Alexandria schools - why so bad?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa, PP, you're way off base in attacking another poster's children. The poster made no claims about educational outcomes for his/her children.

I agree with the other poster that there are significant problems with ACPS. The problems start at the top with the School Board. Those fools can't find their butts with their hands superglued to their cheeks.

PP here. Exactly right, except for the District B vice chair and the new District A member, who between the two of them received close to $100,000 in "campaign contributions" from charter school business leaders, most of which apparently just slipped somebody's mind and never got reported in filings, for three straight years.

An openly corrupt school board, with a zero-authority hold-over superintendent hired by the last school board, planning a new stripped-down high school using contractors associated with their donors. Yep.

As an ACPS parent, this is news to me. And yes, I know I should be paying more attention.
Does anyone have a list of SB members and the $ they’ve taken from charter school interests?

Try the posted items first, then if you Google the names, you will see numerous items (note - external links):


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/gro...ry.html?utm_term=.9477656cf8dc
https://npeaction.org/tfa-billionaire-funded-pac-g...xandria-school-board-election/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa, PP, you're way off base in attacking another poster's children. The poster made no claims about educational outcomes for his/her children.

I agree with the other poster that there are significant problems with ACPS. The problems start at the top with the School Board. Those fools can't find their butts with their hands superglued to their cheeks.

PP here. Exactly right, except for the District B vice chair and the new District A member, who between the two of them received close to $100,000 in "campaign contributions" from charter school business leaders, most of which apparently just slipped somebody's mind and never got reported in filings, for three straight years.

An openly corrupt school board, with a zero-authority hold-over superintendent hired by the last school board, planning a new stripped-down high school using contractors associated with their donors. Yep.

As an ACPS parent, this is news to me. And yes, I know I should be paying more attention.
Does anyone have a list of SB members and the $ they’ve taken from charter school interests?

Try the posted items first, then if you Google the names, you will see numerous items (note - external links):


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/gro...ry.html?utm_term=.9477656cf8dc
https://npeaction.org/tfa-billionaire-funded-pac-g...xandria-school-board-election/

And if the links don't work, here is the Post subscriber link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/group-tied-to-charter-school-backers-spent-thousands-in-va-school-board-election/2018/11/24/2a11fbc0-e696-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.7ca1ee9a5145

[Anonymous]

I like to 'drift' nearly into cyclists so that they fear being run over. About 1/3 of them scream at me and I smile and wave and make them think it was on accident. "Oh so sorry- didn't see you."

Then I do it again. They get my nt stay away after that. Did it to a guy with a Burley cart on Mt. Vernon yesterday after the market. He about sh*t his pants.

Hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Alexandra schools are quite diverse, which creates more academic challenges and results in testing stats that are lower than what one might expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alexandra schools are quite diverse, which creates more academic challenges and results in testing stats that are lower than what one might expect.

Classic ACPS excuse. Fairfax is just as diverse in educational terms; actually a slightly higher proportion of foreign-born and non-English first-language. And Fairfax doesn't pay as well as Alexandria. But by every measure, the Fairfax schools produce better results - not just better standardized test scores but also better college results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like to 'drift' nearly into cyclists so that they fear being run over. About 1/3 of them scream at me and I smile and wave and make them think it was on accident. "Oh so sorry- didn't see you."

Then I do it again. They get my nt stay away after that. Did it to a guy with a Burley cart on Mt. Vernon yesterday after the market. He about sh*t his pants.

Hilarious.

Yes, hilarious... to a psychopath. What is wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like to 'drift' nearly into cyclists so that they fear being run over. About 1/3 of them scream at me and I smile and wave and make them think it was on accident. "Oh so sorry- didn't see you."

Then I do it again. They get my nt stay away after that. Did it to a guy with a Burley cart on Mt. Vernon yesterday after the market. He about sh*t his pants.

Hilarious.

Yes, hilarious... to a psychopath. What is wrong with you?

Sounds like he doesn’t like bicyclists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandra schools are quite diverse, which creates more academic challenges and results in testing stats that are lower than what one might expect.

Classic ACPS excuse. Fairfax is just as diverse in educational terms; actually a slightly higher proportion of foreign-born and non-English first-language. And Fairfax doesn't pay as well as Alexandria. But by every measure, the Fairfax schools produce better results - not just better standardized test scores but also better college results.

FCPS has 28% of students qualifying for free and reduced meals, ACPS is 61%. That is certainly NOT "just as diverse in educational terms"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandra schools are quite diverse, which creates more academic challenges and results in testing stats that are lower than what one might expect.

Classic ACPS excuse. Fairfax is just as diverse in educational terms; actually a slightly higher proportion of foreign-born and non-English first-language. And Fairfax doesn't pay as well as Alexandria. But by every measure, the Fairfax schools produce better results - not just better standardized test scores but also better college results.

