Anyone who has (or recently had) their kids at Douglas MacArthur ES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

Disagree.

What exactly do you mean by curriculum? Please post a link. Thanks! Why do all Alexandria school posts come back to you posting this??

Not the PP but I find it interesting that anytime L-C comes up, people like you attack it. L-C is the only school with a different curriculum and it blows every other ACPS school out of the water on proficiency scores. It doesn't matter what segment you look at L-C is the ONLY school in ACPS that performs well. It doesn't take much to put things together.

Now, why don't you want other students to have the same successes at the L-C students? Why do you want to hold them back? Why so resistant to positive change?

Aren't you for equity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please take a look at the final fiscal year budget for 2024 at the link below. The demographic makeup of Alexandria's schools are on page 157. This graph clearly shows the difference in the wealth of students at each school. The schools performing the best have the least amount of children on free or reduced lunch. LC by far has less than half of FARMS than ANY other school in the city at only 18 percent reduced lunch. The next chunk of schools have about 40 percent. The majority of schools have about 55 percent of FARMS students. So for the last time, it is not some special curriculum making the difference in test score! It is the financial makeup of the schools. If we want better schools in the city we need city council to get on board with it and quit it with the affordable housing.

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/departments/financial-services/budget

Even taking into account population...it doesn't account for the extremely wide gaps in proficiency scores between L-C and all the other schools. The numbers are insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please take a look at the final fiscal year budget for 2024 at the link below. The demographic makeup of Alexandria's schools are on page 157. This graph clearly shows the difference in the wealth of students at each school. The schools performing the best have the least amount of children on free or reduced lunch. LC by far has less than half of FARMS than ANY other school in the city at only 18 percent reduced lunch. The next chunk of schools have about 40 percent. The majority of schools have about 55 percent of FARMS students. So for the last time, it is not some special curriculum making the difference in test score! It is the financial makeup of the schools. If we want better schools in the city we need city council to get on board with it and quit it with the affordable housing.

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/departments/financial-services/budget

Even taking into account population...it doesn't account for the extremely wide gaps in proficiency scores between L-C and all the other schools. The numbers are insane.

Are you joking? Did you look at the link? It correlates with an extremely wide gap in wealth!

[Anonymous]

Jefferson Houston is an international bacherchlorate (IB) school. That's an actual inproved difference in curriculum. Students at Jefferson Houston also get a foreign language. No other elementary schools offer that. Where's the equity? I would love it if my child got to learn a foreign language in elementary. Yet, Jefferson Houston still an underperforming school and I believe wasn't even acridited for awhile because 50%of the students live in poverty.

Whether you want to believe it or not. There is an link between wealth and test scores/ academic performance. Look it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please take a look at the final fiscal year budget for 2024 at the link below. The demographic makeup of Alexandria's schools are on page 157. This graph clearly shows the difference in the wealth of students at each school. The schools performing the best have the least amount of children on free or reduced lunch. LC by far has less than half of FARMS than ANY other school in the city at only 18 percent reduced lunch. The next chunk of schools have about 40 percent. The majority of schools have about 55 percent of FARMS students. So for the last time, it is not some special curriculum making the difference in test score! It is the financial makeup of the schools. If we want better schools in the city we need city council to get on board with it and quit it with the affordable housing.

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/departments/financial-services/budget

Even taking into account population...it doesn't account for the extremely wide gaps in proficiency scores between L-C and all the other schools. The numbers are insane.

Are you joking? Did you look at the link? It correlates with an extremely wide gap in wealth!

Before this goes completely off the rails with progressive banality, are you denying the general concept that intact family, stable employment, and education are great predictors of offspring success? As long as Alexandria allows reservations of criminals to live free in city housing, this will continue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a great school. I've never heard any complaints about it. Brand new facilities. It is common for families in the area to do public elementary and then move to private for middle and/or HS so I would consider what you want long-term.

Some of those kids and parents who depart after elementary school have a very difficult time making the transition. There are grading standards at the privates.

There are no "great" schools in ACPS but MacArthur is one of the better schools. But the bar is very low in VA and Alexandria specifically.

If people tell you that a school is "great" in Alexandria...ask them if they quietly got tutors for their kids. Many do this and then claim the schools are "great"!

Take a look at the proficiency numbers for the economically disadvantaged kids in schools. That's the real measure of the quality of the school.

DM is around 50% proficiency in reading and math. Cora Kelly is about the same. Much better than the other east side schools (For reading, George Mason is 25%, Brooks is 27%, Barrett is 32% and MVCS is 28%) but still very poor. Especially considering how VA fared in the US Dept. of Ed's "report card".

???

Virginia is a top-5 state for K-12 nationally. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/best-states-for-education

Not sure what you're going on about with that absurd statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MacArthur a very good a school. The new building is beautiful and there are plenty of excellent, caring teachers. Of course some things could be better, like if the ever opened the playground for the kids to play on... but we are plenty satisfied.

The new building is beautiful and everyone raves about it.

I don't doubt that the teachers are caring. So why are the proficiency scores so terrible? Better than most of the other East Side schools (George Mason is just a disaster!) but still dismal.

I think quality of education is what should determine if a school is "very good" not how nice the building is or how caring the teachers are.

Why don't people care about actual education in Alexandria? Genuine question. I don't understand it.

