APS: Elementary Walk Zone surveys out

[Anonymous]

I have heard that Barrett is like two schools, poor and UMC. And stuffy too. Heard that from only one parent, so not sure if it is true.

Here is what the Sb will do, move alcova to fleet, move more low income housing south of the Pike to barcroft to fill the gap and reduce crowding at Abingdon.. UMC families in barcroft pick up and move unless they are in choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Barcroft can’t catch a break.
I’m sorry for homeowners in that neighborhood. They are screwed with high density low income housing no matter which way you slice it.
No wonder it’s the only neighborhood that saw their property values go down for a couple of years there.

Don't feel sorry for the Barcroft neighborhood homeowners. They asked for it and continue to fight for more committed affordable housing in their school zone (not their actual neighborhood) - and then opt their kids out of the neighborhood school. It's the other neighborhoods assigned to the school that get shot down and called racist because they think schools should not be 60%+ economically disadvantaged, and that all students would be better off with more of a social economic mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

APS wants more walkers, not less. I went to the meeting last night. Columbia Pike ant Rt 50 are not crossable roads for elem kids. You'd have to bus them. You might get that to work if all of Alcova walks to Fleet.

Columbia Pike is not crossable, but Glebe is? That’s odd.
Columbia Pike has a lot of pedestrians all day, but Glebe doesn’t really.
Also 50 is crossable over pedestrian bridges without ever exposing yourself to any traffic.
How does APS not know this?
Is it the same reason that some planning units are actually cemeteries?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

No room at Randolph for all the low income kids at Barcroft - they're not going to enter the lottery for ATS. And would prob give Randolph a farms rate higher than carlin springs.

Can't send half of Barcroft to Barrett either - you will upset the balance that exists at Barrett and keeps UMC families at the school. Don't want to undo 15 years of community buy-in and send Barrett parents scrambling for option schools as they did in the past before visionary former principal convinced Arlington Forest families that their kids would turn out fine. Barrett is one of the few high-FARMS schools that UMC families are happy with. It has a huge number of walkers and fairly balanced ethnic/racial/SES demographics. Not something to upset by playing the "where should we move ATS" game.

Tell me more about Barrett. It's got nearly identical farms rate as Barcroft (60%). Does it really have buy in from SFH, Morris than Barcroft? What's different there, apart from the calendar?

I’m not the previous poster, but Barrett is not diverse. It’s all Hispanic, plus a minority of Arlington Forest families.
And yes, that a good question to ask, because there is a lot of lamenting about Barcroft, but Barrett is no better in its demographics.
PTA participation and parent participation is limited, and I don’t see SES (or ethnic) diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

No room at Randolph for all the low income kids at Barcroft - they're not going to enter the lottery for ATS. And would prob give Randolph a farms rate higher than carlin springs.

Can't send half of Barcroft to Barrett either - you will upset the balance that exists at Barrett and keeps UMC families at the school. Don't want to undo 15 years of community buy-in and send Barrett parents scrambling for option schools as they did in the past before visionary former principal convinced Arlington Forest families that their kids would turn out fine. Barrett is one of the few high-FARMS schools that UMC families are happy with. It has a huge number of walkers and fairly balanced ethnic/racial/SES demographics. Not something to upset by playing the "where should we move ATS" game.

Tell me more about Barrett. It's got nearly identical farms rate as Barcroft (60%). Does it really have buy in from SFH, Morris than Barcroft? What's different there, apart from the calendar?

I’m not the previous poster, but Barrett is not diverse. It’s all Hispanic, plus a minority of Arlington Forest families.
And yes, that a good question to ask, because there is a lot of lamenting about Barcroft, but Barrett is no better in its demographics.
PTA participation and parent participation is limited, and I don’t see SES (or ethnic) diversity.

