APS enrollment
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Anonymous
Explanation is helpful. Not APE, but I am definitely in favor of minimizing screens at school. We minimize them at home, but cannot control DCs’ screen time at school. We also want printed textbooks and printed worksheets, not electronic stuff. |
Anonymous
Everyone was crazy on both sides with COVID. We were a keep schools closed family (we had vulnerable family members and imagined most families probably had something similar). Now we see there was space for opening sooner safely. But less screens? Who is advocating against that?!? |
Anonymous
| I think people are not having as many children, nationwide, in general. |
Anonymous
https://www.arlnow.com/2020/10/08/aps-loses-students-over-distance-learning-new-enrollment-figures-show/ https://www.arlnow.com/2023/08/30/enrollment-uptick-continues-for-arlingtons-private-schools-post-covid-while-aps-makes-a-comeback/ https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/private-school-enrollment-covid/ https://www.coopercenter.org/research/statchat-school-enrollment-trends-in-post-pandemic-virginia |
Anonymous
Good maybe our taxes won't go up as much if we have fewer kids in school. |
Anonymous
I'm not sure I would use the term "advocating against", but schools keep using them, in too many instances they are used excessive IME. I understand that make some things like grading easier, but I'm not seeing the benefits as a parent. If anything, it is harder to know what my student is doing because test and homework no longer come home. In math, my child "shows their work" on scratch paper which is immediately tossed after a test, so they cannot go back to see what they missed. That is assuming my child takes the initiative to go ask the teacher which problem(s) they missed on a test because the only feedback my child (or I) see on a math test is the total score. |
Anonymous
The screens are a necessary retention tool for teachers. The younger teachers have large classes and grew up themselves with technology ; managing the physical paper and keeping track of books and supplies for 30 kids is a messy logistical problem. Screens make prep work easier than printing worksheets, handing in paper essays and problem sets, etc. Smaller classes or less required training and SOL prep maybe teachers would have bandwidth for managing physical materials. But not happening. |
Anonymous
I don’t agree that screens make things easier in the early years (prek-3) I’d much rather use paper than screens (no technical difficulties) I left the classroom for a specialist role a couple years ago and still prefer books and paper. |
Anonymous
agree and really weird to be on an APS committee when their kids are in privates. some came back though! |
Anonymous
and APE's support for Youngkin and privatization and vouchers, the anti mask stance back during return the school, the insistence early on of 5 days in person without safety standards, the refusal to say who funds them, the alignment with conservative causes.... |
Anonymous
I also disagree that screens are a necessary retention tool. When i was in school teachers prepped for standardized test and managed classes of 30 or 31. No APS elementary school has 30 students. The largest elementary classes in APS have 27 students, and there are only four classes that size in the district. The broader point is that while tech is making teachers and the district's job easier, it isn't actually helping students (who are the whole point of education) and families, so it isn't working. I'm not saying the solution is to make more work for teachers, but the only people who I see benefitting from the tech are some teachers and the district (not even all teachers like or use the tech much). If teachers need smaller class sizes to balance the increased workload of reducing tech, I think that would be great. But I am skeptical of that argument because its not like class sizes have been increasing as tech use has increased. Nobody has ever argued for larger class sizes because teachers use tech now. |
Anonymous
But you aren’t responsible for 150 students, 30 at a time right? Or aren’t in an academic role? I am unsure what a specialist means — we had reading specialists who worked with small groups who needed extra attention or specials like art and music — where do you fall on that spectrum? Oh prek-3, onscreen is fine, there is no accounting for anything and nothing needs to leave the classroom. |
Anonymous
Well you are not the digital native generation, if you call back to when you were a teacher. There is a much bigger emphasis on testing now, and a higher need population and half the class has an IEP which must be documented. It goes on and on, and maybe you had big classes back then (but APS used to honor the 23 students target so were you in a different district?), but I think the demands are higher now. |
Anonymous
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“The largest elementary classes in APS have 27 students, and there are only four classes that size in the district.”
Hey there, APS PR! Welcome to the chat. That is certainly a very rosy view. There are more than six classes with 26 kids in my elementary school that I can think of just off the top of my head. And any teacher can tell you that a class of mid 20s is a very, very different educational experience for children - and work environment for educators - than low 20s. |
Anonymous
Is this report correct? https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2026/02/CSR-Revised-February-2026.pdf Tuckahoe is the only one on here with 5 classes of 26+, I don't see any with 6 or more that size. |