Arlington Co. Schools receive sobering report on student literacy
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Anonymous
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Have we discussed the new APS literacy report? Despite all the reports I hear about schools working hard to catch kids up, Arlington students are terribly behind in reading as compared to two years ago. The 3rd grade reading SOL pass rate is down 11% over two years ago and 5th grade is also down about 10%. That's huge. And 9 schools have 40-60% of kids who need reading intervention. Are those kids even eligible for summer school? What about the 19% who are at high risk?
https://wtop.com/arlington/2022/05/arlington-county-school-leaders-share-literacy-report-and-plans-for-improvement/ The APS report is linked in the news article with more data. |
Anonymous
| It's like everyone already knew it was bad before this came out so it's not even worth discussing. |
Anonymous
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Ugh. This is terrible.
We really need our schools funded. We have got to get these kids tutors, reading specialists, etc. |
Anonymous
| I think realistically after essentially having sub par education or 1.5 years it is going to take a massive amount of services to bring kids up. That is going to include substantial summer programs. APS just doesn't have the money or staff for this. |
Anonymous
| If only APS hadn't blown all covid relief funds on virtual learning that doesn't work. |
Anonymous
Doesn't APS have some of the highest funding around? Maybe better use of current dollars would be wise. |
Anonymous
Sure! It doesn’t have to be an either or. And the county board doesn’t make schools a priority. (Note that some of the high spending per student is due to lower class sizes). |
Anonymous
Which is a priority for many APS parents. |
Anonymous
| Is there a way to find results from particular schools? We are trying to evaluate local schools near us. |
Anonymous
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Yes, we have a generation of kids who weren’t properly taught how to read.
So glad we are getting back to structured literacy. We need something like Wilson FUNdations in all early elementary classrooms. And screening for all kids with early interventions. |
Anonymous
Keep in mind that some schools are going to have better test results regardless of instruction in school. Some kids come into K reading b/c they were either at a preschool that taught reading or had a caregver who worked with the child at home. |
Anonymous
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This outcome was completely predictable. Young kids (K-3) needed to be in person at school during this critical developmental phase. It was an urgent issue. Virtual school for this group was completely inappropriate and it didn't take an education degree to see this and know this from early on. And no, of course some of these kids will never catch up.
It's disgusting and shameful. |
Anonymous
Some kids come into K reading because they have high IQs. |
Anonymous
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It isn't all bad:
On a positive note, the report showed an increase in student proficiency among Title I schools. Elementary ELA Supervisor Sarah Cruise says that added proficiency will eliminate the opportunity gap for those students later on. Black and Hispanic students in kindergarten and first grade have also seen a 5-7% increase in their writing proficiency. Though many of the numbers may seem pessimistic, there have been marginal improvements. With the exception of fourth-grade students, the report states the total number of EL learners in the red “at risk” category has actually decreased since the last reporting period. |
Anonymous
| What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year form nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first. |