The new paroxysm in our school district: now the administration plans to turn Yankee Ridge (OK, there is a contender, Thomas Paine) elementary school into the Spanish Dual Language one. This would reduce the total number of regular, “neighborhood” elementary schools in the district from 6 to 4, over just two years. To say this […]
This year’s Illinois School Board of Education report cards for the schools in Urbana School District are released, and the results are even worse than last year. But at least this year we are sort of paying attention, – although it still remains to be seen, if our Board of Education does. It should be
Note: I contacted the Board and the Superintendent asking for comments or objections to this post. They did not provide any. So, now Wiley. Two months after the district managed to avoid turning Leal school into a dual language castillo, the administration is at it again, with all the attendant drama. I will bracket out
I have to admit that my initial analysis of the Urbana School District 116 drama’s most dynamic plotline of 2022 season – the consolidation of the dual language programs in one school, – was wrong. I surmised, from the general principles, that the main tension is created by the dual mandate of the dual language
reflections on the past season Read More »
The meetings of the Board of Education of the Urbana school district on October 11 and 18 were fascinating spectacles of the school bureaucracy handling (thus far, successfully) the populace around the contentious issue of converting the Leal school into the sole home of the district’s Dual Language (DL) program, ending its neighborhood school status.
civil rights: English Learners edition Read More »
The gothic saga of Dual Language is approaching a (provisional) climax, to be reached at the Board meeting on October 18, where the proposal of the “Spanish DL Committee” (of, by, and for the USD116 administration) will be discussed. The outcome we were predicting for some time now, – the consolidation of all Spanish DL
choosing your lens Read More »
The long predicted Fall campaign by the Urbana School District 116 to sell the decision they made, to merge all Dual Language classes in one school (codeword: “whole school model”) started. The crew of administrators responsible for the program (Directors Ricconi and Wiemelt) are working the parents, as usual, by triangulation. There are several intrinsic
DL: means and goals Read More »
I wrote that we don’t really know how our district’s Dual Language program serves the immigrant families. Well, now we do, kind of. Recall that the district’s Dual Language web page asks (themselves), How are students currently doing in the Dual Language program? and immediately replies: “Current assessment data suggest the following: Dual language students
“like we have never seen before” Read More »
The business meeting of the USD116 Board addressed many issues, but its focal point was, unmistakably, the report of the Spanish Dual Language (DL) program committee, which recommended to consolidate into one building the program, now spread over Leal and Dr. Williams schools, where it is colocated with the traditional, monolingual classes. A shrewd administrator
board meeting: dual language duplicity Read More »
This post is adopted from Ruth’s statement to the Board read during its meeting on May 3, 22. I think she is powerfully addressing the key contradiction of the current review: the Dual Language program was introduced to improve educational outcomes for recent immigrants, – English Learners, – but is evaluated by how it can
guest post: DL review Read More »