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 th…
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.
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.