paying attention to dual language in Worcester

 I've only occasionally been paying attention to what's going on with the Worcester Public Schools¹, but a sequence over the past week has me paying attention. 

Samuel Adams in the U.S. Capitol
Because I am feeling a lot like that about this.

One of the things that is very close to my heart, both personally and professionally, is Worcester's dual language program. Over my transom last week came the following message that had gone to parents in the dual language program: 

We are excited to share an update regarding the future of our Dual Language program. To provide our middle school students with a dedicated, immersive environment tailored to their academic and linguistic growth, the Dual Language Magnet School will transition to a preK-8 grade model for the 2026-2027 school year.  

This model is designed to: • strengthen our current language model; • prevent attrition from elementary to secondary; • strengthen family partnerships

Key aspects of our program remain consistent, including the high-quality ²Dual Language curriculum, and full access to middle school extracurriculuar activities. Additionally, transportation eligibility between home and school will continue for students in all grade levels.

The memo then went on to invite parents to an upcoming information session, and included an FAQ.

In the FAQ was the following question and response: 

What is the plan for the rising 9th graders and the dual language program at the high school?

Over the past several years, we have closely monitored enrollment in the high school Dual Language pathway. What we have seen is that only a very small number of students who complete the middle school Dual Language program choose to continue the DL pathway in high school. Because of very limited enrollment, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain the program in a way that provides a full and robust academic program for students. For that reason, the district is planning to phase out the 9th grade dual language strand, beginning with the current transition. This will be done gradually so that we can be thoughtful and supportive of students as we adjust our programming.  

Emphasis mine

Where to begin?

The Dual Language program in Worcester has only been through 12th grade since 2024, when the first graduating class that had been in the program since kindergarten reached their senior year. It should have reached that stage in 2023, when the class that started the program in first grade reached their senior year, but the district had, when that class reached seventh grade, made no plans at all for their secondary experience, so those students were simply dropped. It was only due to parental organization and advocacy that the district made plans for that year's rising sixth graders to continue the program at Burncoat Middle School.

Thus the multi-year monitoring of enrollment in the high school is simply made up; the program has only been at the high school at all for six years, and has only had a complete program for two. 

By moving the middle schoolers from Burncoat Middle³, the district will be denying those students:

1. a parallel transition with every other student in the district. There are no other K-8 schools in Worcester. All other students in the Worcester Public Schools transition out of their elementary schools to a middle school program after grade 6. Thus, their peers all will have had that transition together in seventh grade; only the dual language students will do so in 9th grade.
   
   
2. access to the Burncoat Magnet programs, long the attraction of the Burncoat quadrant
   
   
3. access to JV sports at Burncoat High, which students at the middle school are able to participate in, through MIAA paperwork, in part because the schools share a campus.

And that's just off the top of my head.
That doesn't sound like the full middle school experience promised above, does it? 

That's not actually what bothers me the most about this, though. What bothers me the most is how this continues a pattern--which has periodically been mercifully interrupted--of administration that just doesn't want to put the work in to make a preK-12 dual language program work. 

Massachusetts⁴ is, due to the Unz ballot initiative having barred dual language programs save under very specific circumstances, wildly behind much of the rest of the country on dual language programs, which have successfully existed for generations elsewhere. Having dual language programs through 12th grade is not a new idea, and it is not something that Worcester somehow is inventing. 

You do have to want it to work; you do have to give it time to work; you do have to give it support, both inside and outside the district, to work. You need to see it as something that should be featured and celebrated as much as other secondary programs. You need to target information within the community.

When I received the information above, I inquired of a few school committee members, who were assured that, no, indeed, there were no plans to discontinue the program at the high school. 
Yet, of course, the parents of students who are currently in the program were told that there was just that plan. This has now been followed up with a press release⁵ obediently parroted by the local press outlets, spinning this all as a grand, well-thought out plan .Whatever the plan is or is not as of right this day in April--and frankly, who knows?--what the district has now done is continue the pattern of instability in program, which any parent can tell you is poison. 

Beginning in 2011, when Worcester took on a full dual language program (beyond the bilingual classrooms that already existed at Chandler Magnet School), the program has been:

1. at Norrback, Roosevelt, and Chandler Magnet
2. consolidated to Roosevelt and Chandler Magnet due to school-level lack of administrative support at Norrback
3. dropped for the seventh graders coming from Roosevelt and Chandler Magnet
4. created for seventh graders coming from Roosevelt and Chandler Magnet at Burncoat Middle School, after enormous parent advocacy
5. added at Burncoat High School, again after significant parent advocacy
6. somewhere in here, added to Woodland Academy
7. Consolidated at the elementary level at a dual language school on Grafton Hill
8. Consolidated into 525 Chandler Street, renamed the Dual Language School

...that doesn't sound like something you want to sign up for, does it? 

That's after, of course, Worcester having a tumultuous history when it comes to educating kids in languages other than English at all. It hasn't been 75 years since the district faced a lawsuit from parents whose children's first language was Spanish. That the district does not see this as a shared responsibility, about which people other than those whose children are currently in the school buildings would care, is also itself a problem⁶This should be a larger community discussion, involving the COMMUNITY, rather than relegated to parent communication apps.

Let me hazard two guesses on what is happening here:

1. enrollment is low at the secondary level (both middle and high), and the district would save money by consolidating to 525 Chandler Street.
   The easy way for us to tell this is if, when the budget comes out next month, the staff loss at Burncoat Middle isn't entirely made up by the Dual Language School. I'll bet you a hamburger on that one.
   
   
2. Another thing that is going on in the district right now is the planning for a new Burncoat High School, which will probably include the middle school. As part of that process, the district has to submit an academic plan for the building, as the building has to be built to suit the programs in it. If the district drops dual language at the high school level and gets it out of Burncoat Middle, that doesn't have to be included in the MSBA plans for the new building.

Oh, right: dual language kids also won't get the new Burncoat. Sorry. 

Those are, as I said a guess (thought I feel pretty confident about the first one). 

I have not seen anything indicating that any of this is being brought to a School Committee vote, though moving a secondary school program to an elementary school should require one, The dropping of a high school program wholesale likewise should require School Committee deliberation. Aside from the upcoming budget hearing--maybe May 28?--it isn't clear to me how it is that the community expresses concern ⁷about all of the above, though you could join me in contacting the School Committee. 

________________________________________________
¹it isn't good for my blood pressure.
²Someone didn't get the memo that "High Quality Instructional Materials" must always be capitalized /s
³and they are being moved; the dual language program has been at Burncoat Middle since there has been a seventh and eighth grade dual language program; that isn't new, despite some press outlets getting that very wrong.
⁴as noted by, among others, the current Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, who would know
⁵the press release was when I decided that this was getting a blog post. There are few things I loathe more than being spun, and when a school district feels they need to spin, pay attention. 

⁶and something that seems to be happening a lot. The district has a "Family and Community Engagement" group that doesn't appear to involve the larger community, as best as I can tell, though I am, as always, happy to stand corrected. 
⁷let alone furious disagreement, which is how I would characterize myself on this