APS Sinking Ship

[Anonymous]

It plans to remedy the gap by lowering the bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No One is ignoring that acps is mostly serving underprivileged/under performing students. It’s widely known and accepted. It has been that way for decades and isn’t worthy of note.

And soon it will be true of south Arlington as well.

What has changed in south Arlington?

Bifurcation. Housing prices have gone way up. Way up. And at the same time, more and more CAFs. Thus what you get are very wealthy who can afford a SFH, and the very poor who can only afford to live here through large subsidies.

The wealthy also can afford to send their kids to private instead of a public school in which 6 or 7 kids out of 10 don’t speak English and live in poverty. It’s not that these parents are “racist” it’s that they know in a classroom situation like that is triage and the teachers are going to put most of their time and effort to the kids that need the most help. And that’s not the kid living in a 850k reno, and TBH shouldn’t be. And when the rich kids bail, the imbalance gets worse, and the worse the imbalance is, the more it repels UMC and MC families who would consider a 40 or 50 percent FRL school but not a 70 or 80 percent one.

Ah yes. That.
- former south Arlington homeowner

It's not racism, it's opportunity hoarding. (And it's not just families in south Arlington, it's the whole system, including people that insist on "neighborhood" boundaries that don't cross route 50---or Lee Highway.) There's no sense that everyone has some civic responsibility to improve the public school system for all kids. No one wants to walk the walk.

Bailing on an underperforming high poverty school is not “opportunity hoarding.” It’s leaving to find opportunity.

How do you bring opportunity to those schools? I think most of us are worried about sacrificing our kids' education for kids who have to start from so far behind? I'm all for integration, but what do you do when 2/3s of your kids' class is learning in English for the first time, can't read, and didn't attend school until recently? It's great that they've made it, but how do you catch them up so that all the kids are at the same level? How can you be sure your kid is still learning? It's the same argument over and over. No one has come up with a solution that works across the board. Which just makes everyone paranoid.

There is a solution that works across the board: busing. Integration and inclusion. Separate isn't equal so anything that separates students will end up unequal. What's lacking isn't evidence, but the political will, esp since everyone who bought before Amazon is now sitting in a gold mine (or so they think).

A few thoughts about your question though. First, what is your description based on? Are you looking at tables and doing mental math about what these classrooms must be like, or are you going from what you know they are like? Second, just how bad for your particular kid is the scenario you describe, being in a setting with people of varying experience, and if that is harmful for your kid, why? People fight to get kids into Montessori because kids of differing abilities teach each other there, so why is it undesirable in this context? Why do you see education as a zero-sum game of the teacher's attention, esp since (going out on a limb here) your kid gets the attention of two educated parents at home to compensate, and is almost never absent?

I have a kid at Carlin Springs w a disability, so I know the administration there is extremely inclusion-minded and open to meeting all students where they are, for whatever reason that they are there. As Title 1 schools, the SA neighborhood schools aren't without resources. The option system is strong in SA IMO to assuage the concerns of parents like you (and me, TBH, my other kid is at an option school) by giving us a path to an environment that's NA-like without us having to move.

NP. Teacher attention is a limited resource. There’s just no avoiding that truth. When the class is homogenous that isn’t a problem- the teacher can be effective and efficient. When the class is heterogenous and has large gaps in preparedness, attention, subject matter familiarity, language, etc, it is very difficult for the teacher to teach more than a few kids at once. He has to do lots of one on one work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No One is ignoring that acps is mostly serving underprivileged/under performing students. It’s widely known and accepted. It has been that way for decades and isn’t worthy of note.

And soon it will be true of south Arlington as well.

What has changed in south Arlington?

Bifurcation. Housing prices have gone way up. Way up. And at the same time, more and more CAFs. Thus what you get are very wealthy who can afford a SFH, and the very poor who can only afford to live here through large subsidies.

