Both of my kids have been in MCPS since before the oldest started K. We have never been contacted by MCPS, sent informational letters, or pointed to a website regarding anything other than your garden variety public school. Alternative education options are not publicized. I only know about them because I happen to be on here, through Child Find, or a friend telling me. How many people know about MCPS's Gifted/Talented/Learning Disabled program? No one at the school mentioned this to me. I found out from a friend. All I'm saying is spend a little time publicizing these options, just like they do for annual testing and fundraising.

Maybe he is not the best voice for this but it is 100% true that the system as now set up benefits those in the know and penalizes you for not knowing you need to google the immersion requirements the winter before your kid starts.

Options:
1) flip the lottery to later so participating is simply a box you check during regular enrollment

2) start immersion in 1st as FCPS does in many cases so you can publicize it through all the normal communication channels like flyers and robo calls.

And finally get rid of sibling preference. There is no good reason for this that anyone NOT benefiting from it can point to.

Jawando is going to be discussing it on Kojo Nnamdi's radio show, starting at noon...

http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2016-06-28/montgomery-county-schools-face-discrimination-complaint

Jawando seems very manipulative and opportunistic. I am so happy he did not win the primary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't even care that a family is avoiding a high FARMS school (even though I think they might be missing out because there are some great Title I and Focus schools). What bothers me is that this guy actually WON the lottery by getting any spot at all.

It also bothers me because Jawando ran in the Democratic primary as a progressive, and partially on the strength of his experience working on education issues in the White House. If even our progressive politicians with an education policy focus won't use their local public schools, or really any schools with a high FARMS rate, then where are we?

He's a hypocrite. That was my point. You can dance around the subject again and again, but you can't hide from the school data (FARMs and feeder patterns) and the Archdiocese boundaries. And yes, I realize that parish schools can pull from different areas since not all parishes have schools. It's still worth investigating if he continues to move forward with his lawsuit.

Had his kid gotten in to RCF, there would be no lawsuit. Any advocate is proactive, not reactive. This issue emerged when it directly affected him. And his new parish school isn't exactly in a low-income area either. Tuition there, however, is actually less than the parish school for which he is zoned. a win-win for him!

+1 and my child attends RT language immersion program and the truth is the program is a school within a school. No way the FARM rate for Spanish Immersion is above 15% at RT.

And there's no way the RCF one is either, in fact I would highly doubt there are any FARMS kids in the immersion program. MCPS likes to pull the wool over people's eyes by using a FARMS rate of the combined programs. It masks that the rate is really higher on the English sides (thus denying the school Title 1 status) and makes the immersion programs look a lot more diverse than they actually are.

I worry that the practice of showing combined scores also masks test scores. You have one group of kids who by definition have highly involved parents that are willing to inconvenience themselves for the sake of bilingual education - those kids are going to be better supported and have better test scores than their counterparts in the "Academies." This pulls the scores up for those schools without meaning anything for the quality of education the kids are getting if they won't "win" the lottery. You also have other schools that are magnets for kids with learning disabilities or behavioural challenges, which pull down those scores without meaning anything for the kids not in those programs. It makes it really hard for families to figure out which schools will be a good fit and provide a high quality education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't even care that a family is avoiding a high FARMS school (even though I think they might be missing out because there are some great Title I and Focus schools). What bothers me is that this guy actually WON the lottery by getting any spot at all.

It also bothers me because Jawando ran in the Democratic primary as a progressive, and partially on the strength of his experience working on education issues in the White House. If even our progressive politicians with an education policy focus won't use their local public schools, or really any schools with a high FARMS rate, then where are we?

He's a hypocrite. That was my point. You can dance around the subject again and again, but you can't hide from the school data (FARMs and feeder patterns) and the Archdiocese boundaries. And yes, I realize that parish schools can pull from different areas since not all parishes have schools. It's still worth investigating if he continues to move forward with his lawsuit.

Had his kid gotten in to RCF, there would be no lawsuit. Any advocate is proactive, not reactive. This issue emerged when it directly affected him. And his new parish school isn't exactly in a low-income area either. Tuition there, however, is actually less than the parish school for which he is zoned. a win-win for him!

+1 and my child attends RT language immersion program and the truth is the program is a school within a school. No way the FARM rate for Spanish Immersion is above 15% at RT.

And there's no way the RCF one is either, in fact I would highly doubt there are any FARMS kids in the immersion program. MCPS likes to pull the wool over people's eyes by using a FARMS rate of the combined programs. It masks that the rate is really higher on the English sides (thus denying the school Title 1 status) and makes the immersion programs look a lot more diverse than they actually are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the immersion lotteries could at least be after the kindergarten signups in the spring and also expanded. This is an area where MCPS could really change things without having to change the program itself..like the competitive magnets.

