to what we've directly observed at private schools. And the vast majority of the area private schools basically do not accommodate more academically advanced students.

Which private schools did your DC attend?

The dual immersion program is a joke! My husband and I do speak Spanish and laugh about the program. It is absolutely not the way to learn Spanish!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? The dual immersion program is a joke! My husband and I do speak Spanish and laugh about the program. It is absolutely not the way to learn Spanish! Better to put your kid in one of the better ACPS schools, Saturday school for Spanish, or move to a district that is serious about language learning.

And to respond to the orignial question--what you, OP see as positives, I see as negatives, which is why our house is on the market and we will be moving very soon.

So, because you and your DH speak Spanish, you feel qualified to offer an opinion on dual immersion? Guess what? My DH is a native Spanish speaker, I'm multi-lingual and we think dual immersion is a great way to learn Spanish - our three kids are in the program. The best thing is that we don't have to waste our Saturdays on Spanish school. I'm glad I don't have to worry about my kids being in class with yours.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? The dual immersion program is a joke! My husband and I do speak Spanish and laugh about the program. It is absolutely not the way to learn Spanish! Better to put your kid in one of the better ACPS schools, Saturday school for Spanish, or move to a district that is serious about language learning.

And to respond to the orignial question--what you, OP see as positives, I see as negatives, which is why our house is on the market and we will be moving very soon.