Anonymous wrote:I'm an IB Oyster parent, and I think that it's great that we no longer have Deal as an option. It forces Oyster's admins. and parents to improve whatever needs to be improved in the middle school. If some IB families don't find that appealing, they should move to a Deal feeder or private. Or better yet, don't move IB for Oyster at all.

Adams has been a fundamentally lazy place. My fear is that nothing will be improved to better serve advanced students, since Adams has lost its main public competitor. If more strong students stay rather than move on to privates, there will be some automatic benefit. But we'd need to see a willingness on Adams' part to offer an appropriate pace of instruction in all academic classes. Based on my family's experience, I'm not optimistic that Adams will demonstrate any interest in keeping in-bounds kids.

I'm an IB Oyster parent, and I think that it's great that we no longer have Deal as an option. It forces Oyster's admins. and parents to improve whatever needs to be improved in the middle school. If some IB families don't find that appealing, they should move to a Deal feeder or private. Or better yet, don't move IB for Oyster at all.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Improve it from what to what? Higher overall scores? [b]Higher percentages of advanced students?[/b] Improvement in Spanish grammar? One building? A better website? [b]Keep more IB families no matter how high the % of non-Spanish speaking families?[/b]

None of these things matter to DCPS. O-A is about as good as it's going to get in terms of quantitative measures. The new principal looks like she was put in there as part of the overall DCPS middle school retention effort. They are going to throw a lot of stuff at the middle school grades for 3 years or so to see if they can stem the tide of flight to charters.

But there is no long-term strategy for the school or any of the dual-language programs in DCPS. It has been completely absent from the entire DME process.

To improve the qualitative elements of the school that many families complain about, all she needs to do is fire the MS AP, move the 4-5th grade AP to the lower grades at Oyster building, hire a superb Dean of Students, get rid of some entrenched staff who have been coasting on the success of individual teachers.

We're IB and bilingual at O-A and have had mixed results. We're contemplating leaving for many reasons, but we're wondering what dual language schools will be better? The only dual immersion secondary school is CHEC.

An easy to use web platform would be great, but first there needs to be consistency in teaching and well-organized administration. Like PP said, many of the crises were self-made or poorly communicated. It would be pretty easy to improve some of the basic operations at O-A.

The elephant in the room is whether it can or will continue as many things to many people. How long can it stay as a neighborhood, bilingual, inclusion, two campus, PK-8 school, that feeds into an English-only high school?[/quote]

Canizales has moved the 4-5th grade AP to Oyster which is an excellent choice. However, the MS AP remains in place. It is rumored that she is good friends with Canizales. Thank goodness for the Dean of Students! MS AP is incapable of dealing with student behavior. Although I am worried about the fact that the Dean of Students doesn't speak Spanish, I suspect he will do an excellent job of working with our middle schoolers and creating an environment of respect. The new 4-5 grade AP seems very nice, but his bio stated that he is a native speaker of Spanish. I'm sorry, but I heard him present to parents this past week and he is NOT a native speaker. He struggled throughout the whole presentation to find the right words in Spanish and even used Spanglish. I suspect he will be speaking to students mostly in English. This will not help students improve their Spanish. Fingers crossed that everything will work out.[/quote]

In-bounds families have just lost access to Deal, which proved a far better alternative for advanced students in previous years. My family certainly would have liked to see higher percentages of advanced students and even a shred of interest in keeping in-bounds families though the middle school years. Spanish is a great idea, but in the middle school years, it can't be the school's only priority.[/quote]

I'm an IB Oyster parent, and I think that it's great that we no longer have Deal as an option. It forces Oyster's admins. and parents to improve whatever needs to be improved in the middle school. If some IB families don't find that appealing, they should move to a Deal feeder or private. Or better yet, don't move IB for Oyster at all.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Improve it from what to what? Higher overall scores? [b]Higher percentages of advanced students?[/b] Improvement in Spanish grammar? One building? A better website? [b]Keep more IB families no matter how high the % of non-Spanish speaking families?[/b]

None of these things matter to DCPS. O-A is about as good as it's going to get in terms of quantitative measures. The new principal looks like she was put in there as part of the overall DCPS middle school retention effort. They are going to throw a lot of stuff at the middle school grades for 3 years or so to see if they can stem the tide of flight to charters.

But there is no long-term strategy for the school or any of the dual-language programs in DCPS. It has been completely absent from the entire DME process.

To improve the qualitative elements of the school that many families complain about, all she needs to do is fire the MS AP, move the 4-5th grade AP to the lower grades at Oyster building, hire a superb Dean of Students, get rid of some entrenched staff who have been coasting on the success of individual teachers.

We're IB and bilingual at O-A and have had mixed results. We're contemplating leaving for many reasons, but we're wondering what dual language schools will be better? The only dual immersion secondary school is CHEC.

An easy to use web platform would be great, but first there needs to be consistency in teaching and well-organized administration. Like PP said, many of the crises were self-made or poorly communicated. It would be pretty easy to improve some of the basic operations at O-A.

