Are option schools in Arlington reducing or exacerbating FARMS distribution

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they intentionally increase their numbers with a blind lottery?

VPI kids don't have to enter the general Kindergarten lottery (they have already "won" a lottery to be in the VPI program in the first place). They increased the number of VPI classes from one to two at ATS, and all those kids were admitted to K. This is deliberate, and is in place at every option school. At least two VPI classes per option school. Some have more, and like it that way.

[Anonymous]

That's great! Love this. Now they need to do it for HB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dang! Barcroft has almost as many transfers as it does K-5 students. They need to move the option there.

Too small and can't take the buses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's great! Love this. Now they need to do it for HB.

Agreed! Though I think it's a little more complicated for HB. What I've heard from parents of the ED and minority students at our school is that they don't like: the distance, the current location in an area that is perceived as hostile to minority families, the lack of current student diversity, and the lack of sibling guarantee. So, not sure if there is enough of desire to apply, even if they hold open spots for ED kids. I think moving the program to Rosslyn will be good for the first three reasons, but the last will still be a barrier. For a family that is just scraping by and may have as many as 2-3 kids in MS or HS simultaneously, an option MS/HS for just one is probably out of the question due to logistical concerns (though hopefully having it in Rosslyn will make it a more feasible location for the ED families who live there and could walk). I don't necessarily think the sibling preference should be changed, because while it might make it more appealing to certain families, it also kind of dilutes the idea that the program is geared toward students with specific needs/interests.

[Anonymous]

Drew has 251 resident FARMS k-5 students. Drew has a total of 364 FARMS students. Drew has 136 preschool students. Drew has 561 K-5 students. Drew has 336 students who currently transfer in k-5. (Which means it has 230ish in bounds k-5 students.)
I honestly don't know how to make sense of the Drew numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drew has 251 resident FARMS k-5 students. Drew has a total of 364 FARMS students. Drew has 136 preschool students. Drew has 561 K-5 students. Drew has 336 students who currently transfer in k-5. (Which means it has 230ish in bounds k-5 students.)
I honestly don't know how to make sense of the Drew numbers.

31 of Drew's preschoolers are VPI, so FARMS- I don't know if the other 70 FARMS students are preschoolers or k-5 transfers. It has 94 Montessorri preschoolers. If you assumed 2/3 of them were FARMS (which is probably wrong)- that would mean that 60 of those FARMS slots are preschoolers and 10 are k-5 transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they intentionally increase their numbers with a blind lottery?

ATS' increased FRL% is due to increasing the # of VPI classes at the school. Those students now have the the option to stay through 5th grade. I don't know how many do - you need to find the student demographics by grade chart for that. But I doubt they all stay; and I suspect the FRL population is "bottom heavy" as in mostly they are in the preK classes. The option to stay after preschool is new, though; so maybe the #s per grade level are starting to work their way up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But yes- this data strongly suggests that the option schools are exacerbating segregration, not reducing it. Because it allows the more resourced families who live in the high FARMS area to transfer out- leaving the FARMS rate even higher.

yes and no - exacerbating segregation in the neighborhood schools; but creating some integrated programs, namely the immersion programs. You can also argue that Campbell is integrated relative to its primary feeder neighborhood school, Carlin Springs.

And even though I supported the change in neighborhood preferences for admissions to option programs, I simultaneously feared the real impact on the high FRL schools that already have a huge portion of non-FRL opting out. More seats opening for whom? More MC or more ED and ELL? I think APS should publish the expected FRL rate if nobody opted out with the final proposal so that more MC families will view their neighborhood option more positively and maybe not be so urgent or desperate to avoid it.

They did do that, probably for that reason, and everyone who knows the real farms rates at these schools knows that including option students in the revised rate calculation is a way of politicizing the data, and an attempt at damage control because the proposal will create a new 80% poor school at Drew, and does nothing to lower the rates at Randolph or carlin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So that means all of these schools would have a lower overall FARMS rate with no transfers, correct? I had no idea the transfer rate was so high. That's another problem with drawing boundaries.

