WSJ says Alexandria among country's least attractive school district

[Anonymous]

More bad news for ACPS:

http://delray.patch.com/articles/alexandria-among-country-s-least-attractive-school-districts-to-parents

I'm not sure how credible Trulia is, however.

[Anonymous]

I read this WSJ piece when it came out, and I'm surprised by the treatment in one local Alexandria outlet. The story was a statistical aggregation that completely disregarded the frequency of migration in this region, as well as the fact that Alexandria enrollment is dramatically up over the last three years. The age-ratio analysis -- the sole data input -- favors only micro-districts, typically small towns that maintain their own elementary schools only and that are part of another district for higher grades (common in the northeast and California; a single address in New York may be part of up to four different school districts). The Trulia piece was designed as a real-estate valuation tool at high-end market. It didn't purport to measure academics at all. If you read the Trulia release, the districts that fare well are nearly all single-school, elementary-only enclaves for the very, truly rich.

[Anonymous]

Even so, PP, I'm afraid it will just be fuel on the fire as far as perception goes.

It's certainly click-bait for the Patch tho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even so, PP, I'm afraid it will just be fuel on the fire as far as perception goes.

It's certainly click-bait for the Patch tho.

I'm fine with it fueling the fire. Enrollment is WAY up, to the point where you're not even guaranteed a spot at your neighborhood school. Maybe the article will deter additional folks from moving in.

[Anonymous]

Why are you copying the comments from the DelRay patch, 20:51?

http://delray.patch.com/articles/alexandria-among-country-s-least-attractive-school-districts-to-parents#comments_list

[Anonymous]

The article didn't purport to "measure academics," it attempted to measure whether people are voting with their feet. It also confirms what I have observed in almost fifteen years of living in Alexandria.

If xxx xxx is posting here, I think we may have identified the ACPS booster that keeps insisting that all of the negative posts on this forum about ACPS can be attributed to one person who lives in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

This is not news to anybody who lives in Alexandria. One group of parents flees when their kids hit elementary school age. A second group sticks around to middle school and then moves out to Fairfax County.

It would be interesting to see the percentage of kids in private schools, too. Alexandria has more private high schools than public ones.

If all these people sent their kids to Alexandria City schools, the school system would be overwhelmed. TC is too big as it is already.

[Anonymous]

If you really think there is only one ACPS supporter here, you are a joke.

[Anonymous]

Former Alexandria City resident. Most everyone we met has moved to Fairfax County or Arlington. We moved to the Fairfax County side of Alexandria. We still have the short commute but we have more schooling options.

[Anonymous]

NP here, and I am not on the school board, though I am an involved parent. My friend has a rising 6th grade who is heading to Hammond. She is also involved in the PTA at our elementary and she did some informal polling to see what folks were sticking around when kids moved up to middle school.
5 Students moved away (different locations, and just for the sake of argument we will go ahead and say they moved to another district because of the schools, even though we don't know the reasons in each case.)
2 are going to private school
1 is going to be home schooled
Every other kid in 5th grade is headed to Hammond. This does not sound like a mass exodus to me. I know that historically there were trends like this, but the people that keep making those sweeping generalizations are simply ignoring the current data that exists. I don't think the multiple ACPS boosters on this forum think everything is perfect, but we do believe that the overall trend is moving is a positive direction, and we are pleased with our own experience with the school system.

[jsteele]

I am locking this thread because the original poster will not stop posting names. If you want to mention someone by name, you are free to do so as long as you include you own name. We do not support cowardly attacks by people who hide behind anonymity.