First grader going to Arlington Traditional?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got off the waitlist to go to ATS-should we consider? I realize it’s a great school but we never thought we would get in. My child seems happy at her current school and is doing great academically. But we can’t help not giving her the best since ATS is ranked so high.

Hi what number were you on the waitlist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

[Anonymous]

It's so interesting because our elementary school doesn't have homework and everyone acts like that is a win for the kids. Homework starts around 4th or 5th grade. Not sure how much ATS gives out or if it's every day, but, I REALLY wish all APS elementary schools would do the same. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ATS student also receives the weekly class “newsletter” but more importantly, a weekly individualized report around my specific child and what they are doing well or what they need to improve on.

Why is weekly individual reports only for the royalty at ATS???

Has nothing to do with royalty. It’s the policy of the school. You can suggest the same to your principal.

+1. It’s something the principal needs to make a priority (i.e. provide planning time for it)

Wow this really should be standard. I’m still confused why all schools can’t take best practices from each other and implement.

I answered up above. ATS has fewer discipline problems and probably very few heavy ESOL parents (parents who don’t speak English) than mainstream schools. Involved parents are much more responsible when their child misbehaves. Checked out parents don’t really react to when their kids are disciplined, and you all know of the 1 or 2 unruly kids who consume too much of the teachers time to allow for individual reports

ATS has plenty of ESOL parents with limited English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

My point is: the majority of underprivileged/ELL students enrolled in each of those schools do not come from VPI. Whereas, ATS naturally has a lower percentage of those students overall to begin with and a significant portion of those that are there come from the VPI program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

My point is: the majority of underprivileged/ELL students enrolled in each of those schools do not come from VPI. Whereas, ATS naturally has a lower percentage of those students overall to begin with and a significant portion of those that are there come from the VPI program.

To add: what is the "achievement gap" between the FRL and non FRL students in the immersion programs v. ATS? Does partially learning in their native language impact the gap? If so, does it do so equally as ATS or vice versa? What % of ATS' FRL students come from the VPI program v. % of Claremont or key or any other school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

The low income kids at ATS have been there since preschool. That’s way more continuity than your standard neighborhood school. We have kids showing up mid-year in all grades speaking little to no English. It’s not the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

My point is: the majority of underprivileged/ELL students enrolled in each of those schools do not come from VPI. Whereas, ATS naturally has a lower percentage of those students overall to begin with and a significant portion of those that are there come from the VPI program.

To add: what is the "achievement gap" between the FRL and non FRL students in the immersion programs v. ATS? Does partially learning in their native language impact the gap? If so, does it do so equally as ATS or vice versa? What % of ATS' FRL students come from the VPI program v. % of Claremont or key or any other school?

I can't find APS data on achievement by FRL status. But on every other subgroup metric, ATS outperforms immersion. Both are self-selected via lottery. Looking at the equity dashboard, ATS has 35% EL, claremont has 32%, and Key has 35%. But ATS outperforms both schools by huge margins on every public measure (SOL, DIBEL, Math Inventory).

All three schools also have VPI. Of the 3 schools, Claremont has the largest ratio of VPI/total enrollment, then ATS, then key.

What point are you trying to make? That fewer kids are in immersion VPI and that explains why ATS is leaps and bounds higher in achievement? Not true. Claremont has the most kids in VPI relative to their size.

ATS has less EL? Also not true. ATS is as high as Key and higher than Claremont.

ATS has more engaged parents than immersion? All three are lottery schools.

So why does ATS run laps around other lottery schools? Look at the data for montessori too. Highest ration of pre-k and lowest number of EL of the option schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

My point is: the majority of underprivileged/ELL students enrolled in each of those schools do not come from VPI. Whereas, ATS naturally has a lower percentage of those students overall to begin with and a significant portion of those that are there come from the VPI program.

To add: what is the "achievement gap" between the FRL and non FRL students in the immersion programs v. ATS? Does partially learning in their native language impact the gap? If so, does it do so equally as ATS or vice versa? What % of ATS' FRL students come from the VPI program v. % of Claremont or key or any other school?

I can't find APS data on achievement by FRL status. But on every other subgroup metric, ATS outperforms immersion. Both are self-selected via lottery. Looking at the equity dashboard, ATS has 35% EL, claremont has 32%, and Key has 35%. But ATS outperforms both schools by huge margins on every public measure (SOL, DIBEL, Math Inventory).

All three schools also have VPI. Of the 3 schools, Claremont has the largest ratio of VPI/total enrollment, then ATS, then key.

What point are you trying to make? That fewer kids are in immersion VPI and that explains why ATS is leaps and bounds higher in achievement? Not true. Claremont has the most kids in VPI relative to their size.

ATS has less EL? Also not true. ATS is as high as Key and higher than Claremont.

ATS has more engaged parents than immersion? All three are lottery schools.

So why does ATS run laps around other lottery schools? Look at the data for montessori too. Highest ration of pre-k and lowest number of EL of the option schools.

Thank you. You said it better than I ever could. I am so sick of this ATS hate.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, why all the ATS hate?

