APS: Wow, the SB meeting was a DOOZY

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The gist of the conversation is that Reid said that we need to be doing more to increase diversity across APS schools. The Center for American Progress is coming out with a report that apparently highlights APS as meeting the definition of a segregated school system. Tannia's point seemed to be that the minority students prefer being clustered together because it makes them feel more comfortable. She said that she didn't appreciate growing up as the token Latino in her own school district. She seemed to be saying that Reid, as a white male, doesn't have the right to say what is best for minority students. A lot of people think the segregation in Arlington is because 22207 prefers to stay white and upper-class- which is partly true, at least in some circles. But the other part of the equation that doesn't get talked about is that the Arlington Latino community does not want to integrate either. I have heard this opinion expressed privately by APS staff and prominent Arlington Dems, but Tannia last night kicked it out into the open for the first time. It was a weird exchange, but I'm glad that we can finally be open about the dynamics going on here. It is also why Arl Co politicians continue to concentrate affordable housing along the Pike and try to demonize CARD.

She should make that point without using idiotic terms like "microaggression." She sounds like a petulant college freshman all worked up about wimmins studies.

I think this is all identifying an interesting and difficult conversation. I think all of the above is probably true, both in 22207 and in the Latino community. People are generally more comfortable with people who are like them. I don't know that it is right that white UMC people like me should be telling other populations, whether defined by racial/ethnic status or by socioeconomic status, that they should want integrated schools, or "better schools," or to go to Yorktown, or whatever. It can be kind of patronizing/white man's burden kind of stuff. But, it does seem from a SCHOOL perspective that there is research and some level of consensus that concentrated low-income students leads to worse outcomes for the low-income students and increases the burden on the school/staff itself. For that reason, I'm in favor of increasing diversity in our schools and would try to do so based on socioeconomic status because that's the criterion I think most relates to school success/failure.

I also think there are people who don't agree with me whether because they're opportunity-hoarders (as the phrase is used in another thread) or because they don't believe gov't needs to engineer society or they simply want their kids to walk to school. For those of us who are pro-diversity, we also need to take a hard look at ourselves and whether our motivations are, beneath it all, to try to improve our so-so schools so that we get a better outcome for our own kids. I'm in South Arlington. Maybe my subconscious motivation is to favor diversity because it will help my kids' school "improve."

I don't understand why Yorktown parents are OK with the status quo there. It's a school that, for its demographics, under-performs relative to W-L, and many schools in Fairfax and Montgomery Counties. Are they just so insular and clannish that they don't care, as long as it stays overwhelmingly white and upper middle-class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
She should make that point without using idiotic terms like "microaggression." She sounds like a petulant college freshman all worked up about wimmins studies.

You're not the poster who claims to be a liberal, are you?

You may be referring to me, and I'm not the above PP. I have previously posted in this forum that I have generally liberal/progressive views and values, but don't adhere to the current party line about policing language and terminology, and others have disagreed with my own assessment of my political views based on that and some of my views/values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
She should make that point without using idiotic terms like "microaggression." She sounds like a petulant college freshman all worked up about wimmins studies.

You're not the poster who claims to be a liberal, are you?

I am very liberal. Most liberals I know are completely fed up with the speech police on college campuses. These are not mutually exclusive notions. If you want to have a conversation about race or gender inequality, let's have it, but don't start dictating HOW I am to speak about it because I won't hear anything else you have to say. This isn't to say you can't make your point about how some language reinforces some paradigms, but tut-tutting me or systematically trying to invalidate someone's viewpoint out of hand because of who they ARE is beyond the pale and worse, frankly, than the right-wing idiots who prattle on about how liberals are hypocrites for refusing to tolerate their intolerant views.

[Anonymous]

Nancy is such a nasty, hostile person! I can't imagine having to work with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
But, it does seem from a SCHOOL perspective that there is research and some level of consensus that concentrated low-income students leads to worse outcomes for the low-income students and increases the burden on the school/staff itself. For that reason, I'm in favor of increasing diversity in our schools and would try to do so based on socioeconomic status because that's the criterion I think most relates to school success/failure.

The benefit of a diverse school population doesn't all flow towards the lower-income kids. There is also research showing that upper SES kids who attend diverse schools are more flexible and creative thinkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The gist of the conversation is that Reid said that we need to be doing more to increase diversity across APS schools. The Center for American Progress is coming out with a report that apparently highlights APS as meeting the definition of a segregated school system. Tannia's point seemed to be that the minority students prefer being clustered together because it makes them feel more comfortable. She said that she didn't appreciate growing up as the token Latino in her own school district. She seemed to be saying that Reid, as a white male, doesn't have the right to say what is best for minority students. A lot of people think the segregation in Arlington is because 22207 prefers to stay white and upper-class- which is partly true, at least in some circles. But the other part of the equation that doesn't get talked about is that the Arlington Latino community does not want to integrate either. I have heard this opinion expressed privately by APS staff and prominent Arlington Dems, but Tannia last night kicked it out into the open for the first time. It was a weird exchange, but I'm glad that we can finally be open about the dynamics going on here. It is also why Arl Co politicians continue to concentrate affordable housing along the Pike and try to demonize CARD.