The elephant in the room is whether it can or will continue as many things to many people. How long can it stay as a neighborhood, bilingual, inclusion, two campus, PK-8 school, that feeds into an English-only high school?[/quote]

Canizales has moved the 4-5th grade AP to Oyster which is an excellent choice. However, the MS AP remains in place. It is rumored that she is good friends with Canizales. Thank goodness for the Dean of Students! MS AP is incapable of dealing with student behavior. Although I am worried about the fact that the Dean of Students doesn't speak Spanish, I suspect he will do an excellent job of working with our middle schoolers and creating an environment of respect. The new 4-5 grade AP seems very nice, but his bio stated that he is a native speaker of Spanish. I'm sorry, but I heard him present to parents this past week and he is NOT a native speaker. He struggled throughout the whole presentation to find the right words in Spanish and even used Spanglish. I suspect he will be speaking to students mostly in English. This will not help students improve their Spanish. Fingers crossed that everything will work out.[/quote]

In-bounds families have just lost access to Deal, which proved a far better alternative for advanced students in previous years. My family certainly would have liked to see higher percentages of advanced students and even a shred of interest in keeping in-bounds families though the middle school years. Spanish is a great idea, but in the middle school years, it can't be the school's only priority.

Haven't had a child in an inclusion class but I would think the students experience will depend on the quality of the particular teacher.

What have been the experiences of non special Ed students in inclusion classes? Intriguing concept.

[quote=Anonymous]Improve it from what to what? Higher overall scores? Higher percentages of advanced students? Improvement in Spanish grammar? One building? A better website? Keep more IB families no matter how high the % of non-Spanish speaking families?

None of these things matter to DCPS. O-A is about as good as it's going to get in terms of quantitative measures. The new principal looks like she was put in there as part of the overall DCPS middle school retention effort. They are going to throw a lot of stuff at the middle school grades for 3 years or so to see if they can stem the tide of flight to charters.

But there is no long-term strategy for the school or any of the dual-language programs in DCPS. It has been completely absent from the entire DME process.

To improve the qualitative elements of the school that many families complain about, all she needs to do is fire the MS AP, move the 4-5th grade AP to the lower grades at Oyster building, hire a superb Dean of Students, get rid of some entrenched staff who have been coasting on the success of individual teachers.

We're IB and bilingual at O-A and have had mixed results. We're contemplating leaving for many reasons, but we're wondering what dual language schools will be better? The only dual immersion secondary school is CHEC.

An easy to use web platform would be great, but first there needs to be consistency in teaching and well-organized administration. Like PP said, many of the crises were self-made or poorly communicated. It would be pretty easy to improve some of the basic operations at O-A.

The elephant in the room is whether it can or will continue as many things to many people. How long can it stay as a neighborhood, bilingual, inclusion, two campus, PK-8 school, that feeds into an English-only high school?[/quote]

Canizales has moved the 4-5th grade AP to Oyster which is an excellent choice. However, the MS AP remains in place. It is rumored that she is good friends with Canizales. Thank goodness for the Dean of Students! MS AP is incapable of dealing with student behavior. Although I am worried about the fact that the Dean of Students doesn't speak Spanish, I suspect he will do an excellent job of working with our middle schoolers and creating an environment of respect. The new 4-5 grade AP seems very nice, but his bio stated that he is a native speaker of Spanish. I'm sorry, but I heard him present to parents this past week and he is NOT a native speaker. He struggled throughout the whole presentation to find the right words in Spanish and even used Spanglish. I suspect he will be speaking to students mostly in English. This will not help students improve their Spanish. Fingers crossed that everything will work out.

Anonymous wrote:How do you lottery into this school if you aren't IB? Thanks

It's nearly impossible to do (without lying), unless your bilingual child comes from a Spanish-speaking home.

How do you lottery into this school if you aren't IB? Thanks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But is she bi-literate? Can she translate her own email, or will she be dependent on volunteer parent translators like Monica. It slows down communication a lot.

Yes, definitely. She is a native Spanish/English dual language speaker

Sorry, by bi-literate I meant to ask how well she can write in Spanish. She seems to be well-qualified to teach English. But that is not the mission of O-A. Ms. Canizales sounds very impressive as an educator and I'm pleased we have a principal in seat. It is nice that she can speak Spanish fluently and that she is Latina. But if she herself is not bi-literate, it will be important that she hires an an elementary AP and a middle school Dean of Students who are. The Spanish-speaking parents and teachers in the school community are, to my understanding, more diverse in nationality, culture, race, profession, SES, etc. than the other DCPS bilingual schools. It's also the second-biggest DCPS bilingual school after CHEC. But DCPS should not take it for granted that students fluent in written and/or spoken Spanish, regardless of their parents' background or their boundary, will stay through 8th. Major investment in Spanish at the middle school level would at least distinguish O-A from other MS options.

As an O-A parent, I am confident that our large and diverse panel would have raised objections if she did not seem like a good fit. I was just curious if she writes fluently in Spanish or if she was planning to hire people for that skill.

