50%+ FARMS schools in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I read through all of these responses, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. First, in response to the OP, we've just started school this year, so I don't have a lot of experience yet with APS.

We live in S. Arlington. Not even south of Rte 50, we live (gasp!), south of Columbia Pike. Our schools is 70%+ low income. We are white, upper middle class.

We sent our child to our neighborhood school on the assumption that, since APS is, overall, an outstanding school system, whether we went to one particular school versus another would not make a huge difference.

Perhaps we are just woefully naive. Or perhaps others are just over-concerned with differences that really are fairly small?

You'll be fine, and you're right that the school system is outstanding. Most all Arlington schools are good, although Hoffman Boston has had some problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I read through all of these responses, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. First, in response to the OP, we've just started school this year, so I don't have a lot of experience yet with APS.

We live in S. Arlington. Not even south of Rte 50, we live (gasp!), south of Columbia Pike. Our schools is 70%+ low income. We are white, upper middle class.

We sent our child to our neighborhood school on the assumption that, since APS is, overall, an outstanding school system, whether we went to one particular school versus another would not make a huge difference.

Perhaps we are just woefully naive. Or perhaps others are just over-concerned with differences that really are fairly small?

Which school? If you goto http://www.greatschools.net you can view the test scores to get a good idea of how well the school is performing. Further more you can get the ESL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The list of N Arlington low-income protected housing is substantially larger, because many newer buildings in the area are also compelled to reserve a certain number of units for low-income and there are mid-size garden complexes around in various N Arlington areas that people don't mention...In the middle of the two new strips of very upscale Buckingham THs there is a low-income complex called the George Mason Apartments that's a decent size for example....

http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/CPHD/housing/housing_info/CPHDHousingHousing_infoAffordable.aspx

The county is trying to maintain a healthy level of low income housing in North Arlington, but the number of low income units has substantially decreased over the past 20+ years, a trend that is very unlikely to change. In N Arlington, there are pockets of low-income areas, and low-income apartments are sometimes mixed with market rate apartments, but whole neighborhoods of high poverty in N Arlington no longer exist.

Landowners in the 80s had let their formerly market-rate garden apartments decline, hoping to cash in on the redevelopment close to the Metro orange line. Buckingham held out the longest, and it became an area of high poverty in the 90s. The redevelopment there today was always planned. Unless a non-profit buys the Geo Mason apartments, I suspect the owner will eventually sell to a developer.

The county is trying to maintain a healthy number of low income housing? A healthy number would be ZERO.

We have this same issue in fairfax county with Bulova mandating that 20% of all new tysons development be low income. Of course the idiots keep voting her in. Joke will be on them when the public schools go down the tubes and I am sending my kid to private.

[Anonymous]

Hate to break to everyone but Barrett gets a 6/10 rating. Their test scores arent very good http://www.greatschools.org/modperl/achievement/va/113#from..HeaderLink
I think the problem is that there are alot of ESL so alot of student are learning english.

Ethnicity

This School/State Average

Hispanic
45%/9%

White, not Hispanic
39%/57%

Black, not Hispanic
8%/26%

Asian/Pacific Islander
7%/6%

American Indian/Alaskan Native
<1%/<1%

This School/State Average

Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program

54%/33%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break to everyone but Barrett gets a 6/10 rating. Their test scores arent very good http://www.greatschools.org/modperl/achievement/va/113#from..HeaderLink
I think the problem is that there are alot of ESL so alot of student are learning english.

Ethnicity

This School/State Average

Hispanic
45%/9%

White, not Hispanic
39%/57%

Black, not Hispanic
8%/26%

Asian/Pacific Islander
7%/6%

American Indian/Alaskan Native
<1%/<1%

This School/State Average

Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program

54%/33%

That's all common knowledge. Most were interested in the scores of white/middle class students which match or exceed those of the most wealthy N Arlington schools.

[Anonymous]

Actually, 6 out of 10 is not bad. It's not impressive, but it's definitely nothing to sneer at. You have to remember that a score of "5" means that the school passing rate (i.e. the percentage of kids passing the SOLs) is equal to the passing rate for the whole state. So, they are above average.

White students are scoring a "10" at Barrett. That means they are in the top 10% of all students in Virginia for passing the SOLs. In fact, if you dig deeper, you'd see that 100% of white 4th graders passed both math and reading. 100% of white 3rd graders passed history, science, and math, and only 97% of white third graders passed reading.

Learn what the stats mean before you start slamming this school.

FWIW, my kids go to a FCPS that is an "8" out of 10 and I'm sure they do not have 100% of white kids passing 3rd or 4th grade subjects of any kind. (and we have FARMs of about 14%).

[Anonymous]

I'm 14:12 and I neglected to mention that the white 5th graders also scored 100% passing rate on ALL of their SOL tests as well (math, science, reading).

Looks to me like the ESOL issue is the issue, not the teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 14:12 and I neglected to mention that the white 5th graders also scored 100% passing rate on ALL of their SOL tests as well (math, science, reading).

Looks to me like the ESOL issue is the issue, not the teaching.

True but think of all the wasted resources being burnt up teaching esol to 50% of the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I read through all of these responses, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. First, in response to the OP, we've just started school this year, so I don't have a lot of experience yet with APS.

We live in S. Arlington. Not even south of Rte 50, we live (gasp!), south of Columbia Pike. Our schools is 70%+ low income. We are white, upper middle class.

We sent our child to our neighborhood school on the assumption that, since APS is, overall, an outstanding school system, whether we went to one particular school versus another would not make a huge difference.

Perhaps we are just woefully naive. Or perhaps others are just over-concerned with differences that really are fairly small?