The wealthy also can afford to send their kids to private instead of a public school in which 6 or 7 kids out of 10 don’t speak English and live in poverty. It’s not that these parents are “racist” it’s that they know in a classroom situation like that is triage and the teachers are going to put most of their time and effort to the kids that need the most help. And that’s not the kid living in a 850k reno, and TBH shouldn’t be. And when the rich kids bail, the imbalance gets worse, and the worse the imbalance is, the more it repels UMC and MC families who would consider a 40 or 50 percent FRL school but not a 70 or 80 percent one.

Ah yes. That.
- former south Arlington homeowner

It's not racism, it's opportunity hoarding. (And it's not just families in south Arlington, it's the whole system, including people that insist on "neighborhood" boundaries that don't cross route 50---or Lee Highway.) There's no sense that everyone has some civic responsibility to improve the public school system for all kids. No one wants to walk the walk.

Bailing on an underperforming high poverty school is not “opportunity hoarding.” It’s leaving to find opportunity.

How do you bring opportunity to those schools? I think most of us are worried about sacrificing our kids' education for kids who have to start from so far behind? I'm all for integration, but what do you do when 2/3s of your kids' class is learning in English for the first time, can't read, and didn't attend school until recently? It's great that they've made it, but how do you catch them up so that all the kids are at the same level? How can you be sure your kid is still learning? It's the same argument over and over. No one has come up with a solution that works across the board. Which just makes everyone paranoid.

There is a solution that works across the board: busing. Integration and inclusion. Separate isn't equal so anything that separates students will end up unequal. What's lacking isn't evidence, but the political will, esp since everyone who bought before Amazon is now sitting in a gold mine (or so they think).

A few thoughts about your question though. First, what is your description based on? Are you looking at tables and doing mental math about what these classrooms must be like, or are you going from what you know they are like? Second, just how bad for your particular kid is the scenario you describe, being in a setting with people of varying experience, and if that is harmful for your kid, why? People fight to get kids into Montessori because kids of differing abilities teach each other there, so why is it undesirable in this context? Why do you see education as a zero-sum game of the teacher's attention, esp since (going out on a limb here) your kid gets the attention of two educated parents at home to compensate, and is almost never absent?

I have a kid at Carlin Springs w a disability, so I know the administration there is extremely inclusion-minded and open to meeting all students where they are, for whatever reason that they are there. As Title 1 schools, the SA neighborhood schools aren't without resources. The option system is strong in SA IMO to assuage the concerns of parents like you (and me, TBH, my other kid is at an option school) by giving us a path to an environment that's NA-like without us having to move.

NP. Teacher attention is a limited resource. There’s just no avoiding that truth. When the class is homogenous that isn’t a problem- the teacher can be effective and efficient. When the class is heterogenous and has large gaps in preparedness, attention, subject matter familiarity, language, etc, it is very difficult for the teacher to teach more than a few kids at once. He has to do lots of one on one work.

That's my worry. That other thread about ESL in schools talked about even with two teachers, one that focuses on Spanish language speakers to help, it's an uphill battle.

Middle class anxiety rears its head.

[Anonymous]

again the issue is a return to tracking

in a school with 60% ESL for example

group by overall level

The key is to adjust every quarter or so

that's the fairest option to everyone

[Anonymous]

Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

So did you get your kid tracked into the gifted cluster? Or are they doing just fine in gen pop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

So did you get your kid tracked into the gifted cluster? Or are they doing just fine in gen pop?

They just said they didn’t know to get them into the gifted cluster and aren’t doing fine.

[Anonymous]

It all comes down to housing policy. Historically, bussing has been a major flop. Instinct drives us to work through school assignments and the school
board to fix a problem manifesting itself in our schools, but the truly effective solution to Arlington’s school segregation will have to come through housing policy reform that more evenly distributes people of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

The school CAN and should do something about the behavioral problems. It's actually their responsibility. But APS does not do a good job with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

The school CAN and should do something about the behavioral problems. It's actually their responsibility. But APS does not do a good job with this.