The answer to your question appears to be yes. In a recent letter to parents, the new principal states: "My family is originally from Nicaragua and I am a native Spanish speaker and attended a bilingual elementary school myself, so dual language is dear to my heart." So she is not only a celebrated teacher/former VP, she is also a bilingual and biliterate Latina who attended a bilingual school. That sounds great to me!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please provide a concrete reason why the two campus thing is bad? I keep hearing that, but I have yet to hear a single concrete example of why it is a problem. As the parent of a kid whose teams already compete with gym time, I think consolidating the whole school into one building with one gym, one set of outdoor play areas and one lunch room would be an absolute nightmare. Furthermore, I would expect the parents of kindergarteners to be reluctant to send their tiny kids to the same school as 8th graders. We've gone through both buildings, and we think it works great. I get that it might be inconvenient for the principal, but won't she have more APs next year per student than any other school in DCPS?

The two campus model is not bad--I prefer it as well. Monica just didn't like the arrangement.

I prefer the two campus model too. Much more humane dimension than one single macrocampus, separation of elementary and MS kids, consistent with the nationwide trend towards small schools.

Agreed. The problem at O-A is the grade configuration of 3rd grade and 4th/5th grade being over a mile apart. This means that for students there is less differentiated instruction and accelerated learning opportunities. Which leads to dissatisfaction and the large dropoff that starts when the move to Adams for 4th grade presents parents with a "natural" break to move children to new schools. One of my children lost nearly a third of their grade before starting at Adams and most from Woodley side of the boundary.

I would have preferred one building for elementary grades even if it meant trailers. (Many high performing schools use trailers or have crappy buildings.)

Third and fourth shouldn't be a "natural" break socially or academically for a dual-immersion program for long term bi-literacy.

If the Oyster space on Calvert can somehow include 4th & 5th, students would be better served.

We did not find this a problem.

+1. What are people complaining about!?! The schools are within walking distance. Get some exercise people!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please provide a concrete reason why the two campus thing is bad? I keep hearing that, but I have yet to hear a single concrete example of why it is a problem. As the parent of a kid whose teams already compete with gym time, I think consolidating the whole school into one building with one gym, one set of outdoor play areas and one lunch room would be an absolute nightmare. Furthermore, I would expect the parents of kindergarteners to be reluctant to send their tiny kids to the same school as 8th graders. We've gone through both buildings, and we think it works great. I get that it might be inconvenient for the principal, but won't she have more APs next year per student than any other school in DCPS?

The two campus model is not bad--I prefer it as well. Monica just didn't like the arrangement.

I prefer the two campus model too. Much more humane dimension than one single macrocampus, separation of elementary and MS kids, consistent with the nationwide trend towards small schools.

Agreed. The problem at O-A is the grade configuration of 3rd grade and 4th/5th grade being over a mile apart. This means that for students there is less differentiated instruction and accelerated learning opportunities. Which leads to dissatisfaction and the large dropoff that starts when the move to Adams for 4th grade presents parents with a "natural" break to move children to new schools. One of my children lost nearly a third of their grade before starting at Adams and most from Woodley side of the boundary.

I would have preferred one building for elementary grades even if it meant trailers. (Many high performing schools use trailers or have crappy buildings.)

Third and fourth shouldn't be a "natural" break socially or academically for a dual-immersion program for long term bi-literacy.

If the Oyster space on Calvert can somehow include 4th & 5th, students would be better served.

We did not find this a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But is she bi-literate? Can she translate her own email, or will she be dependent on volunteer parent translators like Monica. It slows down communication a lot.

Yes, definitely. She is a native Spanish/English dual language speaker

Sorry, by bi-literate I meant to ask how well she can write in Spanish. She seems to be well-qualified to teach English. But that is not the mission of O-A. Ms. Canizales sounds very impressive as an educator and I'm pleased we have a principal in seat. It is nice that she can speak Spanish fluently and that she is Latina. But if she herself is not bi-literate, it will be important that she hires an an elementary AP and a middle school Dean of Students who are. The Spanish-speaking parents and teachers in the school community are, to my understanding, more diverse in nationality, culture, race, profession, SES, etc. than the other DCPS bilingual schools. It's also the second-biggest DCPS bilingual school after CHEC. But DCPS should not take it for granted that students fluent in written and/or spoken Spanish, regardless of their parents' background or their boundary, will stay through 8th. Major investment in Spanish at the middle school level would at least distinguish O-A from other MS options.

As an O-A parent, I am confident that our large and diverse panel would have raised objections if she did not seem like a good fit. I was just curious if she writes fluently in Spanish or if she was planning to hire people for that skill.

Anonymous wrote:

What does Adams' current middle school schedule look like?

English Humanities
Spanish Humanities
Math
Science
Chinese (or remedial Spanish or English)
+ the Specials: Art, Music, PE

Ok, thanks!

What does Adams' current middle school schedule look like?

English Humanities
Spanish Humanities
Math
Science
Chinese (or remedial Spanish or English)
+ the Specials: Art, Music, PE