Families of some students who signed up for an advanced foreign language program in Montgomery County say educators are breaking a promise to their children.
Nearly 100 parents crowded a band room at Winston Churchill High late Monday to complain about problems with the system’s Chinese curriculum. The meeting quickly turned contentious, with parents accusing administrators of avoiding tough questions.
“Why would you offer a course where there is no curriculum?” one parent asked.
Parents said as many as 25 students have been forced to drop out of upper-level Chinese language courses. Those children were part of a program in which kids are immersed in the Chinese language with a focus on fluency and culture, rather than learning through more traditional methods.
They claim their children are instead being mixed with those studying for advanced placement exams, where they are expected to complete work they are not yet prepared for.
“A number of the older kids, they’ve kind of been guinea pigs,” said Lisa Johnson, whose son completed a popular Chinese immersion program at Potomac Elementary and is now a ninth-grader taking the language at Churchill .
Most of the problems have been reported at Churchill, because that’s where students from Potomac end up. Parents said they had high hopes for the Chinese immersion program when it began there 12 years ago.
Brenda Willett said her 11th-grade son was forced to drop out of his Chinese course at Churchill after being “introduced to all this material he had never seen.” As a graduate of the Potomac immersion program, he is nearly fluent in the language, she said.
School officials said they are in the process of writing curriculum for the upper-level immersion courses, but say teachers aren’t required to participate and that there is no national standard for teaching Chinese.
Schools spokeswoman Kate Harrison said that Montgomery’s Chinese program was an overall success, noting that 98 of the 110 students who took AP exams in the subject last year got perfect scores.
“We are listening to parent concerns at Churchill and will continue to engage in a dialogue,” Harrison said.
But that wasn’t enough for some parents.
“We all want Montgomery County to step up to the plate and take care of it, otherwise don’t have a Chinese immersion program,” Johnson said.