-from a neighborhood school parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Many kids at Randolph and Carlin Springs go to VPI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re happy we took a spot at ATS. APS maxes out class sizes at ATS and it’s possible our kids would have smaller classes at our neighborhood school based on planning factors. But we like so many of the practices that it’s worth that trade off and longer commute time. Small amounts of nightly homework (less common in APS these days because “equity” even though ATS is really diverse too) , weekly reports from teachers, weekly assemblies that build community, expectations around student behavior. All of it adds up to a learning environment that serves its majority-minority, high EL and high farms population well.

All of this could be done in other neighborhood
Schools and some do. But overall APS moving towards watering down standards and expectations. Really happy we’re at ATS.

ATS is not high FARMS unless compared to the upper North schools.

If you do the math, it looks like the ONLY FARMS students come from VPI — so it seems likely FARMS family aren’t navigating the regular lottery. The VPI has outreach at community centers food banks and shelters.

ATS should be an auto enrolled program, and then families can decline when they are selected rather than filtering for proactive parents.

Nope, not anymore. FARMS % is very high, and ever growing due to its set up and preference with the lottery. The VPI program is very large with 3 classes, and auto-admits all siblings of large under-resourced families. These parents can be just as checked out, if they wanted, since they get help with everything, including the lottery. There are several elementary schools in S.Arlington with lower FARMS. However, ATS so far manages to have no achievement gap for these kids, nor any other groups of kids, which is remarkable. Expectations are high for everyone, especially academically, and personally I think the homework helps as well. It fosters good habits from the beginning, and detects problems or lack of parental involvement early.

The majority of its FRL students coming from a quality preK program (VPI) is likely a significant contributing factor to the narrower achievement gap at ATS. Something other schools with the highest FRL%s like Randolph and Carlin Springs do not benefit from.

Both Randolph and Carling Springs have VPI programs.

APS website says VPI programs at the following schools:

Neighborhood schools:

Abingdon, Alice West Fleet, Ashlawn, Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Innovation, Long Branch, Oakridge, Randolph

Option Schools:

Arlington Traditional School
Campbell
Escuela Key and Claremont (Dual Language English and Spanish Immersion) program. Note: Families can only apply to ONE Dual Language School based on their assigned neighborhood school.

My point is: the majority of underprivileged/ELL students enrolled in each of those schools do not come from VPI. Whereas, ATS naturally has a lower percentage of those students overall to begin with and a significant portion of those that are there come from the VPI program.

To add: what is the "achievement gap" between the FRL and non FRL students in the immersion programs v. ATS? Does partially learning in their native language impact the gap? If so, does it do so equally as ATS or vice versa? What % of ATS' FRL students come from the VPI program v. % of Claremont or key or any other school?

I can't find APS data on achievement by FRL status. But on every other subgroup metric, ATS outperforms immersion. Both are self-selected via lottery. Looking at the equity dashboard, ATS has 35% EL, claremont has 32%, and Key has 35%. But ATS outperforms both schools by huge margins on every public measure (SOL, DIBEL, Math Inventory).

All three schools also have VPI. Of the 3 schools, Claremont has the largest ratio of VPI/total enrollment, then ATS, then key.

What point are you trying to make? That fewer kids are in immersion VPI and that explains why ATS is leaps and bounds higher in achievement? Not true. Claremont has the most kids in VPI relative to their size.

ATS has less EL? Also not true. ATS is as high as Key and higher than Claremont.

ATS has more engaged parents than immersion? All three are lottery schools.

So why does ATS run laps around other lottery schools? Look at the data for montessori too. Highest ration of pre-k and lowest number of EL of the option schools.

Thank you. You said it better than I ever could. I am so sick of this ATS hate.

I don't hate ATS. In fact, I wish all of our schools would take more of the traditional, disciplined, high expectations approach of ATS. (And no, we were not ATS parents, either).

I was - believe it or not, here on DCUM - genuinely suggesting that at least part of ATS' success re. the gap in achievement levels is very likely due to the fact that most(?) of their FRL students came from VPI. As opposed to Randolph, or Barcroft, for example - where some or many may come through VPI, but not most. Quality preschool being a significant factor in achievement at the outset, I think that's a key point to consider.

I appreciate the information provided in response to my question about Claremont, etc. I don't know the stats. That's why I posed the questions, including the one about partially learning in the native language. Because I think it's important to know if, and to what extent, our option programs are actually effective as opposed to our neighborhood schools and programs. To your point, I think that's more clearly evident when looking at Randolph, Barcroft, CS - is it not?

I would still be interested in the FRL-specific information with additional insight into % of each school's FRL population also being ELL and VPI "graduates." I think it's an interesting aspect to know more about, that may lend additional credibility and justification for pushing access and participation in quality preschool programs, etc.

You can believe ATS is merely superior in all aspects. But I don't see any harm to you or to ATS' reputation to acknowledge that the proportion of students, especially from ED groups, just might have an effect on the level of ATS' success in regards to achievement gaps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, why all the ATS hate?

-from a neighborhood school parent

See my response to the other "ATS hate" comment.
It's not hatred to consider the fact that preschool and the proportion of students having preschool experience just might help ATS' success with achievement gap data overall. The other questions I posed should also suggest that it wasn't hatred or an attempt to dismiss ATS' impact.