We know ACPS is bad but WHY

[Anonymous]

I don't even know if they are much worse than surrounding counties but they are concentrated into fewer schools so it ends up impacting more people.

[Anonymous]

Is it true that Lyles-Crouch is the exception to the rule, or is just as mediocre as the rest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that Lyles-Crouch is the exception to the rule, or is just as mediocre as the rest?

At the elementary level, there is a range with George Mason, Lyles-Crouch, Barrett among the best (this may be open for debate). There are a number of elementary schools with high FARMS rates that struggle more (J-H, John Adams, William Ramsey maybe others (open for debate).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ACPS was too small for this, and now they're stuck. If they open a second high school they'll unleash a mad scramble to get "good" kids in the "good" school and avoid getting put in the "bad" school. If they manage to fight off those forces and open a second high school with identical demographics then they won't actually do a better job of retaining all those kids who are currently going private. So they just keep plugging along.

They really need a second high school. ACHS is too big for students to access things. My son did not make the JV soccer or tennis teams (he plays travel and competitive tennis), had difficulty getting involved in the robotics club. It is just not accessible, too many students. I don't care how they divide it, they need to do so.

Agreed. ACHS student enrollment is size of a small college without the resources to support it. Not only is the school physically busting at the seams, but both students and teachers have missed opportunities. Kids don’t get the chance to participate in activities or programs and teachers have to manage too many students. The City had a missed opportunity to negotiate space at Landmark for construction of a school. And there are ways to ensure fairness in school assignments. It’s not like other places haven’t figured out how to do it!

ACPS truly lacks creativity to think outside the box and is set in old ways of thinking and doing. I mean, their excuse for failing to implement a robust outdoor lunch plan for COVID mitigation was that the schools are overcrowded (exactly why kids shouldn’t eat indoors!) and outdoor air quality may be poor (meanwhile, one of the middle schools has documented mold for years). This all became even more pronounced during the pandemic and more families have fled for privates, unlikely to return.

I also think ACPS is misguided in its use of the concept of “equity.” Rather than applying the principle to lift students up, it becomes a crutch and excuse for saying no and why they can’t do things that seem obvious (eg. “Nobody should get outdoor lunch because some schools don’t have as much open space. Thus, all students will be stuck inside to make it ‘equitable’.”)

It really is a tragedy for the entire Alexandria City community.

ACPS is the perfect example of why Democrat policies don’t work. Rich Dems get to be woke and say they’re for progressive social policies while putting their kids in private school so they don’t have to deal with the fallout from their progressive social policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ACPS was too small for this, and now they're stuck. If they open a second high school they'll unleash a mad scramble to get "good" kids in the "good" school and avoid getting put in the "bad" school. If they manage to fight off those forces and open a second high school with identical demographics then they won't actually do a better job of retaining all those kids who are currently going private. So they just keep plugging along.

They really need a second high school. ACHS is too big for students to access things. My son did not make the JV soccer or tennis teams (he plays travel and competitive tennis), had difficulty getting involved in the robotics club. It is just not accessible, too many students. I don't care how they divide it, they need to do so.

Agreed. ACHS student enrollment is size of a small college without the resources to support it. Not only is the school physically busting at the seams, but both students and teachers have missed opportunities. Kids don’t get the chance to participate in activities or programs and teachers have to manage too many students. The City had a missed opportunity to negotiate space at Landmark for construction of a school. And there are ways to ensure fairness in school assignments. It’s not like other places haven’t figured out how to do it!

ACPS truly lacks creativity to think outside the box and is set in old ways of thinking and doing. I mean, their excuse for failing to implement a robust outdoor lunch plan for COVID mitigation was that the schools are overcrowded (exactly why kids shouldn’t eat indoors!) and outdoor air quality may be poor (meanwhile, one of the middle schools has documented mold for years). This all became even more pronounced during the pandemic and more families have fled for privates, unlikely to return.

I also think ACPS is misguided in its use of the concept of “equity.” Rather than applying the principle to lift students up, it becomes a crutch and excuse for saying no and why they can’t do things that seem obvious (eg. “Nobody should get outdoor lunch because some schools don’t have as much open space. Thus, all students will be stuck inside to make it ‘equitable’.”)

It really is a tragedy for the entire Alexandria City community.

