If ATS is so popular, why not create two of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Um, so what is the boundary issue? "Boundaries" for ATS are the same as they are for Montessori: countywide. ATS is an option program, not a neighborhood school.

The obvious and simple answer is to conduct all the neighborhood schools like ATS is conducted. Doesn't cost any more and cheaper than Montessori and lower transportation costs. But nobody wants to do that....

Not PP, but I'm guessing the boundary issue is that if they convert an existing neighborhood school to an option school, then they have to redraw the boundaries for where those kids who went to that neighborhood school will now go, as they no longer have a neighborhood school.

The other option would be to find a new property, but that's incredibly difficult, as the last 10 years of APS history have shown...

But they were comparing it to ATS, which is another option school and no boundaries apply.

ATS parent here. I think what PP is trying to say is that in order to open another option school you will need to convert a neighborhood school into an option school. The reason being is that Arlington doesn’t have enough land or funding to build a new building for that new option school. If you convert a neighborhood school into an option school, that would mean boundaries would have to be redrawn because kids districted to that neighborhood school would have to be redistricted. They need to go somewhere. For example if we open another ATS like school and that school is where Tuckahoe is currently, then all the kids districted to Tuckahoe have to go somewhere else. Which school do we put them in? Nottingham? Cardinal? Do we split them between both? Would that mean that Nottingham and Cardinal become overcrowded? Or would a lot of students who would otherwise go to those schools or their neighborhood schools apply to the new ATS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

What a strange post. Montessori doesn't reserve 2/3 slots for the underprivileged every year so why should ATS? I think are talking about montessori preschool. That is different. What tuition are you talking about? Montessori doesn't charge tuition so why should ATS? Again you are talking about the preschool which is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

What a strange post. Montessori doesn't reserve 2/3 slots for the underprivileged every year so why should ATS? I think are talking about montessori preschool. That is different. What tuition are you talking about? Montessori doesn't charge tuition so why should ATS? Again you are talking about the preschool which is different.

Montessori preschool has tuition on a sliding scale

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

Montessori doesn't raise money. Any money you're talking about is preschool Montessori tuition. Also, Montessori is not 2/3 FRL. There's a difference between that and "underprivileged." Otherwise, you should be clamoring about the superiority of Barcroft and advocating for expanding that. And it took your own building to get your scores up. Not exactly an argument for the pedagogy and its effectiveness historically. And exactly how does today's demographic profile compare to that when you were at the Drew building? You refer to ATS tuition; but how about we just raise the tuition for preschool Montessori and raise even more of that general revenue Montessori is contributing to the benefit of us all?

Montessori has the lowest FARMS rate in south Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

This is a weird post. We're an ATS familiy. I think it's great that APS has so many preschool montessori spots and wish my own kids had attended for preschool.

We have montessori pre-school at several sites (with spots reserved and some parents paying on a sliding scale). We also have VPI at a number of elementary schools, including... ATS. These are also spots reserved for lower income families.

As for all the option schools, APS families like having them and that's fine. Now that we're at ATS, I'm happy we made that choice, but APS could recreate what ATS is doing at more neighborhood schools. Tt's not rocket science. For example, ASF is a neighborhood school that has a similar school culture that gets pretty good results.

We'll have to wait for the latest SOLs, but people can see all the student progress data here. https://www.apsva.us/superintendents-office/student-progress-dashboard/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Um, so what is the boundary issue? "Boundaries" for ATS are the same as they are for Montessori: countywide. ATS is an option program, not a neighborhood school.

The obvious and simple answer is to conduct all the neighborhood schools like ATS is conducted. Doesn't cost any more and cheaper than Montessori and lower transportation costs. But nobody wants to do that....

Not PP, but I'm guessing the boundary issue is that if they convert an existing neighborhood school to an option school, then they have to redraw the boundaries for where those kids who went to that neighborhood school will now go, as they no longer have a neighborhood school.

The other option would be to find a new property, but that's incredibly difficult, as the last 10 years of APS history have shown...

But they were comparing it to ATS, which is another option school and no boundaries apply.

ATS parent here. I think what PP is trying to say is that in order to open another option school you will need to convert a neighborhood school into an option school. The reason being is that Arlington doesn’t have enough land or funding to build a new building for that new option school. If you convert a neighborhood school into an option school, that would mean boundaries would have to be redrawn because kids districted to that neighborhood school would have to be redistricted. They need to go somewhere. For example if we open another ATS like school and that school is where Tuckahoe is currently, then all the kids districted to Tuckahoe have to go somewhere else. Which school do we put them in? Nottingham? Cardinal? Do we split them between both? Would that mean that Nottingham and Cardinal become overcrowded? Or would a lot of students who would otherwise go to those schools or their neighborhood schools apply to the new ATS?

Well, perhaps. But the poster was advocating against growing ATS but implementing "more Montessori in APS." Would love for the original commenter to clarify. Montessori may have its own building now; but it's still limited in its capacity. I believe Montessori people just want any and every excuse they can concoct to justify a larger building and extending the program through high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

This is a weird post. We're an ATS familiy. I think it's great that APS has so many preschool montessori spots and wish my own kids had attended for preschool.

