Are Fairfax County Alexandria schools better than Alexandria City schools?
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Anonymous
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My kids are in a Title I school. School also has high percentage of ESOL students. My kids have also been identified "gifted". By PPs assessment, I should be running away, because my kids school is so focused on poor underachieving kids who don't speak English, my kids will languish.
This has not been our experience at all. My kids get specialized instruction in small groups based on their academic level. Teachers and administrators meet as a team to discuss education plans for my children. They enjoy utilizing the many resources that the school has (thanks to Title I funding). Our Title I parent involvement nights are great events enjoyed by all families from all backgrounds. I'd be an idiot to pull my children out of this school and put them into a private, or move away from this neighborhood. |
Anonymous
Glad you're having a good experience. Some Title I schools are great. But others will defend their Title I, high-ESOL/FRL schools to the hilt, and then hit a wall and assert their kids haven't gotten as good an education there as at other schools; don't have equal access to Level IV services; are at a disadvantage when applying to TJHSST or to colleges, etc. Again, I'm not suggesting people should reject Title I schools automatically, but as long as NCLB exists schools with exceptionally high numbers of ESOL/FRL students are likely to focus on the needs of their most challenged students. People in this area generally know this; if they felt otherwise, they'd flock to areas served by Title I schools to take advantage of the less expensive housing and additional resources that schools in such areas receive. Do people really spurn Lyles-Crouch for J-H with any frequency, or cross a home in the Waynewood or Stratford Landing ES districts off their list so they can go live in Hybla Valley instead? |
Anonymous
Not the PP you’re responding to but I agree with her. No one said that every school is equal. You’re focusing on the entire school, not how an individual student will perform. FCPS isn’t required to provide the most challenging environment for students, they are to educate all kids to a minimum standard set by the government. That standard is the same across FCPS. You’re implying that students in the rich areas of FFX are offered better educational opportunities (more challenging opportunities) than those in the poorer area. That’s simply not the case. If that were true, you can bet there’d be quite a few lawsuits about it. While scores may vary, every student in FCPS has the same education opportunities provided by their school. Every school feeds into an AAP center or has differentiated instruction for those who benefit from greater challenges. I don’t know why you think higher achieving students are being ignored in favor of lower scoring students. You don’t seem to have any experience with those kids of schools or know anyone who actually attends them. All you have is your opinion about poor kids whose families don’t speak English at home. |
Anonymous
I think the PP did suggest every school was more or less equal. No doubt FCPS is expected to meet minimum standards in every school. As to whether the educational opportunities are comparable across-the-board, that's open to debate. A complaint was recently filed by the NAACP and another group called the "Coalition of the Silence" (headed by a former FCPS School Board member) with the Department of Education specifically alleging that there are "enormous disparities in the quality of Fairfax County schools and the programs offered in these schools" and that "as a result, FCPS has evolved into a system that essentially operates a network of separate and unequal schools." Do you think these claims, or the circumstances that give rise to them, are lost on parents? In addition, if students attend schools with higher-achieving peers, who come from families where a high priority is placed on education, that allows teachers to explore materials in greater depth and spend less time worrying about maintaining order in the classroom or seeking to ensure that the students achieve a minimum level of competency. That may not readily lend itself to a lawsuit, since the teachers and administrators may be doing the best they can, but it provides students at some schools with superior educational opportunities. This is pretty elementary stuff, no pun intended. Sometimes there's a reason for the conventional wisdom, after all. |
Anonymous
| I live in Alexandria, but have taught in both Alexandria and Fairfax County. It makes me so sad to say that ACPS is a disaster. The current administration is dysfunctional, and this quickly trickles down to make working in the schools a real challenge. I worked with great teachers, but the odds are stacked against them until they get new administration. |
Anonymous
