APS Elementary: On the Rise ?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
In the last decade: 1) APS high school overcrowding has been ignored and 4th high school denied, so answer is supersize existing schools 2) gifted services went from pull out to fake push in 3) grades replaced by standards based grading 4) Lucy Caulkins reading — but that was widespread and being fixed 5) equity is focus, not meeting children’s needs where they are at. |
Anonymous
The neighborhoods around Kenmore pushed back against a 4th high school there. The W-L PTA surveyed all the surrounding neighborhoods and results strongly favored expansion there. Then Arlington Tech opened, and based on community support, APS decided to expand that popular program to solve overcrowding once and for all. All area school districts are supportive of equity initiatives. |
Anonymous
Have things improved since the shift in focus to equity? If the greatest predictor of student success is parental involvement, how are equity initiatives in the school going to make a meaningful difference? (I do think gaps in achievement are in large part due to systemic racism. Those who work two jobs are, of course, going to have a harder time helping their children with reading and math. I’m just wondering how we can actually make meaningful changes, because what I’ve seen so far isn’t working. It’s just virtue signaling.) |
Anonymous
|
On AEM, there’s someone whose son goes to a private school for kids I with disabilities (everyone has a confirmed dyslexia diagnosis, I believe). She reports how well these students do with their mode of instruction and can’t understand why it can’t be replicated in APS and achieve the same results.
I *do* think changing the way reading is taught (Lucy Calkins was abysmal) is important and APS should shift to phonics-based instruction, but this lady is kidding herself if she thinks the results will be the same as those in her son’s school. You know what else the students in her school have? 100% of them have parental involvement. Class size is important, but it isn’t JUST that, or schools like Drew would have the highest reading scores. Doing well in school starts at home. Turn off the TV. Get your kid to behave. |
Anonymous
Arlington tech absolutely does not solve overcrowding in APS. The year the new facility opens it could absorb the overcrowding at Wakefield (assuming no transfers from Yorktown or WL, and right now it pulls from all 3 so…). But the longer term pressure remains. I would maybe try to be zoned for WL and then Yorktown. Wakefield is a good school but we’re not serving tj students well by cramming them all in there. As for equity and SBG, yes, this the trend in most of our area schools. But from what I can tell these policies serve schools’ interests and not kids. A policy in which no child will receive less than 50%, even if they never do an assignment, is a policy that allows schools to graduate kids but not educate them. Good for the Wakefield teachers for speaking out against this policy. Not that it really did much good. |
Anonymous
Typo above. Should be “the students” and not “tj students” |
Anonymous
FFS, polling neighborhoods is not how you plan a school district. Of course neighbors don’t want increased traffic and mischief of a high school. Of course current families support expanding WL because a) they don’t want to be zoned out and b) most of them will be out of the system before overcrowding becomes dire. We are zoned for WL and I never saw such a survey anyways. AT is nice enough, but it won’t solve the problems since we need 2500 seats and it will max out at 1000 — and since it’s option it could fall out of favor and blow up on us (like when we need 1000 students but you can’t attract that many to a vocational adjacent campus). |
Anonymous
| Has no mentioned that elementary class size has increased 30% over the last decade? |
Anonymous
We are zoned for Ashlawn. It might be North Arlington, but everything my friends describe at Jamestown sounds miles different from Ashlawn. Don't even get me started on the people I know whose kids are older, at Yorktown/ Their kids have played sports at a competitive level for years but cannot get on the high school team because the school is so overcrowded the unless you are a superstar you cant be on the team. It makes me question why we live here. |
Anonymous
some people don't understand how public education works. |
Anonymous
| Regarding equity initiatives (among both public and private schools), I am not a fan of the trendy standards based grading which is applied unevenly and allows for lazy behavior like tardiness, missed assignments, etc., without repercussions. |
Anonymous
It’s much easier to make the cut sports at W-L and Wakefied since there is less competition for the spots, due to demographics, i.e., the vast majority of Yorktown students are affluent and have played competitive athletics since they were young. Currently some cut sports at W-L and Wakefield could use more players to fill out the rosters. The award winning dance team at W-L is small and could certainly grow much larger. Note however that transfers specifically for sports is against VHSL policy. So no transfers from Yorktown to Wakefield to play varsity lacrosse for example. |
Anonymous
I’m annoyed at elimination of homework. |
Anonymous
How long will the slack in sports last as WL grows to 3000 students and becomes more affluent with rising housing prices? Will they field 2 varsity basketball teams? Did that addition built last year include another gym? |
Anonymous
All then-zoned W-L neighborhoods filled out the poll which was targeted towards future W-L families. But that was eight years ago, and many of those then-zoned W-L neighborhoods have since been rezoned to Yorktown, like the neighborhoods north of Langston and those west of Bon Air and Bluemont Park. APS simply followed the desires of the impacted groups, and the Arlington Tech solution did not upset anyone in particular. |