We have montessori pre-school at several sites (with spots reserved and some parents paying on a sliding scale). We also have VPI at a number of elementary schools, including... ATS. These are also spots reserved for lower income families.

As for all the option schools, APS families like having them and that's fine. Now that we're at ATS, I'm happy we made that choice, but APS could recreate what ATS is doing at more neighborhood schools. Tt's not rocket science. For example, ASF is a neighborhood school that has a similar school culture that gets pretty good results.

We'll have to wait for the latest SOLs, but people can see all the student progress data here. https://www.apsva.us/superintendents-office/student-progress-dashboard/

It is a weird post; but for an Arlington Montessori person, it's quite normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

What a strange post. Montessori doesn't reserve 2/3 slots for the underprivileged every year so why should ATS? I think are talking about montessori preschool. That is different. What tuition are you talking about? Montessori doesn't charge tuition so why should ATS? Again you are talking about the preschool which is different.

Montessori preschool has tuition on a sliding scale

Exactly. Montessori preschool. ATS is not a preschool. It is an elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....?

Not true. APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?

What a strange post. Montessori doesn't reserve 2/3 slots for the underprivileged every year so why should ATS? I think are talking about montessori preschool. That is different. What tuition are you talking about? Montessori doesn't charge tuition so why should ATS? Again you are talking about the preschool which is different.

Montessori preschool has tuition on a sliding scale

Exactly. Montessori preschool. ATS is not a preschool. It is an elementary school.

DP. I think Montessori's preschool sliding scale needs to be adjusted....we need to bring in more money. Current rates are a bargain v. private Montessori. Also, Montessori can claim it's focus on economically disadvantaged students all it wants. It is majority economically NOT-disadvantaged. Whereas, ATS' preschool is ENTIRELY disadvantaged students. And those students are permitted to remain for K-5...no lottery. So, the "reserved seats" is kinda built-in. Whether students accept them or not, that's up to them.

[Anonymous]

ATS should charge tuition. If there is a real pedagogy and it is so great - and not just exclusionary hand picking - then families can pay for it. Do it on a sliding scale and you can even favor disadvantaged minorities with a discount. Whatever. But APS should receive revenue to offset it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ATS should charge tuition. If there is a real pedagogy and it is so great - and not just exclusionary hand picking - then families can pay for it. Do it on a sliding scale and you can even favor disadvantaged minorities with a discount. Whatever. But APS should receive revenue to offset it.

It’s a public elementary school. Of course it can’t charge tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS should charge tuition. If there is a real pedagogy and it is so great - and not just exclusionary hand picking - then families can pay for it. Do it on a sliding scale and you can even favor disadvantaged minorities with a discount. Whatever. But APS should receive revenue to offset it.

It’s a public elementary school. Of course it can’t charge tuition.

They don't get anything that kids in other elementary schools don't/can't get, its basically just an instructional model and school focus. Which other schools also have.

[Anonymous]

I wish all the schools would use the same traditional model. ATS is the only elementary next year that doesn’t have to adopt standards based grading. I’m so sick of APS’s so-called grading for equity policies which really are setting our kids up failure and are quintessential bigotry of low expectations. Make the traditional model universal and have opt-in school for the APS trend-factory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish all the schools would use the same traditional model. ATS is the only elementary next year that doesn’t have to adopt standards based grading. I’m so sick of APS’s so-called grading for equity policies which really are setting our kids up failure and are quintessential bigotry of low expectations. Make the traditional model universal and have opt-in school for the APS trend-factory.

+1000000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly).

Um, so what is the boundary issue? "Boundaries" for ATS are the same as they are for Montessori: countywide. ATS is an option program, not a neighborhood school.

The obvious and simple answer is to conduct all the neighborhood schools like ATS is conducted. Doesn't cost any more and cheaper than Montessori and lower transportation costs. But nobody wants to do that....

Not PP, but I'm guessing the boundary issue is that if they convert an existing neighborhood school to an option school, then they have to redraw the boundaries for where those kids who went to that neighborhood school will now go, as they no longer have a neighborhood school.

The other option would be to find a new property, but that's incredibly difficult, as the last 10 years of APS history have shown...

But they were comparing it to ATS, which is another option school and no boundaries apply.

ATS parent here. I think what PP is trying to say is that in order to open another option school you will need to convert a neighborhood school into an option school. The reason being is that Arlington doesn’t have enough land or funding to build a new building for that new option school. If you convert a neighborhood school into an option school, that would mean boundaries would have to be redrawn because kids districted to that neighborhood school would have to be redistricted. They need to go somewhere. For example if we open another ATS like school and that school is where Tuckahoe is currently, then all the kids districted to Tuckahoe have to go somewhere else. Which school do we put them in? Nottingham? Cardinal? Do we split them between both? Would that mean that Nottingham and Cardinal become overcrowded? Or would a lot of students who would otherwise go to those schools or their neighborhood schools apply to the new ATS?

Yeah, we saw what that did during the last ATS move....needless disruption and expense.
No more Option schools at the expense of Neighborhood schools!