Arlington Traditional School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS parent here. The math curriculum in all of APS sucks. Sure at ATS students do better at SOLs but the bar is really low. ATS’s math curriculum is random and makes no sense.

We're not at ATS, but the story I have heard about the APS math curriculum is that they have to teach to the Virginia Standards of Learning and there is no off the shelf curriculum that matches that exactly. That's why they are all using piecemeal materials to teach the required standards. I'm not sure if that's true, if so it seems like every single district in the state has the same problem to solve.

That is 100% true. Seems to me like would be easier if we just. Went. Common. Core!
- APS teacher

Since we did not, and given you have the inside view, what would you do to improve the math curriculum if you were the superintendent? The math curriculum needs to change but changing it seems to be quite complicated :/

Great question. (I’m the PP above.) It seems difficult to believe that VA doesn’t have enough purchasing power to find a quality program that matches our standards. Or at the very least, work with other states to buy something really close. I just checked https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/common-core-states, which has some very interesting info. Really, this should be a state responsibility and not left to school districts to deal with.

Different parts of the US do this differently. Much of New England has small local school districts, each choosing its own curriculum supplier, within broad guidelines from its state. Texas is the other extreme, where the curriculum suppliers are chosen by the state and local school systems have little flexibility about suppliers.

One state's approach is not always better than another state's approach.

Virginia is closer to the New England model.

VA recently has required that a Science of Reading curriculum be used for ELA -- and that the Lucy Calkins / Whole Language / Balanced Literacy approach must not be used. For VA, that is fairly prescriptive.

In most subjects, VA sets requirements for what to cover, both by subject and by grade, but it gives local schools latitude about their curriculum supplier.

But how much does that even matter when the bar is set so low to begin with? I mean the SOL content expectation is way too easy in every subject and many can't or won't teach past it for a variety of reasons.

We have new standards of learning for English language arts and there is a definite improvement when compared to the previous SOL. We are still way behind in math though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

My exposure is to parents from a different APS option school... but I know exactly what they mean. It's not all of the parents by any means, but there are a subset of parents who say things like the option schools are "public school +" that are absolutely insufferable. If you don't believe me go look in the archives for the threads protesting the great site swap of 2021.

So you are saying there aren’t patents from neighborhood schools that are obsessed with praising their neighborhood school? There is clearly a problem on this board where parents who don’t send their kids to ATS are obsessed with talking about it and seem to believe they know what the school is like even though their kids don’t go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

My exposure is to parents from a different APS option school... but I know exactly what they mean. It's not all of the parents by any means, but there are a subset of parents who say things like the option schools are "public school +" that are absolutely insufferable. If you don't believe me go look in the archives for the threads protesting the great site swap of 2021.

So you are saying there aren’t patents from neighborhood schools that are obsessed with praising their neighborhood school? There is clearly a problem on this board where parents who don’t send their kids to ATS are obsessed with talking about it and seem to believe they know what the school is like even though their kids don’t go there.

This response is exactly what they are talking about, actually. It's anxious about justifying your choices and also condescending about everyone else's choices. You are the neurotic parent subtype that disproportionately drawn to APS option schools.

That said, ATS is good! Kids do well there! Those kids would also do well anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

My exposure is to parents from a different APS option school... but I know exactly what they mean. It's not all of the parents by any means, but there are a subset of parents who say things like the option schools are "public school +" that are absolutely insufferable. If you don't believe me go look in the archives for the threads protesting the great site swap of 2021.

So you are saying there aren’t patents from neighborhood schools that are obsessed with praising their neighborhood school? There is clearly a problem on this board where parents who don’t send their kids to ATS are obsessed with talking about it and seem to believe they know what the school is like even though their kids don’t go there.

This response is exactly what they are talking about, actually. It's anxious about justifying your choices and also condescending about everyone else's choices. You are the neurotic parent subtype that disproportionately drawn to APS option schools.

That said, ATS is good! Kids do well there! Those kids would also do well anywhere else.