I'd really like to see what percentage of students in each elementary school boundary go to an option school. By planning unit would be even better. We all know what it would show: north Arlington students option at lower rates than south, and are attracted by perceived prestige and less crowded schools. South Arlington students option to avoid going to a segregated school whose resources are organized around serving a disadvantaged majority. But showing these patterns of demand for option schools would underscore that every school should get some sort of distinctive identity like an option school. No, we can't replace the biggest option school advantage - self selected, motivated and engaged parents- but giving Barrett, Barcroft, Carlin Springs and Randolph a focus or identity would help. The UMC has basically decided that those schools are organized around immigrant ELL and social services and they're not wrong. Giving those schools an additional identity that speaks to their aspirations would help. Why send you kid to a school specializing in what he/she has no need for? Something - more immersion programs, cultural exchange, a common denominator between two very different populations. That's where the key immersion came from. Can we not do that again? Are we just bereft of ideas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'd really like to see what percentage of students in each elementary school boundary go to an option school. By planning unit would be even better. We all know what it would show: north Arlington students option at lower rates than south, and are attracted by perceived prestige and less crowded schools. South Arlington students option to avoid going to a segregated school whose resources are organized around serving a disadvantaged majority. But showing these patterns of demand for option schools would underscore that every school should get some sort of distinctive identity like an option school. No, we can't replace the biggest option school advantage - self selected, motivated and engaged parents- but giving Barrett, Barcroft, Carlin Springs and Randolph a focus or identity would help. The UMC has basically decided that those schools are organized around immigrant ELL and social services and they're not wrong. Giving those schools an additional identity that speaks to their aspirations would help. Why send you kid to a school specializing in what he/she has no need for? Something - more immersion programs, cultural exchange, a common denominator between two very different populations. That's where the key immersion came from. Can we not do that again? Are we just bereft of ideas?

This data is available by school on the APS website- look for the transfer report. What the data actually shows is that the largest number of kids who attend a choice school are those kids in the neighborhood (sometimes by design, other times not). ATS's enrollment-- which is totally lottery-- ends up with 25% of the kids drawing from the surrounding Ashlawn and Glebe zones. Statistically to get that result, it means that significantly more kids from those zones are entering the ATS lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'd really like to see what percentage of students in each elementary school boundary go to an option school. By planning unit would be even better. We all know what it would show: north Arlington students option at lower rates than south, and are attracted by perceived prestige and less crowded schools. South Arlington students option to avoid going to a segregated school whose resources are organized around serving a disadvantaged majority. But showing these patterns of demand for option schools would underscore that every school should get some sort of distinctive identity like an option school. No, we can't replace the biggest option school advantage - self selected, motivated and engaged parents- but giving Barrett, Barcroft, Carlin Springs and Randolph a focus or identity would help. The UMC has basically decided that those schools are organized around immigrant ELL and social services and they're not wrong. Giving those schools an additional identity that speaks to their aspirations would help. Why send you kid to a school specializing in what he/she has no need for? Something - more immersion programs, cultural exchange, a common denominator between two very different populations. That's where the key immersion came from. Can we not do that again? Are we just bereft of ideas?

This data is available by school on the APS website- look for the transfer report. What the data actually shows is that the largest number of kids who attend a choice school are those kids in the neighborhood (sometimes by design, other times not). ATS's enrollment-- which is totally lottery-- ends up with 25% of the kids drawing from the surrounding Ashlawn and Glebe zones. Statistically to get that result, it means that significantly more kids from those zones are entering the ATS lottery.

Yes, the transfer report sorta gets at what I want. What I'd really like to measure though, is what percentage of students zoned for a given school apply for option Schools, and what are their characteristics.

[Anonymous]

APS is never going to break down that data.
They do not want to have that discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

No room at Randolph for all the low income kids at Barcroft - they're not going to enter the lottery for ATS. And would prob give Randolph a farms rate higher than carlin springs.

Can't send half of Barcroft to Barrett either - you will upset the balance that exists at Barrett and keeps UMC families at the school. Don't want to undo 15 years of community buy-in and send Barrett parents scrambling for option schools as they did in the past before visionary former principal convinced Arlington Forest families that their kids would turn out fine. Barrett is one of the few high-FARMS schools that UMC families are happy with. It has a huge number of walkers and fairly balanced ethnic/racial/SES demographics. Not something to upset by playing the "where should we move ATS" game.

