Fleeing APS schools for FFX County

[Anonymous]

Wow. We moved into FCPS with preschool aged kids 13 years ago. Never really considered APS, because $$$$. Rainy Sunday when I caught a cold from DD, so I made the mistake of checking an APS thread.

Don’t you guys only have a handful of schools? And 3 or 4 high schools? Online school. School in shifts. Accusations of racism. A school reasoning that was apparently a clusterf**k. Arlington is one of the most educated, most affluent counties in the country. And solidly blue. How can y’all not manage to run a small school system? Mind blown.

For all the we are Arlington, so our sh*t don’t stink, and are super special because we prioritize short commutes Arlington snootiness,you guys are not making the public schools look attractive.

At least FCPS is being proactive about growth and not looking at the upcoming growth numbers like a deer caught in headlights. Also, it puts the “is it fair that Carson sends 80 kids a year to TJ” gripes in perspective.

SMDH. Y’all crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. We moved into FCPS with preschool aged kids 13 years ago. Never really considered APS, because $$$$. Rainy Sunday when I caught a cold from DD, so I made the mistake of checking an APS thread.

Don’t you guys only have a handful of schools? And 3 or 4 high schools? Online school. School in shifts. Accusations of racism. A school reasoning that was apparently a clusterf**k. Arlington is one of the most educated, most affluent counties in the country. And solidly blue. How can y’all not manage to run a small school system? Mind blown.

For all the we are Arlington, so our sh*t don’t stink, and are super special because we prioritize short commutes Arlington snootiness,you guys are not making the public schools look attractive.

At least FCPS is being proactive about growth and not looking at the upcoming growth numbers like a deer caught in headlights. Also, it puts the “is it fair that Carson sends 80 kids a year to TJ” gripes in perspective.

SMDH. Y’all crazy.

Yeah, can’t really argue with that.
- APS parent

[Anonymous]

Every school system has its handful of crazy. APS just doesn't have a Fairfax Underground equivalent to absorb it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school system has its handful of crazy. APS just doesn't have a Fairfax Underground equivalent to absorb it.

You mean apart from DCUM, MONA, and the comment sections of ArlNOW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school system has its handful of crazy. APS just doesn't have a Fairfax Underground equivalent to absorb it.

You mean apart from DCUM, MONA, and the comment sections of ArlNOW?

There's no anonymity on MONA (the mods know who everyone is even if they conceal it in the yahoo group), plus that's only for people in North Arlington willing to pay a membership fee. ArlNow got rid of its general discussion forums years ago, now it's just comments on the things they happen to write articles about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school system has its handful of crazy. APS just doesn't have a Fairfax Underground equivalent to absorb it.

You mean apart from DCUM, MONA, and the comment sections of ArlNOW?

There's no anonymity on MONA (the mods know who everyone is even if they conceal it in the yahoo group), plus that's only for people in North Arlington willing to pay a membership fee. ArlNow got rid of its general discussion forums years ago, now it's just comments on the things they happen to write articles about.

All the more reason to look askance at the nutty comments on those sites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. We moved into FCPS with preschool aged kids 13 years ago. Never really considered APS, because $$$$. Rainy Sunday when I caught a cold from DD, so I made the mistake of checking an APS thread.

Don’t you guys only have a handful of schools? And 3 or 4 high schools? Online school. School in shifts. Accusations of racism. A school reasoning that was apparently a clusterf**k. Arlington is one of the most educated, most affluent counties in the country. And solidly blue. How can y’all not manage to run a small school system? Mind blown.

For all the we are Arlington, so our sh*t don’t stink, and are super special because we prioritize short commutes Arlington snootiness,you guys are not making the public schools look attractive.

At least FCPS is being proactive about growth and not looking at the upcoming growth numbers like a deer caught in headlights. Also, it puts the “is it fair that Carson sends 80 kids a year to TJ” gripes in perspective.

SMDH. Y’all crazy.

Yeah, right, uh huh ... just happened to check it out on a “rainy day.” Admit it. You’re obsessed.

[Anonymous]

^ it’s a train wreck. You can’t look away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overcrowding in APS? My kid had class sizes of 20 and 21. Not my problem.

My kid has 28 in her third grade class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ it’s a train wreck. You can’t look away.

DP. Agree.

[Anonymous]

Schadenfreude on display on DCUM? That's a shocker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overcrowding in APS? My kid had class sizes of 20 and 21. Not my problem.

My kid has 28 in her third grade class.

Which school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like any school system, FCPS experiences challenges around shifting population bubbles, but as whole I think the larger system gives them more resources to deal with them. People point out disparities between schools in wealthier vs. poorer areas of the county, but if you look at data of similar geographical areas or similarly large school districts, FCPS is quite notable for relative equity--the differences in achievement scores between the lowest 25% of its schools aren't as different from the upper 25% compared to other similarly sized districts (this likely has more to do with the high median income in the county rather than any specific quality of FCPS). I think people are noticing that the inequities are sharpening a bit as resources have gotten stretched thinner.
Having experienced both, I would say that FCPS as a whole is better run than APS as a whole, but individual schools vary.

Correct. If FCPS wasn’t meeting the needs of its lower-income and minority students better, the high schools other than TJ would max out as 5s on Great Schools, just like Yorktown, and more would be 3s and 4s like Wakefield and W-L.

