If not everyone can learn, no one should learn (APS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he is using his own interpretation.

So Randolph or Abingdon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I just say that I'm shocked at all the hostile and even vicious posts on DCUM aimed at parents who just want their kids to get a couple of hours of education a day? Some of these posters seem genuinely happy that middle class kids are not receiving any instruction. When I read many of them, I find myself thinking that this has to be a Russian bot, not some actual Arlington parent who wants to sabotage my son's education.

I think it's exasperation at people who, when faced with the fact that their upper middle class first grader may have to do packets for three months instead of going to class, post things like "APS is not a closed system. Our students compete with students from other districts, states and countries." If the biggest complaints are coming from the K-2 parents who want new learning for the last couple months of the year, then a lot of us are going to perceive this "sabotage" talk as ridiculous complaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think he is using his own interpretation.

So Randolph or Abingdon?

Abingdon. As I have said in the other thread. Not trying to hide it. This was in a virtual Town Hall with 100+ participants. He said this is entirely at the direction of Central.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think he is using his own interpretation.

So Randolph or Abingdon?

Abingdon. As I have said in the other thread. Not trying to hide it. This was in a virtual Town Hall with 100+ participants. He said this is entirely at the direction of Central.

So now everyone else in APS is afraid to admit what their school is offering... for fear they’ll be Abingdon’ed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Is it just me or is the School Board using the platform Zoom tonight, which -- ironically -- is banned by APS?



Oh wait -- I think it's Teams. Which doesn't seem to be allowed either for elementary school.



Our ES is using MS teams (2nd grade)

2nd grade? Then why are there at least 3 threads here on DCUM saying that APS 2nd graders aren't getting any lessons?

They arent getting lessons. They are using MS teams for checkins. No instruction.

[Anonymous]

The striver, type a, neoliberal, corporate-centrist, pseudo-pro-diversity nerds of Arlington just can’t help themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Is it just me or is the School Board using the platform Zoom tonight, which -- ironically -- is banned by APS?



Oh wait -- I think it's Teams. Which doesn't seem to be allowed either for elementary school.



Our ES is using MS teams (2nd grade)

2nd grade? Then why are there at least 3 threads here on DCUM saying that APS 2nd graders aren't getting any lessons?

They arent getting lessons. They are using MS teams for checkins. No instruction.

That's more than we're getting.

[Anonymous]

Here's what someone should be asking:

Let's say we have two options for how things look at the end of the year.

Option A: The 90th, 75th, 25th, and 10th percentile all improve, but the gap between the 90th and the 10th on standardized tests increases by 2 percentage points.

Option B: The 90th, 75th, 25th and 10th percentile don't improve at all, but the gap doesn't increase at all.

Anyone who says that Option B is preferable, with the "gap" being more important than everyone doing better, has no place in education. Yet I'm pretty sure that the message we are being given.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NVD's comments tonight were spot on, IMO. I appreciated that all of the SB members seem to be concerned about what is happening here, particularly for K-2 but more generally as well, but I think she was appropriately pointed particularly in her exchange with Bridget Loft.

What was the exchange?

Loft said she thought it was unconscionable to do anything deliberate to widen the gap. NVD said (paraphrasing) well okay but we may not be able to go back to school in the fall and no new content indefinitely isn't acceptable, so let's not call things unconscionable because we could well be there in a few months, and also parents are looking left and right at other school districts that are introducing new content and are concerned so let's not call them names either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what someone should be asking:

Let's say we have two options for how things look at the end of the year.

Option A: The 90th, 75th, 25th, and 10th percentile all improve, but the gap between the 90th and the 10th on standardized tests increases by 2 percentage points.

Option B: The 90th, 75th, 25th and 10th percentile don't improve at all, but the gap doesn't increase at all.

Anyone who says that Option B is preferable, with the "gap" being more important than everyone doing better, has no place in education. Yet I'm pretty sure that the message we are being given.

And by picking Option B, you may not be affirmatively increasing the gap but the gap will increase, perhaps more than 2 percentage points. If teachers are allowed to teach to the best of their abilities as they did before all this, the gap will remain constant. By removing teachers from the equation and putting parents with money in charge of their children’s education, you’re looking at a much bigger range of education levels.

[Anonymous]

Obviously, if APS has to do distance learning in 2020-21, it will have to introduce new content, as it stated it’s full steam ahead on promoting students after this year. But highly doubt schools will still be closed. It might be staggered or something, but all things being equal, expect reopening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Good for your kids. I am glad they have handled the isolation so well. You must be a fabulous parent.

But everyone is different and five months is a long time away for most teenagers. My normally extremely externally motivated DD is starting to grow depressed. She has gone from a typical day consisting of roughly 6-7 hours of challenging classes, followed by a HS club meeting, followed by varsity sport practice and then a few hours of HW to now 1-2 hours of challenging school work a day. For the first few weeks she was motivated to interact with her friends and continued to do a lot on her own. I was thrilled that she was taking this all in stride. For awhile she was even regularly practicing for the June SAT but now that has been cancelled. During "spring break" she started slowing down and this week her attitude seems to be why bother. Obviously there are plenty of other non-academic, worthwhile things she could be doing but depression often does not allow a person to do those.