FCPS has 28% of students qualifying for free and reduced meals, ACPS is 61%. That is certainly NOT "just as diverse in educational terms"

Also you're wrong about higher proportion of non-English first language. ACPS is 30.89%, FCPS reports "more than 29%"

That data is from:
https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps
https://www.acps.k12.va.us/fastfacts

But you can see the same thing here in a consistent dataset (bottom of the enrollment tab for each district):

FCPS had 14.5% students with disabilities, 31.4% economically disadvantaged, and 29.6% English learners in 2018.
ACPS had 10.8% students with disabilities, 39.2% economically disadvantaged, and 41% English learners in 2018.

http://schoolquality.virginia.gov/advanced-search

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like to 'drift' nearly into cyclists so that they fear being run over. About 1/3 of them scream at me and I smile and wave and make them think it was on accident. "Oh so sorry- didn't see you."

Then I do it again. They get my nt stay away after that. Did it to a guy with a Burley cart on Mt. Vernon yesterday after the market. He about sh*t his pants.

Hilarious.

Yes, hilarious... to a psychopath. What is wrong with you?

Sounds like he doesn’t like bicyclists.

This will be less adorable when this poster hits a bicyclist, injures them, and is sued. My DH was hit by a car when he was entirely following the rules of the road and was in his designated lane. He was hurt, but bc our insurance covered it, and bc we are not vindictive, we didn't sue, even though we were entirely in our rights to do so. I hope whoever this poster winds up hitting is a lot meaner than us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandra schools are quite diverse, which creates more academic challenges and results in testing stats that are lower than what one might expect.

Classic ACPS excuse. Fairfax is just as diverse in educational terms; actually a slightly higher proportion of foreign-born and non-English first-language. And Fairfax doesn't pay as well as Alexandria. But by every measure, the Fairfax schools produce better results - not just better standardized test scores but also better college results.

FCPS has 28% of students qualifying for free and reduced meals, ACPS is 61%. That is certainly NOT "just as diverse in educational terms"

Also you're wrong about higher proportion of non-English first language. ACPS is 30.89%, FCPS reports "more than 29%"

That data is from:
https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps
https://www.acps.k12.va.us/fastfacts

But you can see the same thing here in a consistent dataset (bottom of the enrollment tab for each district):

FCPS had 14.5% students with disabilities, 31.4% economically disadvantaged, and 29.6% English learners in 2018.
ACPS had 10.8% students with disabilities, 39.2% economically disadvantaged, and 41% English learners in 2018.

http://schoolquality.virginia.gov/advanced-search

Hard to compare FCPS to ACPS. FCPS has several high schools. ACPS has only one. Though I suspect some of the FCPS high schools with similar demographics to TC have similar test scores and similar college placements. It is unfair to include TJ, McLean, Langley, Woodson and other high-SES schools into the mix.

[Anonymous]

I wonder what % of the school-aged population in FCPS boundaries goes to parochial or private compared to ACPS. If we measured it I believe we would find that ACPS has a really high % of residents who opt out of the ACPS school system. That of course directly impacts the demographics (racial, ethnic, SES, religious, cultural) of the school system. For FCPS it is a homogenized result. For ACPS it accentuates the paradoxical inconsistencies of the school system versus the demographics of the city as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what % of the school-aged population in FCPS boundaries goes to parochial or private compared to ACPS. If we measured it I believe we would find that ACPS has a really high % of residents who opt out of the ACPS school system. That of course directly impacts the demographics (racial, ethnic, SES, religious, cultural) of the school system. For FCPS it is a homogenized result. For ACPS it accentuates the paradoxical inconsistencies of the school system versus the demographics of the city as a whole.

You''re right, more K-12 students in Alexandria attend private schools. According to the Census, it's over 18% in Alexandria, 9% in Arlington, and 11% in Fairfax.https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml?src=bkmk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what % of the school-aged population in FCPS boundaries goes to parochial or private compared to ACPS. If we measured it I believe we would find that ACPS has a really high % of residents who opt out of the ACPS school system. That of course directly impacts the demographics (racial, ethnic, SES, religious, cultural) of the school system. For FCPS it is a homogenized result. For ACPS it accentuates the paradoxical inconsistencies of the school system versus the demographics of the city as a whole.

You''re right, more K-12 students in Alexandria attend private schools. According to the Census, it's over 18% in Alexandria, 9% in Arlington, and 11% in Fairfax.https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml?src=bkmk

Wow, I thought the percentage would be high but that's a lot higher than I would have guessed. Thanks for doing the leg-work to pull that up!

[Anonymous]

So To escape from ACPS, if you work in DC, will you pick Arlington over Fairfax?