Okay, so here's what it boils down to and that nobody will to talk about openly: many of the parents in the Latino community in Arlington are undocumented. Their kids are natural-born citizens and the parents are in an incredibly precarious position right now. If they are forced out of their hiding holes, the idiot Young Republicans at Yorktown are going to call ICE on them (they threatened a student who dared to speak at a School Board meeting and admitted that she was undocumented). I can't exactly blame them for not wanting to subject their families and lives to be torn to shreds. But that doesn't mean Reid is committing micro-aggressions by talking about integration and by openly taking about the FACT that it's not a level playing field (this crap about income not mattering is some bullshit that people hide behind because it's too hard and uncomfortable to unwind the truth that the American Dream is just a that for most people--a dream that will never become reality because the upper classes are opportunity-hoarding). In a non-Donald Trump world, socioeconomic integration is a perfectly reasonable thing to strive for. Now, for the Latino community, it just might be dangerous. This is something I have become more mindful of and sensitive to over the last few months.

Also, didn't Tannia grow up in PG County? If she was the "token" Latina at her school, it wasn't because of school policy. It was because the demographics of PG County, at the time she was in school, did not include many Latinos. Different story now, but back in the 80's or 90's there was not a sizable Latino population living in PG. Also, isn't she married to a Republican? Sounds like some of the alt-right hogwash about unfair "quotas" and "affirmative action" has rubbed off on her. It's certainly not a progressive position to believe that it's a level playing field and that everyone has access to the same opportunity, regardless of ethnicity/race/class/gender/etc.

[Anonymous]

I loved watching Nancy getting defeated when the amendment passed. Woot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But, it does seem from a SCHOOL perspective that there is research and some level of consensus that concentrated low-income students leads to worse outcomes for the low-income students and increases the burden on the school/staff itself. For that reason, I'm in favor of increasing diversity in our schools and would try to do so based on socioeconomic status because that's the criterion I think most relates to school success/failure.

The benefit of a diverse school population doesn't all flow towards the lower-income kids. There is also research showing that upper SES kids who attend diverse schools are more flexible and creative thinkers.

PP and I personally agree with that, but the research is squishy (it's social science) and it's my perception that that conclusion is less widely accepted (happy to be wrong on that; I am only loosely familiar with the research), and further I don't really know what that would mean to the average parent and whether it would be something the average parent would value. Again, it's something I value, but my values are not universally shared.

I do believe school boards have to make value choices, and frankly I wish this SB would. If they choose values other than mine, that's fine, I can adjust by moving or teaching my kids differently or what have you. I just don't know what their values are, except seemingly to cater to the demands of the loudest and most insistent parents.

[Anonymous]

Oh, snap! Lander called out ASFS parents for their opportunity hoarding. "If you are part of the team, you live in a zip code where you get a preference that other taxpayers, other families, other people in Arlington don't have access to.
That is't consistent. Thank isn't equitable."

*Standing ovation from the rest of the county*

Then, he reveals from what they'd written about how much they've paid for their taxes:

"How much you pay for your house doesn't entitle you to a better education than your neighbor."

BRAVO!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved watching Nancy getting defeated when the amendment passed. Woot!

[Anonymous]

i know this is super rude but could you tell us anything from the meeting that we didn't know already?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i know this is super rude but could you tell us anything from the meeting that we didn't know already?

They removed the language that gave siblings preferential treatment at the secondary level.

The ASFS team model is being removed.

ASFS people put in writing that they deserve the school because of how much they pay for their houses.

Look at the HS plan and make your voice heard before they vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, snap! Lander called out ASFS parents for their opportunity hoarding. "If you are part of the team, you live in a zip code where you get a preference that other taxpayers, other families, other people in Arlington don't have access to.
That is't consistent. Thank isn't equitable."

*Standing ovation from the rest of the county*

Then, he reveals from what they'd written about how much they've paid for their taxes:

"How much you pay for your house doesn't entitle you to a better education than your neighbor."

BRAVO!!

LOVED that part

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, snap! Lander called out ASFS parents for their opportunity hoarding. "If you are part of the team, you live in a zip code where you get a preference that other taxpayers, other families, other people in Arlington don't have access to.
That is't consistent. Thank isn't equitable."

*Standing ovation from the rest of the county*

Then, he reveals from what they'd written about how much they've paid for their taxes:

"How much you pay for your house doesn't entitle you to a better education than your neighbor."

BRAVO!!

Damn!! I can't believe he finally said that. Guess being a lame duck has it's pluses.

[Anonymous]

But I thought all APS schools provided a good education.