BTW, my DD is not unique. I am hearing from several friends who have typically engaged, motivated APS HS students that they are worried their kids are getting depressed. What APS thinks is appropriate - a combination of no new material, no consequence for not doing the work and work that the student thinks mere busy-work - may actually be helping cause some otherwise engaged and motivated students to be depressed.

Maybe it isn't really depression - rather not knowing how to be bored and not having the knowledge or skill how to fill her time on her own. Of course she's slowed down. All of our kids have slowed down without external deadlines and no goals to be reached. Our kids' daily lives have been scheduled for them since birth. They didn't have to fill hours of time with nothing to do. Suddenly, they now have nothing to do and do not know WHAT to do. Heaven forbid they be bored, alone without stimulation for even five minutes, and learn to deal with the quiet in their heads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here's a rough transcript of what NVD said — "I wish we’d take this opportunity to account for every single student and see which students have wifi and make sure that every student has internet access by the end of the 4th quarter. We may not be coming back to school in the fall - it’s a possibility - so we should sort that out now and work to get all students access now.

Second piece — 2nd graders - let’s do the inventory of iPads that are out there. If there are extras to push some more out — perhaps we can. Then discuss with families who needs it and who doesn’t. — Teams work on cell phones too. We need to create a base for long term learning.

Tuckahoe familieswant a good solid explanation for why there can’t be an extension of learning.

I don’t actually think it’s unconscionable to be providing new content.I think if we’re not in school in the fall, we will have to provide new content. So it’s not unconscionable and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for families to want new content if they’ve find the materials they’ve been provided not working for their student. So I don’t want to criticize families for requesting more information. I think we’re learning, and I think there’s an opportunity if we can get wifi and devices - rather than be aiming at what some see as the lowest bar — but raising that bar up once our access is there, hence our questions about making sure we provide access and accounting for every student and getting the devices to as many as possible, and then practicing in the next 8 weeks, how we deliver distance learning. B/c everything I’ve been hearing from relatives in other states is that that maintaining the student-teacher bond is incredibly valuable — especially for the youngest students - they need that.”

Ms. Loft basically responded that she'd take the feedback in writing.

Because they live in a county where not everyone has the same resources that they do. Tuckahoe has less than 2% of kids on free lunch in a county where 29% of elementary students get free lunch, and is less than 8% Hispanic in a school system that is 25% Hispanic. They have been insulated from having to deal with those higher county numbers by school boundary decisions, but now they have to deal with the fact that this policy is county-wide and it doesn't matter what zip code they bought in. So they can suck it up. Maybe now they will start to care more when people talk about "no child left behind." You can't just care when it's your child being left behind.

Amen!

[Anonymous]

As a taxpayer, I am appalled at APS lame attempts to educate my 2nd grader with 45 minutes of worksheets! (Teacher is wonderful but she was told to scale back her good instruction prior to spring break and just minimally teach to the worksheets)

For $19,921 per student spending (FY 20 budget) we should demand better! And I would be ok with just the worksheets if APS used the money to hire online tutors for struggling students and buy cheap tablets so everyone can connect for equity sake. Instead we all get crap while the APS admin folks “work from home “ in their ivory towers.

[Anonymous]

As has been pointed out before, overall having teacher-led instruction will make the gap lower; the more involved, educated etc parents, generally the upper-middle-class, will still ensure instruction for their kids, parents whose kids are behind are less likely to (they are immigrants with limited English, don't have as much interest, etc).

So the premise is wrong. But even if the premise was right, it's absurd to think that "narrowing the gap" is more important than "every subgroup improves, even if some improve more than others".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what someone should be asking:

Let's say we have two options for how things look at the end of the year.

Option A: The 90th, 75th, 25th, and 10th percentile all improve, but the gap between the 90th and the 10th on standardized tests increases by 2 percentage points.

Option B: The 90th, 75th, 25th and 10th percentile don't improve at all, but the gap doesn't increase at all.

Anyone who says that Option B is preferable, with the "gap" being more important than everyone doing better, has no place in education. Yet I'm pretty sure that the message we are being given.

And by picking Option B, you may not be affirmatively increasing the gap but the gap will increase, perhaps more than 2 percentage points. If teachers are allowed to teach to the best of their abilities as they did before all this, the gap will remain constant. By removing teachers from the equation and putting parents with money in charge of their children’s education, you’re looking at a much bigger range of education levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I just say that I'm shocked at all the hostile and even vicious posts on DCUM aimed at parents who just want their kids to get a couple of hours of education a day? Some of these posters seem genuinely happy that middle class kids are not receiving any instruction. When I read many of them, I find myself thinking that this has to be a Russian bot, not some actual Arlington parent who wants to sabotage my son's education.

There is no middle class in Arlington. It's haves and have nots. Did you get the alert about the traffic jam on Columbia Pike Friday night by people lining up for free food? How about we pretend this is summer, do what you can with your kids, and help those who literally have NO FOOD.