No, the new GS methodology rewards economically segregated schools. It doesn't compare how disadvantaged students are doing to each other, between schools, or as compared to the statewide or system averages. It compares how they are doing relative to the non-disadvantaged students within their schools. So schools with more homogeneously wealthy populations have the highest scores, and schools with a statistically measurable cohort of disadvantaged students had scores that went down. To expect the same outcome from kids who are living completely different lives and being exposed to completely disparate enrichment and vocabulary and experience is absurd. This is completely wrong from an educational standpoint and rewards proficiency rather than growth, which is not a true measure of school performance or excellence. The schools with scores that went down the most were schools where economic disparity amount its students was the greatest, such as Yorktown, where there are a good number of families in the 1%, as well as a statistically significant number of families whose students qualify for fr/l and who live in subsidized housing in Rosslyn.

Please. So sick of hearing this.
Yorktown fRL percentage is smaller than other schools that didn’t take the same hit
West Springfield....
As a south Arlington parent you jerks couldn’t shut up at GS rating a few years ago.
Turns out Wakefield has the same outcome for snowflakes as Yorktown...
As far as I’m concerned Great Schools is just as relevant as it’s always been.

Yes, previous PP - you start by saying that GS rewards economically segregated schools.
Then you proceed to show that Yorktown is economically segregated. But Yorktown’s rating sank to a 5.
You could also have said that GS rewards more homogenous schools - again Yorktown is much more homogeneous than W-L.
Both scores are abysmal. 5 and 4. There are other schools on GS that have the same demographics as Yorktown and score 10/10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. We moved into FCPS with preschool aged kids 13 years ago. Never really considered APS, because $$$$. Rainy Sunday when I caught a cold from DD, so I made the mistake of checking an APS thread.

Don’t you guys only have a handful of schools? And 3 or 4 high schools? Online school. School in shifts. Accusations of racism. A school reasoning that was apparently a clusterf**k. Arlington is one of the most educated, most affluent counties in the country. And solidly blue. How can y’all not manage to run a small school system? Mind blown.

For all the we are Arlington, so our sh*t don’t stink, and are super special because we prioritize short commutes Arlington snootiness,you guys are not making the public schools look attractive.

At least FCPS is being proactive about growth and not looking at the upcoming growth numbers like a deer caught in headlights. Also, it puts the “is it fair that Carson sends 80 kids a year to TJ” gripes in perspective.

SMDH. Y’all crazy.

Yeah, can’t really argue with that.
- APS parent

The problem is that parents are a minority, and voters value other priorities over maintaining schools. Boomers and Millenials are screwing Gen X parents -- what else is new...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like any school system, FCPS experiences challenges around shifting population bubbles, but as whole I think the larger system gives them more resources to deal with them. People point out disparities between schools in wealthier vs. poorer areas of the county, but if you look at data of similar geographical areas or similarly large school districts, FCPS is quite notable for relative equity--the differences in achievement scores between the lowest 25% of its schools aren't as different from the upper 25% compared to other similarly sized districts (this likely has more to do with the high median income in the county rather than any specific quality of FCPS). I think people are noticing that the inequities are sharpening a bit as resources have gotten stretched thinner.
Having experienced both, I would say that FCPS as a whole is better run than APS as a whole, but individual schools vary.

Correct. If FCPS wasn’t meeting the needs of its lower-income and minority students better, the high schools other than TJ would max out as 5s on Great Schools, just like Yorktown, and more would be 3s and 4s like Wakefield and W-L.

No, the new GS methodology rewards economically segregated schools. It doesn't compare how disadvantaged students are doing to each other, between schools, or as compared to the statewide or system averages. It compares how they are doing relative to the non-disadvantaged students within their schools. So schools with more homogeneously wealthy populations have the highest scores, and schools with a statistically measurable cohort of disadvantaged students had scores that went down. To expect the same outcome from kids who are living completely different lives and being exposed to completely disparate enrichment and vocabulary and experience is absurd. This is completely wrong from an educational standpoint and rewards proficiency rather than growth, which is not a true measure of school performance or excellence. The schools with scores that went down the most were schools where economic disparity amount its students was the greatest, such as Yorktown, where there are a good number of families in the 1%, as well as a statistically significant number of families whose students qualify for fr/l and who live in subsidized housing in Rosslyn.

Please. So sick of hearing this.
Yorktown fRL percentage is smaller than other schools that didn’t take the same hit
West Springfield....
As a south Arlington parent you jerks couldn’t shut up at GS rating a few years ago.
Turns out Wakefield has the same outcome for snowflakes as Yorktown...
As far as I’m concerned Great Schools is just as relevant as it’s always been.

Yes, previous PP - you start by saying that GS rewards economically segregated schools.
Then you proceed to show that Yorktown is economically segregated. But Yorktown’s rating sank to a 5.
You could also have said that GS rewards more homogenous schools - again Yorktown is much more homogeneous than W-L.
Both scores are abysmal. 5 and 4. There are other schools on GS that have the same demographics as Yorktown and score 10/10.

DP, but you really don’t understand the GS methodology, I’m embarrassed for you right now.