Texas Summer, thank you for the recommendations!
ACS, I'm sorry that that you felt troubled by some aspects of this discussion. I appreciate the candid opinions from stbmom, especially since she pinpoints a very real issue in our district. My mother is a teacher here, and I know that our teachers struggle to accommodate the new immigrants. That is not to isolate the Spanish-speaking immigrants, since my mother's own class has children from all over the world. I think that's a wonderful plus to our community, but I also see the frustrations of the teachers who specialize in ESL.
I have to consider that when it has the potential to be a major factor in DS's education. I don't feel that immigrant students learn slower than non-immigrant students at all. What I know for a fact though, is that the teachers in our district are really struggling to help the immigrant students catch up. Much of our district's resources are focused on getting additional help to them, and I wonder if there will be sufficient resources left to help my son.
Aside from that, one of my biggest concerns with the language immersion program is math. We have struggled to get DS the math he needs for a long time. Since he started EPGY a few weeks ago, he has finally been able to progess at his own rate, and it has been a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. But shouldn't DS receive appropriate accelerated instruction in math at school? I don't think he'll want to stop exploring advanced math concepts just because he's learning Spanish.
So I guess I need to find out if DS would still be able to receive accelerated instruction in addition to the language immersion. Would it be feasible to pull him out for that, or would he miss critical instruction time? Also, since they will be adding one year at a time to the program, that would prevent a grade skip within the next few years. (They want long-term commitment to the language immersion program).
Thanks again!
Christi
