I guess people actually read this thing?
Last night, I pointed out that PUC iPrep’s charter petition explicitly states that their outreach will be in English, Spanish and Mandarin, but that their website was only in English. Here is a view of their website as of last night.
By 4:00 PM today, the website has changed:
Can ya see it? They added “Página web en español muy pronto!” and “国语网站即将推出”.
Changing their website is a friendly gesture, but it ignores that they did a majority of their outreach in English, and that their lottery date has already come and gone. Their roster is probably already set. Their Facebook Page? Entirely in English. How about these advertisements placed in the LA Gold line?
Were they placed in Spanish and Mandarin as well? Show me photos please.
To be fair, it is clear that some of their materials were translated. Their application is in Spanish (but not in Mandarin). And here is one photo of fliers that are in Spanish (again, not in Mandarin)
I know, this may seem like a small thing, but when a charter school commits to a certain type of outreach, it really should follow through. Charter schools are schools of choice and the outreach they conduct can deeply affect their student demographics.
This is especially true in enrollment for an immersion school. One of the main theories of the immersion methodology is that students who are fluent and students who are learning are in the same classroom, so that students don’t only learn from the teacher, they also learn from each other.
By failing to follow through on this very simple aspect of their petition, I question whether the school can really follow through on delivering the big promise of creating a successful dual immersion school with two language offerings.