City of Alexandria - Mt. Vernon Elem School - likely to return to traditional calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just checked the state-wide school rankings for our local publics in ACPS and Mount Vernon dropped significantly from 969/1050 (one star rank) in the state to 1012/1050 (zero stars).

How can a school that's focused SO much on bringing up test scores and the bottom-scoring demographic perform so poorly? SOmething is not working somewhere. That's disgraceful!

Jefferson Houston was 1043/1050 in the state (up a few notches, but still zero stars).

Maury, by contrast jumped up to 159/1050 in the state (four stars... up from 300-something). Clearly the administration at Maury is something right.

There is maybe a mile or two between MVCS and Maury. Why the huge gap?

With test scores like that, there is NO way I will be sending my children to MVCS and we LOVE Del Ray and our neighborhood. That's truly terrible!!!!

Reasons for the gap are pretty obvious:

MVCS is 61% FARMS; 55% Hispanic (many ESL). The white kids in MVCS are testing at close to 100%. The other kids are doing very poorly on tests.

Maury is 50% White; 45% FARMS; very few Hispanic kids (8%), so not many ESL issues.

Oh, Maury has about 400 students and MVCS has 800 students. That's a big difference for a principal to manage. Not to mention that the leadership at Maury is probably better, and MVCS has way too many programs (although didn't MVCS just get a new principal? so jury still out on what will change.)

[Anonymous]

I don't see how such a bifurcated system cannot hurt the children who are excelling, e.g., the non-FARMS non-ESL kids. What has the school done to keep the top from being dragged down, or is the administration doing anything? Del Ray is a pretty yuppy upper-class neighborhood, so I cannot imagine parents of the non-FARMS kids and non-ESL kids being happy with settling. What do families do?

When will there be a decision about the traditional calendar and all-immersion change? Or will there be?

[Anonymous]

Looks like the School Board is probably going to vote on the calendar change in December.

To answer your other question, some families move, some families go private, but many families in Del Ray also send their kids to Mt. Vernon.

If you look up the test scores for the sub groups, you'll see that non FARMS kids that have English as their first language are doing fine. (Note that there were some dips across the state in SOL scores due to revisions to the test.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how such a bifurcated system cannot hurt the children who are excelling, e.g., the non-FARMS non-ESL kids. What has the school done to keep the top from being dragged down, or is the administration doing anything? Del Ray is a pretty yuppy upper-class neighborhood, so I cannot imagine parents of the non-FARMS kids and non-ESL kids being happy with settling. What do families do?

When will there be a decision about the traditional calendar and all-immersion change? Or will there be?

Next school board meeting (Dec 5?) will include discussion and public comment re traditional calendar for MVCS.

[Anonymous]

here is a link to what was proposed at the November school board meeting:

http://esbpublic.acps.k12.va.us/public_itemview.aspx?ItemId=4542&mtgId=506

Rather than the intercession vs. traditional calendar, I am more interested in whether or not Spanish dual language will be required for all incoming 2014 kindergarteners, or if there will still be "Traditional" (English only) K classes available.

If you do not want your child in mandatory dual language, will you be able to opt out of MVCS? If they return to the traditional calendar, will in boundary students then be forced into dual language?

[Anonymous]

Also note this slide presentation:

http://eboard.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/6f2254c1-16ec-4e16-8f3a-ce50637456bc.pdf

This shows that scores have dropped in nearly all achievement areas for non-ESL students, especially in Math and Science. Clearly there is a problem with the curriculum and teaching method, and it's not just the ESL population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: If you look up the test scores for the sub groups, you'll see that non FARMS kids that have English as their first language are doing fine. (Note that there were some dips across the state in SOL scores due to revisions to the test.)

http://eboard.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/6f2254c1-16ec-4e16-8f3a-ce50637456bc.pdf

I wouldn't categorize this as "doing fine" for either the ESL or non-ESL kids. For non ESL kids scores dropped significantly in Math, Science and Writing. Maybe I just have higher standards for my children?

[Anonymous]

To anyone who is interested in this discussion, the Alexandria City School Board is meeting tomorrow night (Thursday December 5) to discuss the future of MVCS, calendar and curriculum issues. I urge everyone to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how such a bifurcated system cannot hurt the children who are excelling, e.g., the non-FARMS non-ESL kids. What has the school done to keep the top from being dragged down, or is the administration doing anything? Del Ray is a pretty yuppy upper-class neighborhood, so I cannot imagine parents of the non-FARMS kids and non-ESL kids being happy with settling. What do families do?

When will there be a decision about the traditional calendar and all-immersion change? Or will there be?

It could change now that he's gone, but for years the previous superintendent made it quite clear that this wasn't a concern of his.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how such a bifurcated system cannot hurt the children who are excelling, e.g., the non-FARMS non-ESL kids. What has the school done to keep the top from being dragged down, or is the administration doing anything? Del Ray is a pretty yuppy upper-class neighborhood, so I cannot imagine parents of the non-FARMS kids and non-ESL kids being happy with settling. What do families do?

When will there be a decision about the traditional calendar and all-immersion change? Or will there be?

It could change now that he's gone, but for years the previous superintendent made it quite clear that this wasn't a concern of his.

So true, PP. In fact, for those in ACPS who complained at any level (K-12), the prior Super said he had a "bus ready to take you to Fairfax" (paraphrasing but close to public words).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To anyone who is interested in this discussion, the Alexandria City School Board is meeting tomorrow night (Thursday December 5) to discuss the future of MVCS, calendar and curriculum issues. I urge everyone to attend.

They are proposing a summer learning program at the cost of $266K that will only serve ELL students.

http://eboard.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/000983a2-73b1-4302-a5ca-36ea124c156f.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone who is interested in this discussion, the Alexandria City School Board is meeting tomorrow night (Thursday December 5) to discuss the future of MVCS, calendar and curriculum issues. I urge everyone to attend.

They are proposing a summer learning program at the cost of $266K that will only serve ELL students.

http://eboard.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/000983a2-73b1-4302-a5ca-36ea124c156f.pdf

That's not what I read from that document.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone who is interested in this discussion, the Alexandria City School Board is meeting tomorrow night (Thursday December 5) to discuss the future of MVCS, calendar and curriculum issues. I urge everyone to attend.

They are proposing a summer learning program at the cost of $266K that will only serve ELL students.

http://eboard.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/000983a2-73b1-4302-a5ca-36ea124c156f.pdf

That's not what I read from that document.

"Total Projected Expenditures –
For three weeks of a full-day ELL and SLL summer program as well as half-day for K-Prep, the total costs are approximately $260,330 including staffing, transportation, and supplies."

[Anonymous]

Maury is 50% White; 45% FARMS;

Actually, per ACPS stats, MAURY is down to about 35 percent FARMS now. http://www.acps.k12.va.us/nutrition/stats.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone who is interested in this discussion, the Alexandria City School Board is meeting tomorrow night (Thursday December 5) to discuss the future of MVCS, calendar and curriculum issues. I urge everyone to attend.

They are proposing a summer learning program at the cost of $266K that will only serve ELL students.

http://eboard.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/000983a2-73b1-4302-a5ca-36ea124c156f.pdf

That's not what I read from that document.

"Total Projected Expenditures –
For three weeks of a full-day ELL and SLL summer program as well as half-day for K-Prep, the total costs are approximately $260,330 including staffing, transportation, and supplies."

Right. Just as many funds are devoted to sll kids as to ell kids. And a small portion to all incoming kindergartners. Am I reading it wrong?