No im not condescending others peoples choices. I’m responding to the PP who just said that all people talk about during sport practices is how no one wants to send their kids to a school with the types of parents that send their kids to ATS. My response to this is that annoying parents exist everywhere. There are annoying parents who are obsessed with justifying their decision to send their kids to their neighborhood school and there are annoying parents who are obsessed with justifying their decision to send their kids to ATS. Yet people on this board, and PP is a perfect example of this type, are obsessed with criticizing ATS and ATS parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

Our neighbor (the dad) wears his blue and yellow ATS shirt when he brings his kid to the park after school. So weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

Our neighbor (the dad) wears his blue and yellow ATS shirt when he brings his kid to the park after school. So weird.

What’s the difference between your neighbor wearing their blue ATS shirt to the park and a parent who for example has a decal on their car with the name of their kids school? Again why are you so focused on ATS parents? Parents in other schools do this too. It’s not just an ATS thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t follow a different curriculum, and yes, they use iPads in the classroom.

One benefit of homework is that parents catch when their child isn’t grasping a concept, and can work on it at home. There’s no surprise at the end of the year that your child was struggling.

At the end of the day, it’s still a public school with large class sizes. If you can afford it, there are many private schools in the area that are far superior.

Also, ATS crossed the threshold this year to become a Title 1 (high poverty) school. Only time will tell if they can remain one of our higher performing elementary schools.

ATS didn’t cross some threshold. The demographics didn’t suddenly change. Arlington changed the way title 1 eligibility is calculated. That’s it.

Demographics HAVE changed due to increased focus on getting more VPI kids in the school.

Clearly you aren’t an ATS parent
Cuz u have no idea what’s going on. Actually there are less spots for VPI students now. Disappointing because they added a lot to diversity of school. This was the result of APS deciding that lottery was unfair because so many seats are taken by VPI students.

And yet… it’s Title 1.

You don’t get it do you? We are excited that it is a title 1 school. It means more resources for ATS kids. There is nothing wrong with being a title 1 school unless of course you are a person that hates poor people.

That may be true of current parents, but there are families who won't apply to ATS going forward because it's a Title 1 school and that is often equated with lower performance, attendance issues and behavior issues. Those may or may not be issues for ATS specifically, but being Title 1 isn't universally viewed as beneficial.

That is pure ignorance but true.ATS is an exception because of the school culture.We left a N. Arlington school that has gone downhill with kids behaviors (bullhorns at lunch to keep order), no transparency with school work(no graded work), click culture, lack of diversity, and little continuity of learning (no homework). Many parents of No Arlington elementary schools are not feeling the no homework policy. These kids suffer in middle school with a huge culture shock on exception. We don't regret moving our kid.

So did you move to a different county or move to private?

[Anonymous]

Hundreds of people still on the ATS waitlist. More than any other option school.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hundreds of people still on the ATS waitlist. More than any other option school.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

No one disagrees with you.

Just remember, the best slice of government cheese is still… government cheese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

Our neighbor (the dad) wears his blue and yellow ATS shirt when he brings his kid to the park after school. So weird.

What’s the difference between your neighbor wearing their blue ATS shirt to the park and a parent who for example has a decal on their car with the name of their kids school? Again why are you so focused on ATS parents? Parents in other schools do this too. It’s not just an ATS thing.

It’s across the front of his chest rather than discreetly placed on the back of the family vehicle.

The only thing that makes it weird is the frequency with which he wears it. Surely they aren’t having spirit days multiple times a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hundreds of people still on the ATS waitlist. More than any other option school.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

No one disagrees with you.

Just remember, the best slice of government cheese is still… government cheese.

which is the same USDA recipe as Velveeta. They taste the exact same. Yes, the private brand follows a public recipe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hundreds of people still on the ATS waitlist. More than any other option school.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

No one disagrees with you.

Just remember, the best slice of government cheese is still… government cheese.

which is the same USDA recipe as Velveeta. They taste the exact same. Yes, the private brand follows a public recipe.

LOL. Keep telling yourself that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS parent here. The math curriculum in all of APS sucks. Sure at ATS students do better at SOLs but the bar is really low. ATS’s math curriculum is random and makes no sense.

