Are the City of Alexandria public schools really that bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: And TC is just a bastion of problems, including a dropout rate of around 40% for Hispanics and a daycare center for the children of students, although it does offer a lot of classes, has some excellent faculty, and some upper middle class white kids do very well (and their parents cynically believe that this gives them a leg up on college admissions by virtue of "surviving" a poor school). SATs just came out and I think TC's was around 1,435 or something like that, nearly 300 points lower than the better Arlington and FFX high schools..

How is meeting the needs of students, including student parents, a bad thing?

Because apparently that poster does not want her children exposed to "that kind of behavior" and would prefer if student parents just dropped out of school, hid their heads in shame and stayed out of sight.

Np here. I think it's a good thing to meet the needs of students so that they can complete high school. I'm just wondering why so many students are having babies so that a full-on daycare is warranted. How many babies are in the daycare? Is the daycare really in demand? Do other people in the community, like teachers, have access to it for their babies?

[Anonymous]

Look, TC is a large school serving an extraordinarily diverse community. Kids come to TC from every possible background: there are Ivy League legacy kids from affluent families who went to private k-8 schools before deciding they wanted the diversity and challenge of a big public school; there are kids who come from extremely poor and uneducated families; there are kids who came to the US from dozens of other countries as young adolescents and are still struggling to learn English. You can find it all at TC. A talented and academically motivated kid can excel there; a shy kid may get lost there.

It's like the difference between living in New York City and living in Williamsburg, Virginia. It's not good versus bad -- it's big versus small, diverse versus more homogeneous, and so on. Big and diverse generally also means more issues and challenges: fights, drop-outs, discipline issues, kids with kids of their own, kids supporting their immigrant families by working nights. But it also means more opportunities: more classes, more extra-currics, and a greater range of potential friends and exposure to more life experiences. Some kids will love it, some won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: And TC is just a bastion of problems, including a dropout rate of around 40% for Hispanics and a daycare center for the children of students, although it does offer a lot of classes, has some excellent faculty, and some upper middle class white kids do very well (and their parents cynically believe that this gives them a leg up on college admissions by virtue of "surviving" a poor school). SATs just came out and I think TC's was around 1,435 or something like that, nearly 300 points lower than the better Arlington and FFX high schools..

How is meeting the needs of students, including student parents, a bad thing?

Because apparently that poster does not want her children exposed to "that kind of behavior" and would prefer if student parents just dropped out of school, hid their heads in shame and stayed out of sight.

Np here. I think it's a good thing to meet the needs of students so that they can complete high school. I'm just wondering why so many students are having babies so that a full-on daycare is warranted. How many babies are in the daycare? Is the daycare really in demand? Do other people in the community, like teachers, have access to it for their babies?

A couple years ago, stats showed that Alexandria City had the highest number of teen births for the region. Considering the population of the city is @140K , we shouldn't have high rates.

The problem with the City is that it essentially is till a welfare City and until that tradition is broken, the schools don't get better

[Anonymous]

Extricate most of the teachers (not all), administrators (not all) and support staff (not all) currently working in ACPS to another more homogeneous city and no, the school system wouldn't be "that bad".

There is no end to discussion of Alexandria City itself, which is truly unique in Northern Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Extricate most of the teachers (not all), administrators (not all) and support staff (not all) currently working in ACPS to another more homogeneous city and no, the school system wouldn't be "that bad".

There is no end to discussion of Alexandria City itself, which is truly unique in Northern Virginia.

To the Students in ACPS and their parents, as our Nation celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, never forget the below great address either. Allow yourself to substitute "Negro" for any of the 70 some ethnicities in ACPS as you read these sage words.

To my fellow Alexandrians, Spanish, African-American, Caucasian, Equadorian, Mexican, and all ethnicity's in ACPS, this rings as true today as then. Address the children's culture of poverty, lack of hope for jobs and future, address living status and hunger, the drugs, depression, suicidal ideation and you will see our schools improve.

To our ACPS School Board: tap the mind of a Hispanic or African American great educator/leader for Superintendent as to know is to understand, to identify with kids' struggles is to lead them forward, faster and more intimately. To our City Council: don't through low income and affordable housing out with the bath water as you densify Alexandria.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King, Jr.
delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C
http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf