Fletcher Elementary (Chinese Immersion) City of Orange

zubs

Well-known member
Fletcher Elementary as of 03.20.2018 has 45 signups for the Chinese immersion Kindergarten class of 2018-2019.  They need about 7-15 more signups to get a 2nd class going.

If you are interested in having your child go to Chinese immersion public school, check it out:https://www.orangeusd.org/fletcher-elementary-school
You can setup a time with them to see the classes in action.

You can apply for inter-district transfer, and they are accepting new students until end of APR.

FYI: This school only has a 4/10 rating, and more than half the students are on the government lunch program.  However, I zubs the great went to a 4/10 elementary school in Anaheim, and look how awesome I turned out.

 
So today was the first day of school at Fletcher.
The Chinese immersion Kindergarten had 23 students in one class and 24 students in the other.
I thought about the overcrowded Irvine elementary schools with 33 students in a standard class and more waiting to pile in...
at least they get to say their school is 10/10...yay?
 
zubs said:
So today was the first day of school at Fletcher.
The Chinese immersion Kindergarten had 23 students in one class and 24 students in the other.
I thought about the overcrowded Irvine elementary schools with 33 students in a standard class and more waiting to pile in...
at least they get to say their school is 10/10...yay?

Do they really have 33 kids in some classes?  That's insanity.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
We should get some real data here... my kids were never in class that had more 24 students in IUSD.

Can anyone else share their numbers? School starts this week, I'll get another count.

Edit: Added a poll here:
https://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,16523.0.html

When were your kids in elementary?  I know for my wife's district they used to have a strict cap of 20 students for K-3rd.  This was prior to the Great Recession when there was lots of money flowing from Sacramento to the districts.  In recent years, her class sizes have been closer to 27-29 students.

The funny thing is that overall enrollment for her district is in decline, similar to many other SoCal school districts, so the way they keep these classrooms packed is by luring students from poorer performing communities and out-of-district transfers.  Public school districts are in a cage match with each other competing for the same students, especially because charter schools have drained so many students from traditional classrooms.  Every student you can lure from another area increases your school budget by about $9,000.

This immersion program by Fletcher Elementary sounds like a strategy to lure high-achieving Chinese students away from IUSD.
 
zubs said:
Liar Loan said:
This immersion program by Fletcher Elementary sounds like a strategy to lure high-achieving Chinese students away from IUSD.

It's working because Fletcher use to be 3/10.
and this other school called California Elementary in Orange has Spanish immersion but still 3/10.https://www.greatschools.org/california/orange/3916-California-Elementary-School/

I also notice GATE schools are always in the crappy lower rated schools.
can't have GATE if everyone is GAT  ;)
 
Liar Loan said:
zubs said:
So today was the first day of school at Fletcher.
The Chinese immersion Kindergarten had 23 students in one class and 24 students in the other.
I thought about the overcrowded Irvine elementary schools with 33 students in a standard class and more waiting to pile in...
at least they get to say their school is 10/10...yay?

Do they really have 33 kids in some classes?  That's insanity.

I thought 30-40 was the norm
 
inv0ke-epipen said:
Liar Loan said:
zubs said:
So today was the first day of school at Fletcher.
The Chinese immersion Kindergarten had 23 students in one class and 24 students in the other.
I thought about the overcrowded Irvine elementary schools with 33 students in a standard class and more waiting to pile in...
at least they get to say their school is 10/10...yay?

Do they really have 33 kids in some classes?  That's insanity.

I thought 30-40 was the norm

For some schools it is the norm, but I think 25 students is the max to reasonably expect each student will get the individualized attention they need.  Once you go above that, the teacher needs to decide where he/she will focus their efforts.  Usually the lowest students will receive disproportionate attention, while the overall class is tailored for the "average" student.  Smart kids may not get adequately challenged in this environment.
 
Fletcher is now 5/10 on greatschools.com.  It will probably go up to 6/10 soon as the standardized state tests are coming up in May and they have a lot of tiger moms in the immersion program.

A complaint I hears is that the school is putting a lot of resources into the mandarin program at the cost of the regular kids.  But the regular kids would have kept the school at 3/10.

 
zubs said:
Fletcher is now 5/10 on greatschools.com.  It will probably go up to 6/10 soon as the standardized state tests are coming up in May and they have a lot of tiger moms in the immersion program.

A complaint I hears is that the school is putting a lot of resources into the mandarin program at the cost of the regular kids.  But the regular kids would have kept the school at 3/10.

Why not a 8-10?
 
To get a rank 8-10 the school would have to kick out the 50% poor Mexican kids and fill it with Asians.  It's already happening as the lower grades have 2 immersion classes per grade while 3rd grade and up is only 1 class per grade.
 

7/10....when it was 3/10 eight years ago. These mandarin immersion kids sure are killing it.

I've spoken to some Irvine mandarin immersion school parents who moved their kids to Fletcher. They said Fletcher's mandarin program is weaker than Irvine.
 
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