If ATS is so popular, why not create two of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of claims here that ATS has better stats. Can you provide links or be more specific? I agree ATS has a reputation for excellent but when I’ve looked at data it really isn’t stood out to me, but perhaps I do t know everywhere to look.

Check this. You can look at dibels, math inventory and SOLS.

You can select schools and grade levels.

https://www.apsva.us/superintendents-office/student-progress-dashboard/

Thanks! They sure don't make it easy to compare schools. LOL. But some interesting data for sure. will keep looking at it.

[Anonymous]

My child is at Campbell, which is in some ways the anti-ATS, so I definitely don’t want all of APS to become more like ATS. In fact, I would likely leave if it were. But I don’t mind other people being able to choose homework and instruments and shirts tucked in if that’s what appeals to them, just like I got to choose nature and no homework and social-emotional learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me the real question is-- "why not replicate ATS best practices?". As I understand it from friends who have kids there--they get weekly reports from the Kinder teacher on each student--not so at my DC's APS elementary. There is homework from kindergarten on at ATS--homework did not start until 3rd grade at my DC's school.

It makes no sense at all that APS does not identify best practices from the most popular APS school and replicate them in part or full at all other APS elementary schools. Seems like a no brainer!

Homework for kindergartners is not a best practice. Honestly, as a parent of older kids, I can assure you that ATS kids do not have better outcomes in the long run than kids who attended their neighborhood schools.

But if you want to assign your own kid worksheets, require them to play an instrument, and tuck in their shirts, you can do all of that

This is not because ATS doesn't do things better. This is because the standards and practices at all APS middle schools don't measure up.The rigor and discipline sharply declines from elementary to middle school.

So elementary school doesn't matter, you're saying? And then presumably middle school doesn't matter, because once kids move to the next school, nothing that happened before has any staying power.

I'm just saying middle school in Arlington generally isn't impressive. Doesn't mean things from elementary "don't stick" - they just don't have to use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t want to drain neighborhood schools and leave them only with kids whose parents couldn’t/didn’t navigate the lottery.

so APS basically has school choice in the form of charter schools then? We just call it something else as to not be republicany? Expensive busing, brain drain of neighborhood schools, have to be able to navigate the lottery…what am I missing here and why is this accepted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t want to drain neighborhood schools and leave them only with kids whose parents couldn’t/didn’t navigate the lottery.

so APS basically has school choice in the form of charter schools then? We just call it something else as to not be republicany? Expensive busing, brain drain of neighborhood schools, have to be able to navigate the lottery…what am I missing here and why is this accepted?

Pretty much. And APS is really, really proud of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is at Campbell, which is in some ways the anti-ATS, so I definitely don’t want all of APS to become more like ATS. In fact, I would likely leave if it were. But I don’t mind other people being able to choose homework and instruments and shirts tucked in if that’s what appeals to them, just like I got to choose nature and no homework and social-emotional learning.

School choice for all!…or just the random lucky few. Equity!

[Anonymous]

If we can have two immersion schools and the waitlist for ATS is massive, why not have a north and a south?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we can have two immersion schools and the waitlist for ATS is massive, why not have a north and a south?

Yes, absolutely, let's officially divide the white northern achievers from the non-white southern achievers. Let's absolutely eliminate what diversity is actually at the one ATS we have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After we visited the school, most parents milled outside wondering why more schools weren't like this. It really did not seem like an out of the world school that couldn't be recreated. It seemed like a good school with high expectations for children and parents and it made us sad that it seemed to be such an outlier (such that a lottery was necessary due to all the demand)

It’s the “no deadweight” model. Literally every kid has a parent that knows about and has figured out how to navigate the lottery. That’s the part that can’t be replicated, at least not without eating into the neighborhood schools.

How hard is it to figure out the lottery? I can't believe that's the major difference... It's all over the APS website and we get multiple communications about it! Are there that many parents that don't know about it?

[Anonymous]

Wishing we were at ATS and not at our neighbor school which is NOT in S Arlington. If options schools exist, why is it so wrong for families to want to get in if they offer something better than a neighborhood school. We put our name in for all of them and just didn’t get lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me the real question is-- "why not replicate ATS best practices?". As I understand it from friends who have kids there--they get weekly reports from the Kinder teacher on each student--not so at my DC's APS elementary. There is homework from kindergarten on at ATS--homework did not start until 3rd grade at my DC's school.

It makes no sense at all that APS does not identify best practices from the most popular APS school and replicate them in part or full at all other APS elementary schools. Seems like a no brainer!

Except this is APS we are talking about. It has been disheartening to hear over and over again from neighbors as we prepare to go into K how we must volunteer and be involved and get face time with the teacher. So many people have told us to sign up to go in and stuff folders (?). We are involved parents. But the idea that I have to low key lobby the teacher to know what my kid is doing in school makes me so sad. Friends of older kids essentially say the same thing - we have no idea what they are doing. I don't need a daily report on what they ate and when they went to the bathroom. But a weekly student report would be so valuable. The fancy privates seem to do this, so it does appear to be way above and beyond?

We only know ATS so I have nothing to compare to here. All our kiddos have different learning styles and personalities and have excelled at ATS. Even my DS who is super young for his grade that we were worried about. We credit a big part of the success to the weekly reports — being able to understand what a child is excelling in or struggling with in between conferences is key. Some may say it depends on the teacher but all of our kiddo’s have had different teachers at ATS and the communication has never wavered. Not sure how much the weekly reports take from a time standpoint, but I wouldn’t think it would be that difficult to incorporate in all the APS elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

The amount of comments about ATS and tucking in shirts cracks me up. From someone who isn’t familiar, what’s the deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is at Campbell, which is in some ways the anti-ATS, so I definitely don’t want all of APS to become more like ATS. In fact, I would likely leave if it were. But I don’t mind other people being able to choose homework and instruments and shirts tucked in if that’s what appeals to them, just like I got to choose nature and no homework and social-emotional learning.

I really wish I understood Campbell a little bit better. It sort of flies under the radar. We are on the waitlist there. I reviewed the materials online including presentation, but I could not tell you what it's about really. We like rigor, but also like social emotional learning and nature. I'm surprised to see them painted as such opposites?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One key difference at ATS, kids have one teacher that teaches all the subjects. Other schools rotate by subject

Some schools do, others don't

So how early does this start? Will children at Ashlawn in Elementary already have rotating teachers? That seems not good from a perspective of getting to know your students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t want to drain neighborhood schools and leave them only with kids whose parents couldn’t/didn’t navigate the lottery.

so APS basically has school choice in the form of charter schools then? We just call it something else as to not be republicany? Expensive busing, brain drain of neighborhood schools, have to be able to navigate the lottery…what am I missing here and why is this accepted?

Most kids don't walk to neighborhood schools either because of the dangerous crossings all over Arlington. And kids have to use hub stops for the choice schools. Choice programs do not add THAT much to bussing costs. (It's not nothing, but it's not like none of those kids would be on buses if we didn't have choice schools--the cost is somewhere in the middle of zero and the cost for choice bussing.)