We're not at ATS, but the story I have heard about the APS math curriculum is that they have to teach to the Virginia Standards of Learning and there is no off the shelf curriculum that matches that exactly. That's why they are all using piecemeal materials to teach the required standards. I'm not sure if that's true, if so it seems like every single district in the state has the same problem to solve.

That is 100% true. Seems to me like would be easier if we just. Went. Common. Core!
- APS teacher

Since we did not, and given you have the inside view, what would you do to improve the math curriculum if you were the superintendent? The math curriculum needs to change but changing it seems to be quite complicated :/

Great question. (I’m the PP above.) It seems difficult to believe that VA doesn’t have enough purchasing power to find a quality program that matches our standards. Or at the very least, work with other states to buy something really close. I just checked https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/common-core-states, which has some very interesting info. Really, this should be a state responsibility and not left to school districts to deal with.

Different parts of the US do this differently. Much of New England has small local school districts, each choosing its own curriculum supplier, within broad guidelines from its state. Texas is the other extreme, where the curriculum suppliers are chosen by the state and local school systems have little flexibility about suppliers.

One state's approach is not always better than another state's approach.

Virginia is closer to the New England model.

VA recently has required that a Science of Reading curriculum be used for ELA -- and that the Lucy Calkins / Whole Language / Balanced Literacy approach must not be used. For VA, that is fairly prescriptive.

In most subjects, VA sets requirements for what to cover, both by subject and by grade, but it gives local schools latitude about their curriculum supplier.

But how much does that even matter when the bar is set so low to begin with? I mean the SOL content expectation is way too easy in every subject and many can't or won't teach past it for a variety of reasons.

We have new standards of learning for English language arts and there is a definite improvement when compared to the previous SOL. We are still way behind in math though.

If at least 2/3 of the class aren't getting Bs or lower on their report cards, the class should be audited to make sure it's rigorous enough. If the content passes muster then great but the grade inflation needs to stop. English should by far be the easiest subject for native speaking kids to learn yet there are so many kids that are grade levels below where they should be. Half the people on this forum seem to be as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite quote from when my kids were in a neighborhood school and we’d have to listen to the ATS parents at soccer practice, “I’d never send my kids to a school with kids with the type of parents that send their kids to ATS.”

ATS parents generally don't talk about being at ATS with others for this reason, your jealously and soccer teams are largely ES based so, unless this is travel, you are lying.

My exposure is to parents from a different APS option school... but I know exactly what they mean. It's not all of the parents by any means, but there are a subset of parents who say things like the option schools are "public school +" that are absolutely insufferable. If you don't believe me go look in the archives for the threads protesting the great site swap of 2021.

So you are saying there aren’t patents from neighborhood schools that are obsessed with praising their neighborhood school? There is clearly a problem on this board where parents who don’t send their kids to ATS are obsessed with talking about it and seem to believe they know what the school is like even though their kids don’t go there.

This response is exactly what they are talking about, actually. It's anxious about justifying your choices and also condescending about everyone else's choices. You are the neurotic parent subtype that disproportionately drawn to APS option schools.

That said, ATS is good! Kids do well there! Those kids would also do well anywhere else.

No im not condescending others peoples choices. I’m responding to the PP who just said that all people talk about during sport practices is how no one wants to send their kids to a school with the types of parents that send their kids to ATS. My response to this is that annoying parents exist everywhere. There are annoying parents who are obsessed with justifying their decision to send their kids to their neighborhood school and there are annoying parents who are obsessed with justifying their decision to send their kids to ATS. Yet people on this board, and PP is a perfect example of this type, are obsessed with criticizing ATS and ATS parents.

The derision definitely cuts both ways. When we were zoned for Taylor and sent our kids to Key for immersion, we got looks. Especially when we continued immersion and sent our kids to (gasp!) south Arlington middle and high schools instead of the coveted north Arlington schools that were our neighborhood schools. To each their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hundreds of people still on the ATS waitlist. More than any other option school.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

No one disagrees with you.

Just remember, the best slice of government cheese is still… government cheese.

which is the same USDA recipe as Velveeta. They taste the exact same. Yes, the private brand follows a public recipe.

LOL. Keep telling yourself that.

Many privates around here serving that fancy French cheese. 😆