Not PP, but I think the PU's that theoretically would be sent to Barrett from Barcroft would be the southern part of Arlington Forest, possibly the northern half of Barcroft. That's all SFH and townhouses, so not very many kids eligible for fr/l, primarily UMC families. I don't think this will happen because it's not walkable for little kids without a pedestrian bridge (same with CP). And as you noted, there's not enough room at Randolph for half the kids from the Barcroft neighborhood (Randolph boundary looks like it will remain largely intact, maybe reincorporating a few PU's from the Douglas Park neighborhood that are currently bused N of the Pike, during the boundary change because it's so walkable and has such a density of students).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

No room at Randolph for all the low income kids at Barcroft - they're not going to enter the lottery for ATS. And would prob give Randolph a farms rate higher than carlin springs.

Can't send half of Barcroft to Barrett either - you will upset the balance that exists at Barrett and keeps UMC families at the school. Don't want to undo 15 years of community buy-in and send Barrett parents scrambling for option schools as they did in the past before visionary former principal convinced Arlington Forest families that their kids would turn out fine. Barrett is one of the few high-FARMS schools that UMC families are happy with. It has a huge number of walkers and fairly balanced ethnic/racial/SES demographics. Not something to upset by playing the "where should we move ATS" game.

Tell me more about Barrett. It's got nearly identical farms rate as Barcroft (60%). Does it really have buy in from SFH, Morris than Barcroft? What's different there, apart from the calendar?

I’m not the previous poster, but Barrett is not diverse. It’s all Hispanic, plus a minority of Arlington Forest families.
And yes, that a good question to ask, because there is a lot of lamenting about Barcroft, but Barrett is no better in its demographics.
PTA participation and parent participation is limited, and I don’t see SES (or ethnic) diversity.

I'd really like to see what percentage of students in each elementary school boundary go to an option school. By planning unit would be even better. We all know what it would show: north Arlington students option at lower rates than south, and are attracted by perceived prestige and less crowded schools. South Arlington students option to avoid going to a segregated school whose resources are organized around serving a disadvantaged majority. But showing these patterns of demand for option schools would underscore that every school should get some sort of distinctive identity like an option school. No, we can't replace the biggest option school advantage - self selected, motivated and engaged parents- but giving Barrett, Barcroft, Carlin Springs and Randolph a focus or identity would help. The UMC has basically decided that those schools are organized around immigrant ELL and social services and they're not wrong. Giving those schools an additional identity that speaks to their aspirations would help. Why send you kid to a school specializing in what he/she has no need for? Something - more immersion programs, cultural exchange, a common denominator between two very different populations. That's where the key immersion came from. Can we not do that again? Are we just bereft of ideas?

I think APS should solicit reasons for each transfer request. Many people won't volunteer it's because of dissatisfaction with the neighborhood school; but if APS listed a range of reasons on the transfer application form to include "low performing neighborhood school" and asked the applicants to rank their reasons, it would be a start. Applications can be given an ID # so that responses are not linked to names to make people a little more comfortable being honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

APS wants more walkers, not less. I went to the meeting last night. Columbia Pike ant Rt 50 are not crossable roads for elem kids. You'd have to bus them. You might get that to work if all of Alcova walks to Fleet.

Columbia Pike is not crossable, but Glebe is? That’s odd.
Columbia Pike has a lot of pedestrians all day, but Glebe doesn’t really.
Also 50 is crossable over pedestrian bridges without ever exposing yourself to any traffic.
How does APS not know this?
Is it the same reason that some planning units are actually cemeteries?!

There's only one pedestrian bridge currently. I think the Pu's close to that are considered walkable, but they are walkable to two schools (Long Branch AND Fleet, so it's likely they will stay at along Branch). Are there plans for more pedestrian bridges? These would be awesome for everyone, not just school kids. Who's paying?