Because the people who move to Alexandria want to meet other rich people at a wine bar or nice restaurant by the waterfront and pay tutors to get their kids into a good school. The people who care about education move to Arlington or Fairfax.

You mean move to wealthier school districts with less poverty and ESL? Also, you're an a s s hole.

No they don't need to move to wealthier school districts because they send their kids to private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

Disagree.

What exactly do you mean by curriculum? Please post a link. Thanks! Why do all Alexandria school posts come back to you posting this??

Not the PP but I find it interesting that anytime L-C comes up, people like you attack it. L-C is the only school with a different curriculum and it blows every other ACPS school out of the water on proficiency scores. It doesn't matter what segment you look at L-C is the ONLY school in ACPS that performs well. It doesn't take much to put things together.

Now, why don't you want other students to have the same successes at the L-C students? Why do you want to hold them back? Why so resistant to positive change?

Aren't you for equity?

Okay, I'll bite. In the budget p.173 it says that LC is allocated an additional $39,000 dollars for the school for their exemplory program "core knowledge". Not seeing their test scores compared to others schools blowing anyone out of the water though.

GM on the other hand is allocated an additional $71,000 for an additional science teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

Disagree.

What exactly do you mean by curriculum? Please post a link. Thanks! Why do all Alexandria school posts come back to you posting this??

Not the PP but I find it interesting that anytime L-C comes up, people like you attack it. L-C is the only school with a different curriculum and it blows every other ACPS school out of the water on proficiency scores. It doesn't matter what segment you look at L-C is the ONLY school in ACPS that performs well. It doesn't take much to put things together.

Now, why don't you want other students to have the same successes at the L-C students? Why do you want to hold them back? Why so resistant to positive change?

Aren't you for equity?

I can't wait until the school board buys into the belief that LC has a magic curriculum that is denied to every other ACPS school and breaks it up. I'm not sure what other elementary anyone will then be able to point to as the one that isn't that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

Disagree.

What exactly do you mean by curriculum? Please post a link. Thanks! Why do all Alexandria school posts come back to you posting this??

Not the PP but I find it interesting that anytime L-C comes up, people like you attack it. L-C is the only school with a different curriculum and it blows every other ACPS school out of the water on proficiency scores. It doesn't matter what segment you look at L-C is the ONLY school in ACPS that performs well. It doesn't take much to put things together.

Now, why don't you want other students to have the same successes at the L-C students? Why do you want to hold them back? Why so resistant to positive change?

Aren't you for equity?

Okay, I'll bite. In the budget p.173 it says that LC is allocated an additional $39,000 dollars for the school for their exemplory program "core knowledge". Not seeing their test scores compared to others schools blowing anyone out of the water though.

GM on the other hand is allocated an additional $71,000 for an additional science teacher.

What test scores are you looking at? Because the proficiency standards that the VA DOE reports say otherwise. There is an enormous gap across every segment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

Disagree.

What exactly do you mean by curriculum? Please post a link. Thanks! Why do all Alexandria school posts come back to you posting this??

Not the PP but I find it interesting that anytime L-C comes up, people like you attack it. L-C is the only school with a different curriculum and it blows every other ACPS school out of the water on proficiency scores. It doesn't matter what segment you look at L-C is the ONLY school in ACPS that performs well. It doesn't take much to put things together.

Now, why don't you want other students to have the same successes at the L-C students? Why do you want to hold them back? Why so resistant to positive change?

Aren't you for equity?

I can't wait until the school board buys into the belief that LC has a magic curriculum that is denied to every other ACPS school and breaks it up. I'm not sure what other elementary anyone will then be able to point to as the one that isn't that bad.

They will actively work to destroy the one decent school in Alexandria because that is their version of equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

The rich English speaking kids had parents who hired actual teachers and set up micro schools in their basements in the SE quadrant for spring 2020 and 2020-2021 school yearand then by fall 2021 got so annoyed if their kid was now MS age they left for private. The younger rich kids stayed in LC until 6th and went private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread turned into mean craziness. Here are some points.

1. My child does not need or have a tutor. The teachers are excellent AND caring.

2. If the city actually wanted equity/equal whatever they would bus the rich English speaking kids who go to Lyles Crouch to the other schools. That's the only difference in scores! Lyles crouch has huge class sizes in an old tiny classrooms. The difference on score test scores would also go up everywhere if Alexandria city council did not keep courting economically disadvantaged people.

The "rich English speaking kids" left and went private during the pandemic and haven't returned. It's not the demographics that is the difference, it's the curriculum at LC.

Disagree.

What exactly do you mean by curriculum? Please post a link. Thanks! Why do all Alexandria school posts come back to you posting this??

Not the PP but I find it interesting that anytime L-C comes up, people like you attack it. L-C is the only school with a different curriculum and it blows every other ACPS school out of the water on proficiency scores. It doesn't matter what segment you look at L-C is the ONLY school in ACPS that performs well. It doesn't take much to put things together.

Now, why don't you want other students to have the same successes at the L-C students? Why do you want to hold them back? Why so resistant to positive change?

Aren't you for equity?

Okay, I'll bite. In the budget p.173 it says that LC is allocated an additional $39,000 dollars for the school for their exemplory program "core knowledge". Not seeing their test scores compared to others schools blowing anyone out of the water though.

GM on the other hand is allocated an additional $71,000 for an additional science teacher.

Most Core Knowledge curriculum is free.