| Based on a comment from the PP, I read the Coalition of the Silence complaint about FCPS and the TJ admissions process. It didn't so much lead me to think that there's a huge disparity among schools as much as there's economic/racial discrimination. What's particularly concerning is the parent group that argues so strongly and influentially for the "right" kind of student at TJ - all the while increasing numbers of students there need math remediation. What I take away from it isn't so much that the poor/diverse schools are bad but that there are still racial/economic barriers to academic achievement. If you haven't read the complaint, you should http://coalitionofthesilence.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/fairfax-complaint-7-23.pdf |
Anonymous
Which parent group are you referring to? FCAG argues that more emphasis should be placed on the TJ admissions test and math GPAs than is currently the case, and that doing so will reduce the number of students who require math remediation at TJ. COS/NAACP is worried that, if this ever happens, the number of black and Hispanic students at TJ will decline further, so it's contending that FCPS needs to spend more time (and more time usually means more money) beefing up advanced academic programs at the elementary and middle school levels and enrolling more black and Hispanic students in those programs. Either way, you can't read the COS/NAACP complaint without seeing that they are now on the record as asserting that there are "enormous disparities in the quality of Fairfax County schools and the programs offered in those schools." The crux of their argument appears to be that the impact of attending inferior schools is borne primarily by black and Hispanic students, as a result of which such students are underrepresented at TJ. You may disagree with that argument, but they specifically asserted that FCPS is now operating a "network of separate and unequal schools," not just that black and Hispanic students are discriminated against at schools where other students excel. I understand that white parents with kids at those schools may not like to see the COS and NAACP portray them negatively, but that's what they've done. Whether they are shooting themselves in the foot in the process is a different issue. |
Anonymous
I don't think there is any discrimination. I do think there is a huge disparity between academic achievement amongst racial/socioeconomic groups. Despite early efforts to get young underrepresented minorities into AAP, they continue to be underrepresented. That does not equate to discrimination. Are Asians not a minority? Asians represent a smaller % of the total percentage of Fairfax County than Hispanics. |
Anonymous
| Not sure how much this helps, but Northern Virginia Magazine just compiled a list of the best elementary schools and four City of Alexandria schools were on the list, and only one Fairfax County Alexandria was on the list (Stratford Landing). |
Anonymous
The complaint specifically states there is discrimintion againt blacks and Hispanics and outlines how that discrimination is occurring - including the failure of the school system to identify and nurture black/Hispanic students in the early years as is done for white students. The complaint doesn't extend to Asians even though they are a minority in terms of populations, they are over-represented. |
Anonymous
There aren't many Asians in either the City of Alexandria or the Alexandria part of Fairfax County compared to how Asians are spread out elsewhere in Fairfax. |
Anonymous
That was my thought when I considered looking at a house by there. OP - use this link to view the profile for the Fairfax County school (just enter a home address) - I recommend viewing the demographic and test result profiles. http://boundary.fcps.edu/boundary/ |
Anonymous
So why did they spend the majority of their complaint focusing on statistics re: TJ admissions vs. focusing on statistics re: AAP eligibility, especially given the timing of changes in the AAP eligibility process so tat it no longer simply looks at test scores? |
Anonymous
I don't undertand your question. |
Anonymous
The focus of their complaint is not on TJ admissions but is instead on Level 4 AAP eligibility, as their complaint states the "best" (my word, not theirs) way into TJ is through Level 4 Centers. They provide historical data about TJ admissions in their complaint, but do not provide historical data about Level 4 AAP eligibility. FCPS has made changes to the Level 4 AAP eligibility methodology, specifically to address historically underrepresented populations. Presentations to the School Board have shown some gains for black and Hispanic populations over this period in time. (As an aside, there have been many that have complained about these changes in the eligibility criteria, arguing that AAP Centers are now "watered down.") So why doesn't their complaint show the longitudinal data about Level 4 GT/AAP eligibility and instead simply focuses on a snapshot of data about AAP Centers (from 2009, I believe) and the longitudinal data about TJ admissions? |