Also, there are a lot of pedestrians who cross Glebe near the Salvation Army just S of 50. There's already a crosswalk. I have to assume that is the intersection they had in mind when deciding that those two Alcova PU's could be walkable to Fleet. Because its crossable and way more proximate than the Henry PU's S of Columbia Pike, who'd have to cross Columbia Pike and then walk another 8 blocks up Glebe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS to Barcroft. Barcroft loses almost as many kids to choice school transfers as it has in the neighborhood. Alcova to Fleet. Divide Bacroft between Randolph and Barrett. Recapture the choice kids you are losing to those schools anyway! Also, encourages S Arl students (and disadvantaged families) to take advantage of ATS.

No room at Randolph for all the low income kids at Barcroft - they're not going to enter the lottery for ATS. And would prob give Randolph a farms rate higher than carlin springs.

Can't send half of Barcroft to Barrett either - you will upset the balance that exists at Barrett and keeps UMC families at the school. Don't want to undo 15 years of community buy-in and send Barrett parents scrambling for option schools as they did in the past before visionary former principal convinced Arlington Forest families that their kids would turn out fine. Barrett is one of the few high-FARMS schools that UMC families are happy with. It has a huge number of walkers and fairly balanced ethnic/racial/SES demographics. Not something to upset by playing the "where should we move ATS" game.

Tell me more about Barrett. It's got nearly identical farms rate as Barcroft (60%). Does it really have buy in from SFH, Morris than Barcroft? What's different there, apart from the calendar?

I’m not the previous poster, but Barrett is not diverse. It’s all Hispanic, plus a minority of Arlington Forest families.
And yes, that a good question to ask, because there is a lot of lamenting about Barcroft, but Barrett is no better in its demographics.
PTA participation and parent participation is limited, and I don’t see SES (or ethnic) diversity.

I'd really like to see what percentage of students in each elementary school boundary go to an option school. By planning unit would be even better. We all know what it would show: north Arlington students option at lower rates than south, and are attracted by perceived prestige and less crowded schools. South Arlington students option to avoid going to a segregated school whose resources are organized around serving a disadvantaged majority. But showing these patterns of demand for option schools would underscore that every school should get some sort of distinctive identity like an option school. No, we can't replace the biggest option school advantage - self selected, motivated and engaged parents- but giving Barrett, Barcroft, Carlin Springs and Randolph a focus or identity would help. The UMC has basically decided that those schools are organized around immigrant ELL and social services and they're not wrong. Giving those schools an additional identity that speaks to their aspirations would help. Why send you kid to a school specializing in what he/she has no need for? Something - more immersion programs, cultural exchange, a common denominator between two very different populations. That's where the key immersion came from. Can we not do that again? Are we just bereft of ideas?

I think APS should solicit reasons for each transfer request. Many people won't volunteer it's because of dissatisfaction with the neighborhood school; but if APS listed a range of reasons on the transfer application form to include "low performing neighborhood school" and asked the applicants to rank their reasons, it would be a start. Applications can be given an ID # so that responses are not linked to names to make people a little more comfortable being honest.

A separate confidential survey unlinked to the application would be great but anything that allowed the very low UMC demand for some neighborhood schools in south Arlington would suffice. The point is to measure and show this lack of demand in order to draw attention to it as a problem. APS apparently no longer sees segregated schools as a problem, so a different tactic would be, how to increase broad demand for neighborhood schools like Randolph to balance demand for choice schools, which my guess, cost a sh*t ton more in transport costs than neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

APS doesn’t care why UMC families choice out. They know why, and they simply don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS doesn’t care why UMC families choice out. They know why, and they simply don’t care.

.

So just let them choice into a school like Tuckahoe, McKinley, Reed, Nottingham or where ever there will be space....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS doesn’t care why UMC families choice out. They know why, and they simply don’t care.

.

So just let them choice into a school like Tuckahoe, McKinley, Reed, Nottingham or where ever there will be space....

Fine with me
-future Randolph parent