A lot depends on your personal situation. If you live in a nice area, a school that's below average may not matter quite as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 14:12 and I neglected to mention that the white 5th graders also scored 100% passing rate on ALL of their SOL tests as well (math, science, reading).

Looks to me like the ESOL issue is the issue, not the teaching.

True but think of all the wasted resources being burnt up teaching esol to 50% of the students.[/quote]

Whatever the resources are, (1) they are not "wasted" as they are helping those who do not speak English get on track for future grades, and (2) they are not taking anything away from the 38% of students who are white b/c they are obviously meeting ALL of the Va. standards.

I admit that I screen schools based on the percentage of FARMS (in searching for a better FCPS HS pyramid), but I also look at the overall achievement and the achievement break downs for different groups. Barrett looks to be a shining example of the best way a school deals with a challenging population and excells at it.

[Anonymous]

Something missed in all these discussions is that elementary schools are also about socialization as much as about education of fundamentals...I believe socioeconomic diversity is good, but I don't count diversity to be sending my brown upper income kid to a 70% low-income school even if the white/minority-rich kids are scoring high on state tests (which are really the bare benchmark of educational outcomes in the first place if you have higher standards). One, I don't want the prevailing perception to be reinforced to my kid that being of color means being poor. Two, scoring well on state tests is not the only measure of education, and a majority-poor environment leads to a certain socialization, i.e. day-to-day language, habits etc. A friend with a kid in a well-regarded DC charted that is 40-50% low income, recently commented to me how his kid within three months of starting KG was already changing his diction, word choice and behavior in a negative way.

In fact, poor kids seem to benefit inordinately from attending upper-income schools...see this article from today's NYT (there's also a lot of data out there on this)....I just don't understand these well-off parents sending their kids to majority-poor schools, b/c if given the chance, many of the striving poor families would gladly send their child to be a minority in a high-income school....APS or not, I would never accept a school that was majority low-income for my kid...didn't work this hard for that...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/education/lets-get-ready-offers-help-for-college-admissions.html?scp=1&sq=newton&st=cse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A friend with a kid in a well-regarded DC charted that is 40-50% low income, recently commented to me how his kid within three months of starting KG was already changing his diction, word choice and behavior in a negative way.

In fact, poor kids seem to benefit inordinately from attending upper-income schools...see this article from today's NYT (there's also a lot of data out there on this)....I just don't understand these well-off parents sending their kids to majority-poor schools, b/c if given the chance, many of the striving poor families would gladly send their child to be a minority in a high-income school....APS or not, I would never accept a school that was majority low-income for my kid...didn't work this hard for that...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/education/lets-get-ready-offers-help-for-college-admissions.html?scp=1&sq=newton&st=cse

Kids pick up undesirable words and phrases from the school yard, tv, video games, and even parents all the time. Non-Hispanic kids at Randolph may learn a few colorful spanish phrases--who knows? This is nothing to be overly concerned about. Rich white public school kids on Capitol Hill are not speaking Ebonics.

Personally, I wouldn't mind it if the school is between 40-60% low income, with the remainder being upper income, and producing good results overall. I think that's a decent mix, although maybe something close to 10% low income would be the ideal for everyone.

I do respect your point of view however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something missed in all these discussions is that elementary schools are also about socialization as much as about education of fundamentals...I believe socioeconomic diversity is good, but I don't count diversity to be sending my brown upper income kid to a 70% low-income school even if the white/minority-rich kids are scoring high on state tests (which are really the bare benchmark of educational outcomes in the first place if you have higher standards). One, I don't want the prevailing perception to be reinforced to my kid that being of color means being poor. Two, scoring well on state tests is not the only measure of education, and a majority-poor environment leads to a certain socialization, i.e. day-to-day language, habits etc. A friend with a kid in a well-regarded DC charted that is 40-50% low income, recently commented to me how his kid within three months of starting KG was already changing his diction, word choice and behavior in a negative way.

In fact, poor kids seem to benefit inordinately from attending upper-income schools...see this article from today's NYT (there's also a lot of data out there on this)....I just don't understand these well-off parents sending their kids to majority-poor schools, b/c if given the chance, many of the striving poor families would gladly send their child to be a minority in a high-income school....APS or not, I would never accept a school that was majority low-income for my kid...didn't work this hard for that...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/education/lets-get-ready-offers-help-for-college-admissions.html?scp=1&sq=newton&st=cse

this minority parent whole-heartily agree 100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 14:12 and I neglected to mention that the white 5th graders also scored 100% passing rate on ALL of their SOL tests as well (math, science, reading).

Looks to me like the ESOL issue is the issue, not the teaching.

True but think of all the wasted resources being burnt up teaching esol to 50% of the students.

This remark makes me sick. Heaven forbid your child need any special resources, ever. Would you say the same thing about special needs kids? Or even gifted kids? Arlington probably "wastes" a lot of resources on all those GT and AP kids....

I, for one, am fine with Arlington providing a good, free education to ALL of its students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 14:12 and I neglected to mention that the white 5th graders also scored 100% passing rate on ALL of their SOL tests as well (math, science, reading).

Looks to me like the ESOL issue is the issue, not the teaching.

True but think of all the wasted resources being burnt up teaching esol to 50% of the students.

This remark makes me sick. Heaven forbid your child need any special resources, ever. Would you say the same thing about special needs kids? Or even gifted kids? Arlington probably "wastes" a lot of resources on all those GT and AP kids....

I, for one, am fine with Arlington providing a good, free education to ALL of its students.

Good for you, I won't move to a school with more than 25% FARM, but that's just my opinion. I would rather have my kid be challenged by higher performing student then be one of the higher performing students that is attempting to drag up the low performers.