I absolutely think that the bare minimum MCPS should do is accept magnet applications through kindergarten registration week, and eliminate the sibling link. That would create a more level playing ground and help to eliminate the "white flight" factor in immersion applications. With that said, Jawando's an ass if he passed up Rolling Terrace because RCF was the ONLY school he wanted. Either immersion is important to him, or it isn't. It it's important to him and his family, he should be able to handle not having Westland and BCC feeder rights, and being in a school that is majority minority.

Well I wonder what was the reasoning behind applying to Rolling Terrace at all if it wasn't acceptable. It is true that RCF is more desirable simply due to the fact that is full immersion rather than partial so its hard to parse out whether its popularity is because of the format or desirability of the cluster.

It's true that RT is partial immersion but the school is also largely Latinx, which gives kids a chance to practice their Spanish with native speakers in an informal context. Also, if Jawando's zoned for Cannon Road Elementary, as it says in the article, Rolling Terrace is closer to him than Rock Creek Forest. I have no problem with someone deciding RT isn't for them but I do have a problem with someone getting into one of the schools they optioned and then lodging a complaint because they didn't get into a more desirable option. I'll be super pissed if this results in him getting a RCF spot, as it will just prove that influence and squeaky wheels rule MCPS.

We attend RT and that simply does not happen on any large scale. The reality is that those that are fluent don't want to fumble around with someone learning the language especially when their English is probably better than the Immersion kids Spanish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't even care that a family is avoiding a high FARMS school (even though I think they might be missing out because there are some great Title I and Focus schools). What bothers me is that this guy actually WON the lottery by getting any spot at all.

It also bothers me because Jawando ran in the Democratic primary as a progressive, and partially on the strength of his experience working on education issues in the White House. If even our progressive politicians with an education policy focus won't use their local public schools, or really any schools with a high FARMS rate, then where are we?

He's a hypocrite. That was my point. You can dance around the subject again and again, but you can't hide from the school data (FARMs and feeder patterns) and the Archdiocese boundaries. And yes, I realize that parish schools can pull from different areas since not all parishes have schools. It's still worth investigating if he continues to move forward with his lawsuit.

Had his kid gotten in to RCF, there would be no lawsuit. Any advocate is proactive, not reactive. This issue emerged when it directly affected him. And his new parish school isn't exactly in a low-income area either. Tuition there, however, is actually less than the parish school for which he is zoned. a win-win for him!

+1 and my child attends RT language immersion program and the truth is the program is a school within a school. No way the FARM rate for Spanish Immersion is above 15% at RT.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't even care that a family is avoiding a high FARMS school (even though I think they might be missing out because there are some great Title I and Focus schools). What bothers me is that this guy actually WON the lottery by getting any spot at all.

It also bothers me because Jawando ran in the Democratic primary as a progressive, and partially on the strength of his experience working on education issues in the White House. If even our progressive politicians with an education policy focus won't use their local public schools, or really any schools with a high FARMS rate, then where are we?

He's a hypocrite. That was my point. You can dance around the subject again and again, but you can't hide from the school data (FARMs and feeder patterns) and the Archdiocese boundaries. And yes, I realize that parish schools can pull from different areas since not all parishes have schools. It's still worth investigating if he continues to move forward with his lawsuit.

Had his kid gotten in to RCF, there would be no lawsuit. Any advocate is proactive, not reactive. This issue emerged when it directly affected him. And his new parish school isn't exactly in a low-income area either. Tuition there, however, is actually less than the parish school for which he is zoned. a win-win for him!

I wouldn't even care that a family is avoiding a high FARMS school (even though I think they might be missing out because there are some great Title I and Focus schools). What bothers me is that this guy actually WON the lottery by getting any spot at all.

It also bothers me because Jawando ran in the Democratic primary as a progressive, and partially on the strength of his experience working on education issues in the White House. If even our progressive politicians with an education policy focus won't use their local public schools, or really any schools with a high FARMS rate, then where are we?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's see.

His home school is Cannon Road, which is 66% FARMs.

This is what he states in the article:

Jawando said his daughter was offered a spot in a partial immersion program at Rolling Terrace Elementary in Montgomery — an option the family researched and decided was not a good fit. The 5-year-old will now attend kindergarten at a parochial school, affiliated with the family’s church, that offers language immersion, he said.

Rolling Terrace, which offered him a spot, wasn't a "good fit."

