Questions for Yu Ming Charter school current parents

Our child was offered a spot in Yu Ming for K.  We would like to get some feedback from parents about the school since in person tours are not allowed at the moment.

  1. How long does your child devote to homework?  How much time do you as parents help your child with homework?
  2. How does the school/teachers support kids that are behind?  Is there pressure for kids to perform well academically and on tests?  How are kids disciplined? 
  3. How does the school deal with bullying?
  4. Is there a high teacher turnover rate?
  5. How much time is devoted to non-academic activities such as arts and free play during the school day and during the after school program?
Mar 15, 2022

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RE:
Questions for Yu Ming Charter school current parents (Mar 15, 2022)
  1. The time depends but the homework required for kinder students is two worksheets per day - one in Mandarin and one in English. In addition, students are asked to read aloud for 15-20 minutes per day. The homework does not make up any part of kinder students' grade. The purpose of the homework is to let teachers know where students are in their understanding and to get students in the habit of doing homework. The only help we provide our child is to read the worksheet instructions and listen to them read.
  2. There are supports but I can't speak to that as it hasn't been needed in our case. Parents are encouraged to download an app with math games, English literacy exercises, and narrated Chinese stories to help their children at home if needed. As for discipline, YM uses a positive rewards system where students can earn tickets for positive behaviors, which they can later turn in for prizes (i.e. erasers, small plastic toys, colorful pencils).
  3. Haven't experienced bullying but parents are sent information about identifying and preventing bullying behaviors in the weekly newsletter.
  4. We're still pretty new but we know that COVID has led to higher turnover in the last two years.
  5. Art is offered once per week. There is some time for free play before school and towards the end of the school day. Our child, unfortunately, is in the Chestnut campus, which is co-located with a middle school, so there is less free play time as the needs of the children in the other school takes precedence as it is their campus.
Mar 25, 2022