Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I guess we can all wait for the DCCAS scores this year to be the judge. They should be better this year since nearly all the parents who can afford it are paying for tutors (in both English and Chinese) to make up for YY's substandard instruction.

Thanks for this enlightenment--I had no idea I was in serious denial. For some weird reason I trusted my very own eyes when I saw things like DC, who learned to read at YY, reading 3 levels above grade. I guess we better leave too. Since you have such a good handle on reality, please do tell us where to go!

Darn, my DS is only two grades ahead, but he is advanced in math.
We are happy, Chinese tutors and all. Incidentally, my child's tutor is originally from Bejing and currently teaches in the Virginia public schools. She happens to be impressed with my son's reading and speaking of her native language. I guess I will take her world over the ABC born and raised in Rockville, Md.

Anonymous wrote:As a YY parent, I would have to say the school is NOT rigorous. The instruction in Chinese is challenging for many children. The instruction in English is sub-par and of concern.

I also agree complete with the ABC former YY parent who is posting here.

YY is Chinese for white people. Period. Unless there is a significant change in admin, I don't see the school improving much in the near future.

Needless to say, we're on our way out. YY is a nice idea and there are a lot of parents in serious denial about the school culture and rigor who post early and often on DCUM. It doesn't change the reality of the school though.

I guess we can all wait for the DCCAS scores this year to be the judge. They should be better this year since nearly all the parents who can afford it are paying for tutors (in both English and Chinese) to make up for YY's substandard instruction.

Not just white people... black people, yellow people... 1/2 white, yellow... 1/2 white, black... black/yellow... white, black, yellow people who adopt white, yellow, black... kids with SNs... gay people who adopt black, yellow, white, etc.... Everybody has an equal chance of getting in, no matter what their background.

REALLY COOL. We love it and are very happy we chose YY over a well regarded private (non-immersion) for DC.

Anonymous wrote:As a YY parent, I would have to say the school is NOT rigorous. The instruction in Chinese is challenging for many children. The instruction in English is sub-par and of concern.

I also agree complete with the ABC former YY parent who is posting here.

YY is Chinese for white people. Period. Unless there is a significant change in admin, I don't see the school improving much in the near future.

Needless to say, we're on our way out. YY is a nice idea and there are a lot of parents in serious denial about the school culture and rigor who post early and often on DCUM. It doesn't change the reality of the school though.

I guess we can all wait for the DCCAS scores this year to be the judge. They should be better this year since nearly all the parents who can afford it are paying for tutors (in both English and Chinese) to make up for YY's substandard instruction.

Thanks for this enlightenment--I had no idea I was in serious denial. For some weird reason I trusted my very own eyes when I saw things like DC, who learned to read at YY, reading 3 levels above grade. I guess we better leave too. Since you have such a good handle on reality, please do tell us where to go!

Anonymous wrote:As a YY parent, I would have to say the school is NOT rigorous. The instruction in Chinese is challenging for many children. The instruction in English is sub-par and of concern.

I also agree complete with the ABC former YY parent who is posting here.

YY is Chinese for white people. Period. Unless there is a significant change in admin, I don't see the school improving much in the near future.

Needless to say, we're on our way out. YY is a nice idea and there are a lot of parents in serious denial about the school culture and rigor who post early and often on DCUM. It doesn't change the reality of the school though.

I guess we can all wait for the DCCAS scores this year to be the judge. They should be better this year since nearly all the parents who can afford it are paying for tutors (in both English and Chinese) to make up for YY's substandard instruction.

Hmm, you should go to the private school forum. There have been multiple posts on why parents who send their children to $30k private schools are also paying for tutors. I guess Sidwell, Albans, GDS, and Cathedral students are also receiving substandard instruction.

Foreign language study is a sort of mental gymnastics for the young. Since Mandarin is so different from English, the neural development is more complex. For us, fluency is beside the point.

As a YY parent, I would have to say the school is NOT rigorous. The instruction in Chinese is challenging for many children. The instruction in English is sub-par and of concern.

I also agree complete with the ABC former YY parent who is posting here.

YY is Chinese for white people. Period. Unless there is a significant change in admin, I don't see the school improving much in the near future.

Needless to say, we're on our way out. YY is a nice idea and there are a lot of parents in serious denial about the school culture and rigor who post early and often on DCUM. It doesn't change the reality of the school though.

I guess we can all wait for the DCCAS scores this year to be the judge. They should be better this year since nearly all the parents who can afford it are paying for tutors (in both English and Chinese) to make up for YY's substandard instruction.

OP, quick correction. YY is planning to go through HS but that's not finalized. If it does the likelihood is that MV will be part of it.

Re MV getting over 1/3 spanish speaking students, I'm amazed and impressed. However, there are 10x as many Hispanics as Chinese in DC so it would be very hard to YY to do likewise. Less than 1% of the DC population is Chinese.

OP here...some very helpfull posts that confirm my thinking...YY has a reputation for being rigorous, which is great, and it goes through H/S, whereas MV only goes through 8th grade. So I woudn't have to go through the stress of finding another program when my son is most vulnerable to teenage angst. Chinese language, if you can master it, is a unique skill in the US that may be important to a future career...and be an interesting/unique cultural experience (as would Spanish). There's also a bit of a yuppy prestige factor to Mandarin, which maybe I've been sucked into. But, there's nothing glamorous about men spitting on restaurant floors in Shanghai and it's not clear that the kids will master the language by 12th grade. There's like 5K characters, right? Also, Spanish is likely to be much more widely used in the US. It's simpler, but also more widely spoken, so it won't be difficult to master/maintain.

