First, it is important that we realize the District is NOT proposing expanding TWI to middle school. In the past, they were explicitly talking about TWI expansion to middle school, but you will see that in the recent months or so, they have shifted to discussing "middle school dual language expansion" which is explic…
First, it is important that we realize the District is NOT proposing expanding TWI to middle school. In the past, they were explicitly talking about TWI expansion to middle school, but you will see that in the recent months or so, they have shifted to discussing "middle school dual language expansion" which is explicitly NOT the same thing as TWI expansion. Dual language is an umbrella term. TWI is a specific model of dual language programming. They are not being clear as to which dual language model they are proposing for middle school, but they ARE being clear that it is decidedly NOT TWI.
The shift is troubling for a number of reasons...
First, TWI is becoming widely recognized as the gold standard dual language model that has the best learning outcomes. To replace a TWI school (Bessie Rhodes) with dual language middle school is a downgrade that is not supported by the data.
Second, their admission process for dual language will emphasize their legal obligations to students learning English- fair, and we expect you to follow the law, but what about other children of color who are native English speakers or bilingual? Their selection process could exclude these kids from dual language middle school. You do not just become bilingual in 5th grade and not need to practice language going forward. You need at least 2h/day of both languages to maintain fluency. Given that there is some data to suggest that TWI can help narrow achievement gaps for Black children, how is this non-TWI program actually promoting equity? And how is closing a TWI school full of black and brown children meeting our equity goals? Further, how is ISOLATING our English language learning students into a middle school dual language program promoting equity?
Third, they are claiming they "dont need TWI anymore" in middle school because everyone is bilingual by 5th grade. Their own data on English learning students suggests otherwise.
Just looking at the K-5 TWI issue alone- another important point is that the data is very clear that having 2 TWI strands in a school (ie 2 classes of TWI for every grade) is superior to 1 strand. This is due to isolation and other issues faced by a one strand approach. Not all of our elementary schools with TWI even have 2 TWI strands right now- so you are now proposing closing a fully 2 strand school (Rhodes) and funneling some students into an inferior one strand school.
I could go on but this seems like a reasonable start to answering your questions.
Thank you for this comment! I also saw last night that they were talking about middle school TWI being outsourced to ETHS. It wasn't clear to me how that would exactly work.
Drop me an email tom@foiagras.com if you're interested in writing something longer - i'd be willing to publish. I know next to nothing about TWI vs dual language but I suspect my readers (and me) would like to be more educated.
Just curious, aren't they currently doing TWI middle school at Bessie Rhodes?
I have a fifth grader in a (non-Bessie Rhodes) TWI school and we keep on getting emails that seem to recruit our kids to go to Bessie Rhodes. Having talked to other 5th grade parents, I don't think there are any who are going to send their kids there and it is mostly due to the fact that the board is going to close the school.
I can imagine that the place is going to be a ghost town for the next two years.
The highest grade that TWI Bessie Rhodes (which was launched in fall of 2018) has reached at this point is 5th grade.
For Fall 2024-2025, Middle School TWI was supposed to launch at Bessie Rhodes. However, they have now done the bait and switch of saying that "middle school dual language" will launch at Bessie Rhodes, not TWI. So while they are expanding the program, they are not actually expanding TWI if that makes sense.
I predict they will have issues filling the program due to what you raise, and the fact that Bessie Rhodes families have lost almost all faith in the District at this point. Many Rhodes families are making the difficult choice to remove their kids entirely from the program and enter the general middle schools to avoid the chaos and lack of district level leadership they have suffered for years at this point.
I will also point out that at one of the most recent board meetings, board member Biz Lindsay-Ryan paved the way for blaming families for under-enrolled middle school dual language by saying something to the effect of we need families to trust the program and make the choice to enroll. So once again, we are in a situation of district and board created chaos and uncertainty, and we will blame families for these failures.
It seems really ridiculous that they aren’t doing the dual language expansion first at Haven or Nichols where you already have TWI feeder schools. Our kid probably would continue Spanish if this were the case.
I know the plan is to phase it in district wide (although I’m not holding my breath this would actually happen). But the way they are doing it—piloting at a school that is going to be closed—is a recipe for failure.