ACPS is the perfect example of why Democrat policies don’t work. Rich Dems get to be woke and say they’re for progressive social policies while putting their kids in private school so they don’t have to deal with the fallout from their progressive social policies.

Please identify the specific “progressive social policies” that cause ACPS’s difficulties. While I agree with the upthread comment with concern about how ACPS applies its equity approach (which is really a recent issue), otherwise I do really not know what you mean since the failures do not seem to be driven by any specific “progressive social policy.”

[Anonymous]

Duh. The elimination, then return, of SROs, for one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duh. The elimination, then return, of SROs, for one.

That is an issue that lasted 3 months and it is unclear if the problems at the start of the year can be attributed to the lack of SROs versus general readjustment to the return to in-person school. So, try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duh. The elimination, then return, of SROs, for one.

That is an issue that lasted 3 months and it is unclear if the problems at the start of the year can be attributed to the lack of SROs versus general readjustment to the return to in-person school. So, try again.

And that was a City Council issue not a ACPS/School Board issue.

[Anonymous]

Imagine the change you'd see if it were UMC white kids getting shot and assaulted by mob.

[Anonymous]

Lots of elementary schools in ACPS do really well, especially for kids who are okay at home. We’ve had high-quality, top notch teachers, good school leadership, and great parent involvement. There’s lots of enrichment in normal times that exceeds many private schools. BUT, I think the large middle and high school are an embedded and difficult barrier. There are fabulous teachers at both whom I know personally as well have heard from other parents, but when a school is that big it doesn’t matter how great the teachers or the leadership are. It’s just simply too big and there’s too much going on and at those ages it causes a lot of problems. Some parents fought hard for a second high school with solid reasoning and evidence, but it fell on deaf ears. Classic stuck thinking. The truth is that the city probably needs 4-5 middle schools and 3 or more high schools. The behemoth model is outdated, but the school board is afraid to push to build because then one becomes “good” and the other inferior.

And let’s be clear, Hutchings is a weak leader. Central office is a mess. It’s so bloated and so much underworked and overpaid staff. He’s too much of a narcissist to do simple things like actually build relationships with other nearby districts to share best practices (eg during Covid).

[Anonymous]

I'm not convinced that the size of the schools is the/an issue. Lake Braddock and Robinson were each 4k students back when I attended in the 1990s (albeit a combined 7-12 grades) and I'm sure they're larger now. We all certainly felt the size, but it wasn't a detriment - it was simply our reality. Like living in NYC instead of Des Moines - neither is better than the other, per se.

Though I do appreciate the complaints about sports team sizes.

Either way, my daughter is thriving at GWMS. We'll keep our fingers crossed for ACHS.

[Anonymous]

Robinson, Lake Braddock, and Alexandria are all around 4,000 in student enrollment. But, with grades 7-12 the other two schools have around 660 students per grade whereas ACHS has 1,000 per grade. That indeed makes a difference!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robinson, Lake Braddock, and Alexandria are all around 4,000 in student enrollment. But, with grades 7-12 the other two schools have around 660 students per grade whereas ACHS has 1,000 per grade. That indeed makes a difference!

Right, as I noted.

But why does a broader age distribution make a 4000-student school better than one with a tighter age grouping? Aside from the sports team issues noted above, why does 4000 9-12 kids = bad but 4000 7-12 kids = okay?

[Anonymous]

You'd think with TC or whatever its called now having so many kids they'd have a lot of money to work with. Or do schools not get $ per student?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not convinced that the size of the schools is the/an issue. Lake Braddock and Robinson were each 4k students back when I attended in the 1990s (albeit a combined 7-12 grades) and I'm sure they're larger now. We all certainly felt the size, but it wasn't a detriment - it was simply our reality. Like living in NYC instead of Des Moines - neither is better than the other, per se.

Though I do appreciate the complaints about sports team sizes.

Either way, my daughter is thriving at GWMS. We'll keep our fingers crossed for ACHS.

As a native of NYC and former ACPS parent, I assure you this is comparison is deeply flawed.

I'm glad you're happy at GW. We liked GW, too. But it's indeed excessively, unambiguously overcrowded. And that affects almost everyting else. Glad your daughter is thriving there, but kids do get lost in the shuffle there. And the English/language arts curriculum is terrible.