What CAN the school do? I'm really curious. Our school has children who are sent out of the classroom every day because of behavior issues. Obviously, their parents either can't figure out how to control their 8 year old or don't care to because we've had issues for years with certain students. We aren't private, where we can kick them out. We aren't a choice school, where we can send them back to their home school. What can we do that WILL do something about their behaviors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

The school CAN and should do something about the behavioral problems. It's actually their responsibility. But APS does not do a good job with this.

What CAN the school do? I'm really curious. Our school has children who are sent out of the classroom every day because of behavior issues. Obviously, their parents either can't figure out how to control their 8 year old or don't care to because we've had issues for years with certain students. We aren't private, where we can kick them out. We aren't a choice school, where we can send them back to their home school. What can we do that WILL do something about their behaviors?

Severe behavioral issues could indicate an underlying disability so may warrant an evaluation for special education. The school has an obligation to find and identify students for special education and if they qualify, they should address behavior as part of the student's plan, with resources such as behavior specialists, a functional behavioral analysis, a behavior improvement plan. Schools can identify triggers to bad behavior, and teach self-regulation/coping strategies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

The school CAN and should do something about the behavioral problems. It's actually their responsibility. But APS does not do a good job with this.

What CAN the school do? I'm really curious. Our school has children who are sent out of the classroom every day because of behavior issues. Obviously, their parents either can't figure out how to control their 8 year old or don't care to because we've had issues for years with certain students. We aren't private, where we can kick them out. We aren't a choice school, where we can send them back to their home school. What can we do that WILL do something about their behaviors?

Send them to ATS. Apparently they're superior to the rest of our schools when it comes to uniformed, disciplined behavior in the classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

The school CAN and should do something about the behavioral problems. It's actually their responsibility. But APS does not do a good job with this.

What CAN the school do? I'm really curious. Our school has children who are sent out of the classroom every day because of behavior issues. Obviously, their parents either can't figure out how to control their 8 year old or don't care to because we've had issues for years with certain students. We aren't private, where we can kick them out. We aren't a choice school, where we can send them back to their home school. What can we do that WILL do something about their behaviors?

Severe behavioral issues could indicate an underlying disability so may warrant an evaluation for special education. The school has an obligation to find and identify students for special education and if they qualify, they should address behavior as part of the student's plan, with resources such as behavior specialists, a functional behavioral analysis, a behavior improvement plan. Schools can identify triggers to bad behavior, and teach self-regulation/coping strategies.

They can also indicate boredom, being under-challenged, or inappropriately being pushed beyond their level of understanding or ability. Behavioral issues can be a sign of just about anything. And I agree, it's the school's responsibility to help parents determine why and what can be done in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

So did you get your kid tracked into the gifted cluster? Or are they doing just fine in gen pop?

They just said they didn’t know to get them into the gifted cluster and aren’t doing fine.

Was rather hoping the meant it in past tense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the classrooms in title 1 schools are segregated themselves. In my kid's class, the gifted kids are always getting pulled out to join the larger gifted cluster in another class for math etc. Guess who is in the gifted program, all the UMC kids. What is left in the class are the EL and not so smart kids. I know of another school with same issue - hence parents make sure their kids are in the gifted program even if they really are not gifted.

My kid isn't so smart, and I didn't know the game. He is left with a class of kids who need a lot of help and oh man the behavioral issues are insane. No support at home for kids with serious behavioral issues. School can't do anything about it. Teaching is to the bottom.

UMC parent with kid at low performing SA school.

The school CAN and should do something about the behavioral problems. It's actually their responsibility. But APS does not do a good job with this.

What CAN the school do? I'm really curious. Our school has children who are sent out of the classroom every day because of behavior issues. Obviously, their parents either can't figure out how to control their 8 year old or don't care to because we've had issues for years with certain students. We aren't private, where we can kick them out. We aren't a choice school, where we can send them back to their home school. What can we do that WILL do something about their behaviors?

Send them to ATS. Apparently they're superior to the rest of our schools when it comes to uniformed, disciplined behavior in the classrooms.

I bet if you told my NA parents their kids was being referred to ATS, rather than Interlude, there would be a lot less pushback.