Tours: Glen Park 10.28 and CAIS 10.30

By Jean -

TourLanguageHoursDistanceGreatschool RatingAPI ScoreTypeMiddle schoolAsianWhiteHispanicAfrican American2 or more races
Glen Park10/28/2014GE8:40-2:40PM0.472719k-5James Lick6.00%13.00%52.00%16.00%5.00%
TuitionMonthly
CAIS10/30/2014Mandarin8-6(?)$24,284$2,428k-8n/a39%19%1%1%41%

Glen Park 10-28-2014
- LOVED its location, one block from Glen Park Bart Station (Also my shuttle stop), i started envisioning myself walking him to school then go catch my shuttle or pick him up after i get off shuttle.
- Loved the old big building with lots of natural lights coming through big windows, high ceiling, spacious classrooms. Huge outdoor play area.

that's pretty much the end of the good things about Glen Park
- The class make up from K to 5th grade are mostly Latino and Black students. I didn't see one single asian face
- the teachers seem a lot lower quality than what we saw at Monroe/Jose/Sunnyside, reminds me of 街道老大妈 in beijing
- the school seems very disorganized, at any given time of the tour, we saw one or two school gates wide open without anyone noticing.
- lots of students arts in the hall way is about "Saying No to Drugs", for an elementary school!
- ZM really doesn't like the male teacher who was helping the principle with the tour. unprofessional looking (standing crooked, shaking his legs, etc.)
- Principle addressing a parent's question on the school's low score saying the teachers don't seem to care about the test, so that needs lots of coaching.
- The principle seems very reasonable and passionate, but this school has a long way to go. I can't imagine Noah fitting in at the classroom and us with the parents.

CAIS 10-30-2014
- the perfect school (other than the cost)
- the location is better than i thought since J train goes straight to Van Ness (one block away from the school).
- 8am start time is a bit early
- everything else is great
- students seem happy, the demographic is 41% mix, 39% Asian, 1% black, 1% latino
- there are 10-15 openings in K this year (25-30 for Pre-K)
- there will be a parent interview and a 90 minutes playdate in Feb (Feb. 7th?)
- Application due Jan. 12th.
- school performance is comparable to all other private schools in the bay area, math and science is better, reading and writing a little less so, but still above average, so much better than public school (based on the chart they showed in their preso)
- 1st graders were sitting at their individual desks and reading chinese text just like i remembered from my own elementary school!
- school tour to china 5th grade (TW), 7th (Beijing), 8th (Tibetan plataeu) seem amazing
- no Chinese fluency is required.
- 3 classes per grade
- fluency: when students graduate from CAIS (8th grade), their mandarin is at Native 5th grade level. not fluent since fluency requires 5000 words vocabulary.

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