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LETTER: Dual language should exist within community schools

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Staff

Why not community school based dual language instruction?

The CHCCS Board of Education is considering a proposal to shut down the Spanish Dual Language Program at Scroggs Elementary and transition Frank Porter Graham Elementary into a dual-language magnet school, displacing the traditional track students as well as the dedicated faculty and staff of this elementary school. Why take these drastic steps? 

The committee that generated this proposal suggests the current “school within a school”-based dual-language programs are too difficult to manage and can’t effectively deliver these programs, so we need drastic action.

The committee also suggests we need to provide equitable access to the Spanish Dual Language Program to all students across our district, and a magnet school solves both of these issues.

HOLD ON and read the fine print!

The committee also recommends the Spanish Dual Language Program at Carrboro Elementary remain intact, running in parallel to the magnet school, with students admitted to Carrboro’s dual-language program through a system-wide lottery in the same way as they are for the magnet school. So the committee acknowledges the district CAN provide dual-language education to students across the district using a “school within a school” approach. The committee and board still, however, suggest that a magnet school is a superior method for delivery of this educational program. How then is this plan equitable?

If a magnet school is superior to community school-based “school within a school” programs, then who decides which students go to the superior program at the new magnet and which students go to the inferior program at Carrboro Elementary? If the magnet school isn’t really superior, then why are we even considering dismantling ANY school in this district to start one instead of fixing and expanding the programs we already have?

Beth Duncan
FPG parent

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