I am starting this blog on February 29, 2012 because of the level of frustration I feel as a direct result of misrepresentation of parent concerns at my daughter's school.
A bit of history of my daughter's school Shuang Wen School PS 184. The school is currently housed at what used to be PS 137. The Department of Education relocated the school to coexist with PS 134 on East Broadway. I remember when this occurred and my community was in an uproar. It was told to the community that the school that was taking over the building was a private school. Some were told it was a Charter School. No one understood that it was Public School. One of the reason for the confusion was that in order to attend the school you had to pay to attend the school. No one understood you were paying for the afterschool and not the school. However, the afterschool was described as the Chinese School and if you wanted your child to learn Chinese you would have to pay for that service.
The DOE (Department of Education) took a school from the community that serviced all to add a school that promoted discrimination. It was apparent that the parents looked down on the community and their residences.
It is still evident that parents of this school look down on the community by some of there comments.
Notably, Shuang Wen has done exceptionally well in their scoring in comparsion to the school that was removed. However, PS 134 serviced a higher volume of Special Education Children in the community. And unfortunately the standardized tests do not accomodate children with disabilities and that is a point that parents should FIGHT so that the testing is fair and an accurate reflection of the teachers and students progress.
There is a GREAT need for Standardized Testing Reform as well as Special Education. Shuang Wen was exempt from this fight because of how the principal describe the cirrculum. The principal deliberately gave out incorrect information in order to keep the school exempt for admitting Special Education Students ( children with IEP), keep high scores and basically run the school the way she wanted to run it without any oversight or consequence. The DOE was direlect in there duties and missed the mark in correcting this issue years ago. Unfortunately, parents and children have been misguided which has caused splitter groups to pop up. Parents against Ling Ling, Parents for Ling Ling, Parents for Education and Univolved Parents.
Before you choose who you are for or against it is important to make your children first and educate yourself on the history and the mistakes made.
With our new interim principal who has experience with a Dual Language program unlike Ling Ling. With the principal who we have in place now, we have a chance to correct all the wrongs done in the past and give our children a first rate dual language education. But there are parents who want to take that away. The DOE have single handedly divided the city with standardized tests and gifted and talented schools.
All our children have the compacity to learn. It is the teachers that need these classifications in order to properly service the childen. It is the adult in charge of educating our children that need to know what there strengths are in order to properly teach our children.
The current standardized test are unfair and a true reflection of our educational system or our children.
I feel this is the point that divides our parents.
Let me make this clear: Ling Ling did not DO ANYTHING but circumvent policies and regulations. It is time to face the music and correct our wrongs and properly service our children.
I am FOR DUAL LANGUAGE EDUCATION for our children. I AM FOR A 50/50 model. I AM SUPPORT IRIS CHUI.
I support doing things correctly and I support Education and I definitely support EDUCATING my daughter.
It is imperative that we keep our dual language status so that we can continue to fair well with the standardized test. Until there is a true reform to the testing and the DOE.
With having a dual language school it comes with the cavert that it would serve as a disadvantage to admit certain Special Education Students because of the rigidious cirrculum. It serves as a disservice to children with current learning curves to be placed in a situation where there learning needs can not be met.
Keep our school as a DUAL LANGUAGE school, we have a wonderful dual language High School in the district that we can not have a feeder school because we are taking away a choice from the community because some parents do not have all the facts and are making decisions based on lies.
And I most add that most of these parents do not live in the district and DO NOT RESPECT the residences of the DISTRICT
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