When this option first became a reaity I thought "...but everyone speaks Spanish. Chinese has to be a more important skill." Now I'm not so sure. By the way, I'm totally sold on the IMMERSION (vice "emersion" in my OP) thing. I think it's got to be good for congitive development and it's a skill I've always wish I had...though I've traveled to most points on this planet and very rarely had a problem getting by with English. But I am concerned that helping my son at home could be difficult.

Apologies for the undetected spelling errors. Why are people always so snarky on this forum?

Curious if this thread has swayed OP one way or the other. The language choice seems a win/win.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope

I didn't know that she didn't speak Chinese when I went to an info night and, so, made the critical mistake of asking her a question in Mandarin during a break (must have been thinking in Chinese at the time). After she snapped "speak English!" at me in front of other parents, we left early.

Sorry, but ethnic Chinese families do tend to care that the principal isn't Chinese and doesn't speak Chinese. But then her non-Chinese speaking leadership does seem to be what the great majority of YY parents, at least those I've talked to, want. So they continue to get it and that's that. Nothing you can do as an outsider but look for another ES option, and get your kid to heritage Chinese lessons and/or an immersion school in the burbs. No shortage of either for the determined, things work out.

So please move to the 'burbs and/or get "your kid to heritage Chinese lessons" and immersion school there. Your attitude is precisely why we would never dream of send our non ethnic Chinese kid to a heritage Chinese school even though we want them to learn Chinese. Snotty, exclusive and non-diverse racially with an attitude about being ABCs - not exactly welcoming to others.

Yu Ying is VERY diverse and accepting of differences: the only commonality being the kids are there to learn Mandarin. You and your family won't fit in.

YY halted a nationwide search for a principal after only a few weeks.

This principal was hired from within -- she had an older child at the school. She only enrolled her younger child after being offered the position. Her experience was in school adminstration in Fairfax (assistant principal, not principal).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope

I didn't know that she didn't speak Chinese when I went to an info night and, so, made the critical mistake of asking her a question in Mandarin during a break (must have been thinking in Chinese at the time). After she snapped "speak English!" at me in front of other parents, we left early.

Sorry, but ethnic Chinese families do tend to care that the principal isn't Chinese and doesn't speak Chinese. But then her non-Chinese speaking leadership does seem to be what the great majority of YY parents, at least those I've talked to, want. So they continue to get it and that's that. Nothing you can do as an outsider but look for another ES option, and get your kid to heritage Chinese lessons and/or an immersion school in the burbs. No shortage of either for the determined, things work out.

Please go to the burbs, there are people waiting on the YY list for acceptance. No worries.

Do what you think is best for your kid, but for the love of God, stop thrashing a school in which you have little to nil knowledge. For, other people are trying to do what they think is best for their child by enrolling said child at YY.

+1000
Oh, BTW, the principal has been taking Chinese lessons for 3 years now, has traveled to China, and makes every effort to speak to the kids in Chinese. It's not the school's fault that there is a lack of qualified Chinese-speaking administrators out there. And I agree with the other posters: your postings reek of racial/cultural exclusivity. The burbs sound perfect for you.

Oyster's upper school principal speaks Spanish (not sure about the lower school).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope

I didn't know that she didn't speak Chinese when I went to an info night and, so, made the critical mistake of asking her a question in Mandarin during a break (must have been thinking in Chinese at the time). After she snapped "speak English!" at me in front of other parents, we left early.

Sorry, but ethnic Chinese families do tend to care that the principal isn't Chinese and doesn't speak Chinese. But then her non-Chinese speaking leadership does seem to be what the great majority of YY parents, at least those I've talked to, want. So they continue to get it and that's that. Nothing you can do as an outsider but look for another ES option, and get your kid to heritage Chinese lessons and/or an immersion school in the burbs. No shortage of either for the determined, things work out.

I am curious are the principals at Cleveland, Tyler, Oyster, Munde Verde, And DC Bilingual Hispanic and Spanish. Are they fluent Spanish speakers. Is the principal at Stokes native French speaking, and or fluent. Or is this a requirement that is limited to YY and ABCs are asking for preferential treatment I don't get the hate and I am definitely not one who is overly enthralled with YY

Do the posters on DCUM just need something to bitch and disagree about.

At MV, yes the principal and most of the staff is Hispanic/Latino. They also do a lot of outreach to make sure the student body is at least 1/3 native Spanish speakers (because of the lottery rules).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope

I didn't know that she didn't speak Chinese when I went to an info night and, so, made the critical mistake of asking her a question in Mandarin during a break (must have been thinking in Chinese at the time). After she snapped "speak English!" at me in front of other parents, we left early.

Sorry, but ethnic Chinese families do tend to care that the principal isn't Chinese and doesn't speak Chinese. But then her non-Chinese speaking leadership does seem to be what the great majority of YY parents, at least those I've talked to, want. So they continue to get it and that's that. Nothing you can do as an outsider but look for another ES option, and get your kid to heritage Chinese lessons and/or an immersion school in the burbs. No shortage of either for the determined, things work out.

Please go to the burbs, there are people waiting on the YY list for acceptance. No worries.

Do what you think is best for your kid, but for the love of God, stop thrashing a school in which you have little to nil knowledge. For, other people are trying to do what they think is best for their child by enrolling said child at YY.