Parents advocated for maintaining the “sibling link” for Montgomery County Public Schools’ language immersion programs Monday, suggesting to the school board that allowing siblings to attend the same program helps reinforce the learning of a second language.
The highly popular language immersion programs are offered in seven county elementary schools. MCPS offers one Spanish and two French total immersion programs in which all core subjects, including reading/language arts, are taught in the target language. The school system also has two Spanish and two Chinese partial immersion programs, in which some core subjects are taught in the target language.
If an older brother or sister is enrolled in an immersion program, the younger sibling can be enrolled automatically, according to MCPS policy.
“Equity among siblings is key, as any parent knows,” said Henry Montez, who represented the Latino Student Achievement Action Group, and was among 14 parents who spoke during the public comment section of Monday’s Montgomery County Board of Education meeting.
In January, the board commissioned New York-based research firm Metis Associates to suggest ways to increase access to its academically selective programs because of perceived inequity. Metis delivered a 206-page report in March, and one of its suggestions was to eliminate the sibling link.
The study showed that almost a third of all students admitted to elementary language immersion programs were siblings and in one school’s case, the “sibling link” was as high as 45 percent of the students.
“The sibling link hinders equity of access for non-siblings because it reduces the total number of seats that are available,” the study said. In its place, families would be enrolled in a lottery to decide the enrolled students, the study advised.
Parents, who spoke before the school board, said they supported the current system because language immersion can be more effective if both children are involved. Parents also said having children in different schools would be difficult because of conflicting school events and the commuting distance to the schools. Parent Doreen Maahs called it “a logistical nightmare.”
Two speakers, Marie Mapes and Karen Herrera-Morales, asked the board to at least allow siblings in families with students currently attending language immersion programs to attend the same program.
School board member Patricia O’Neill said the school system does provide grandfathering in other decisions, noting school boundary changes for example.
“No boundary is set in stone. No policy is set in stone, but we do realize we do allow grandfathering,” O’Neill said.
Parent William Jawando of Silver Spring, however, called the sibling link arguments a “red herring” issue. If the school system changed the policies surrounding sibling preferences, the school system would still have problems with equal access for all children, he said. Jawando, a former Obama administration White House aide who ran unsuccessfully last spring for the Democratic nomination for the 8th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, in June filed a federal civil rights complaint against MCPS. The suit alleged the language immersion programs discriminated against his daughter and other children of color.