RTES is almost 73% FARMs whereas Rock Creek Forest is 26% FARMs and feeds into BCC. Furthermore, he claims that the his parochial school offers language immersion.

As far as the parochial school language immersion is concerned, I see only one school in the DC Archdiocese that offers dual immersion - Sacred Heart. So they could be parishioners of Shrine of the Sacred Heart, which is in DC and quite a drive from that part of Silver Spring.

However, the Archdiocese has boundaries, and there are two churches in his area. Shrine of the Sacred Heart isn't one of them.

from the FAQ -

I just moved here. What parish is in my neighborhood?

Interactive maps of the Archdiocese are in the Parishes section. Choose the county, then click on the parish closest to your town to get contact and website information. The official directory of parish boundaries is located in the Archives.

just saying . . .

Could that be his parish from before he moved to the house in the Cannon Road district? He lived in DC's Riggs Park neighborhood.

Parishes zoned for 20011 (That is Riggs, no?) are Nativity and St. Gabriel.

Anonymous wrote:Let's see.

His home school is Cannon Road, which is 66% FARMs.

This is what he states in the article:

Jawando said his daughter was offered a spot in a partial immersion program at Rolling Terrace Elementary in Montgomery — an option the family researched and decided was not a good fit. The 5-year-old will now attend kindergarten at a parochial school, affiliated with the family’s church, that offers language immersion, he said.

Rolling Terrace, which offered him a spot, wasn't a "good fit."

RTES is almost 73% FARMs whereas Rock Creek Forest is 26% FARMs and feeds into BCC. Furthermore, he claims that the his parochial school offers language immersion.

As far as the parochial school language immersion is concerned, I see only one school in the DC Archdiocese that offers dual immersion - Sacred Heart. So they could be parishioners of Shrine of the Sacred Heart, which is in DC and quite a drive from that part of Silver Spring.

However, the Archdiocese has boundaries, and there are two churches in his area. Shrine of the Sacred Heart isn't one of them.

from the FAQ -

I just moved here. What parish is in my neighborhood?

Interactive maps of the Archdiocese are in the Parishes section. Choose the county, then click on the parish closest to your town to get contact and website information. The official directory of parish boundaries is located in the Archives.

just saying . . .

Could that be his parish from before he moved to the house in the Cannon Road district? He lived in DC's Riggs Park neighborhood.

Let's see.

His home school is Cannon Road, which is 66% FARMs.

This is what he states in the article:

Jawando said his daughter was offered a spot in a partial immersion program at Rolling Terrace Elementary in Montgomery — an option the family researched and decided was not a good fit. The 5-year-old will now attend kindergarten at a parochial school, affiliated with the family’s church, that offers language immersion, he said.

Rolling Terrace, which offered him a spot, wasn't a "good fit."

RTES is almost 73% FARMs whereas Rock Creek Forest is 26% FARMs and feeds into BCC. Furthermore, he claims that the his parochial school offers language immersion.

As far as the parochial school language immersion is concerned, I see only one school in the DC Archdiocese that offers dual immersion - Sacred Heart. So they could be parishioners of Shrine of the Sacred Heart, which is in DC and quite a drive from that part of Silver Spring.

However, the Archdiocese has boundaries, and there are two churches in his area. Shrine of the Sacred Heart isn't one of them.

from the FAQ -

I just moved here. What parish is in my neighborhood?

Interactive maps of the Archdiocese are in the Parishes section. Choose the county, then click on the parish closest to your town to get contact and website information. The official directory of parish boundaries is located in the Archives.

just saying . . .

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to the area. Admission to the immersion program at College Garden for instance is not based on where you live but by lottery? So you could have kids at the immersion program who lives in Gaithersburg?

Correct. Admission to the immersion program at College Gardens is based on lottery. I know of at least 2 kids who live in Silver Spring and attend the Chinese Immersion Program at CGES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Now it is up to OCR to look at the way MCPS promotes these opportunities and decide if they do so in a non-discriminatory way.

Slacker K orientation misser PP here. My question is, does MCPS "promote these opportunities" at all and how does the complaint propose that they should promote them? They're on their website. Now that my kids are older and in MCPS I get mailers and robocalls about the HGCs, magnet middle school programs, voluntary summer school, Thomas Edison and other special programs. But I never heard anything about the immersion programs that begin at K, presumably because MCPS doesn't have a comprehensive list of the contact information for the parents of every 4-year-old in the county.

At our MCPS ES, which is in a very prominent location, a large banner is erected in front of the school and left out for months advertising K orientation.

PP here - That's great for you. My kids' ES is a) not at all in a prominent location but instead buried in a neighborhood and b) that neighborhood isn't really near my neighborhood.