Maybe that is the whole point, from the standpoint of the cynics on the board.
A couple of comments-
First, it is important that we realize the District is NOT proposing expanding TWI to middle school. In the past, they were explicitly talking about TWI expansion to middle school, but you will see that in the recent months or so, they have shifted to discussing "middle school dual language expansion" which is explicitly NOT the same thing as TWI expansion. Dual language is an umbrella term. TWI is a specific model of dual language programming. They are not being clear as to which dual language model they are proposing for middle school, but they ARE being clear that it is decidedly NOT TWI.
The shift is troubling for a number of reasons...
First, TWI is becoming widely recognized as the gold standard dual language model that has the best learning outcomes. To replace a TWI school (Bessie Rhodes) with dual language middle school is a downgrade that is not supported by the data.
Second, their admission process for dual language will emphasize their legal obligations to students learning English- fair, and we expect you to follow the law, but what about other children of color who are native English speakers or bilingual? Their selection process could exclude these kids from dual language middle school. You do not just become bilingual in 5th grade and not need to practice language going forward. You need at least 2h/day of both languages to maintain fluency. Given that there is some data to suggest that TWI can help narrow achievement gaps for Black children, how is this non-TWI program actually promoting equity? And how is closing a TWI school full of black and brown children meeting our equity goals? Further, how is ISOLATING our English language learning students into a middle school dual language program promoting equity?
Third, they are claiming they "dont need TWI anymore" in middle school because everyone is bilingual by 5th grade. Their own data on English learning students suggests otherwise.
Just looking at the K-5 TWI issue alone- another important point is that the data is very clear that having 2 TWI strands in a school (ie 2 classes of TWI for every grade) is superior to 1 strand. This is due to isolation and other issues faced by a one strand approach. Not all of our elementary schools with TWI even have 2 TWI strands right now- so you are now proposing closing a fully 2 strand school (Rhodes) and funneling some students into an inferior one strand school.
I could go on but this seems like a reasonable start to answering your questions.
Thank you for this comment! I also saw last night that they were talking about middle school TWI being outsourced to ETHS. It wasn't clear to me how that would exactly work.
Drop me an email tom@foiagras.com if you're interested in writing something longer - i'd be willing to publish. I know next to nothing about TWI vs dual language but I suspect my readers (and me) would like to be more educated.
Just curious, aren't they currently doing TWI middle school at Bessie Rhodes?
I have a fifth grader in a (non-Bessie Rhodes) TWI school and we keep on getting emails that seem to recruit our kids to go to Bessie Rhodes. Having talked to other 5th grade parents, I don't think there are any who are going to send their kids there and it is mostly due to the fact that the board is going to close the school.
I can imagine that the place is going to be a ghost town for the next two years.
The highest grade that TWI Bessie Rhodes (which was launched in fall of 2018) has reached at this point is 5th grade.
For Fall 2024-2025, Middle School TWI was supposed to launch at Bessie Rhodes. However, they have now done the bait and switch of saying that "middle school dual language" will launch at Bessie Rhodes, not TWI. So while they are expanding the program, they are not actually expanding TWI if that makes sense.
I predict they will have issues filling the program due to what you raise, and the fact that Bessie Rhodes families have lost almost all faith in the District at this point. Many Rhodes families are making the difficult choice to remove their kids entirely from the program and enter the general middle schools to avoid the chaos and lack of district level leadership they have suffered for years at this point.
I will also point out that at one of the most recent board meetings, board member Biz Lindsay-Ryan paved the way for blaming families for under-enrolled middle school dual language by saying something to the effect of we need families to trust the program and make the choice to enroll. So once again, we are in a situation of district and board created chaos and uncertainty, and we will blame families for these failures.
It seems really ridiculous that they aren’t doing the dual language expansion first at Haven or Nichols where you already have TWI feeder schools. Our kid probably would continue Spanish if this were the case.
I know the plan is to phase it in district wide (although I’m not holding my breath this would actually happen). But the way they are doing it—piloting at a school that is going to be closed—is a recipe for failure.
Maybe that is the whole point, from the standpoint of the cynics on the board.