That's why the way Staff is calculating FRL in the boundary change proposal is a problem. It's "projecting" a lower FRL than will actually be in the schools. Staff is accounting for residential developments that will open in the 2019-20 timeframe; but they are not projecting a FRL associated with those additional students. When they KNOW the development is a CAF - and they have an estimated # of students to be generated by that CAF - they should be counting them as FRL for the "new boundary FRL" estimate.

Please note that they calculate 53 actual students from Gilliam Place in the Barcroft PU 37050, but 0 additional students who qualify for fr/l. In the Abingdon PU 36021, by my estimate, based on the number of children generated by similarly sized units at Arlington Mill, they should be calculating 108 students when it opens, and all 108 of those students will qualify for fr/l (they have calculated 103 students by 2021 for capacity, yet 0 for demographic projections). Any students who live in CAFs will qualify for fr/l. That is a known number and should be added into any calculation or projection for both capacity and demographics. That way we're not all "surprised" when the actual fr/l rate ends up well beyond what was predicted.

File under, "just how stupid do they think we are?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But yes- this data strongly suggests that the option schools are exacerbating segregration, not reducing it. Because it allows the more resourced families who live in the high FARMS area to transfer out- leaving the FARMS rate even higher.

yes and no - exacerbating segregation in the neighborhood schools; but creating some integrated programs, namely the immersion programs. You can also argue that Campbell is integrated relative to its primary feeder neighborhood school, Carlin Springs.

And even though I supported the change in neighborhood preferences for admissions to option programs, I simultaneously feared the real impact on the high FRL schools that already have a huge portion of non-FRL opting out. More seats opening for whom? More MC or more ED and ELL? I think APS should publish the expected FRL rate if nobody opted out with the final proposal so that more MC families will view their neighborhood option more positively and maybe not be so urgent or desperate to avoid it.

They did do that, probably for that reason, and everyone who knows the real farms rates at these schools knows that including option students in the revised rate calculation is a way of politicizing the data, and an attempt at damage control because the proposal will create a new 80% poor school at Drew, and does nothing to lower the rates at Randolph or carlin.

Give up Randolph
Get Everything Else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they intentionally increase their numbers with a blind lottery?

ATS' increased FRL% is due to increasing the # of VPI classes at the school. Those students now have the the option to stay through 5th grade. I don't know how many do - you need to find the student demographics by grade chart for that. But I doubt they all stay; and I suspect the FRL population is "bottom heavy" as in mostly they are in the preK classes. The option to stay after preschool is new, though; so maybe the #s per grade level are starting to work their way up?

They all stay. It's an exact match by grade level for the Buber who were admitted as K students. I've explained it on here multiple times. Someone doesn't want to hear the truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they intentionally increase their numbers with a blind lottery?

ATS' increased FRL% is due to increasing the # of VPI classes at the school. Those students now have the the option to stay through 5th grade. I don't know how many do - you need to find the student demographics by grade chart for that. But I doubt they all stay; and I suspect the FRL population is "bottom heavy" as in mostly they are in the preK classes. The option to stay after preschool is new, though; so maybe the #s per grade level are starting to work their way up?

They all stay. It's an exact match by grade level for the [b]Buber who were admitted as K students. I've explained it on here multiple times. Someone doesn't want to hear the truth.

For the number. Last year was the first year they had two VPI classes. They have had just one for many years, and VPI students always had preferred admission to K at all option schools that had VPI classrooms. The latest policy update just made it explicit that all option schools will have VPI classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought that the option schools were put in place to give people with bad school districts an "option" to go to a better school.

No. Montessori was an experiment started in the 1970s. ATS was an experiment in the opposite direction in the 70's -- a "traditional" school model during the open-classroom era that created things like HB Woodlawn aka Hippie High. Immersion was created in the 80's when student enrollment declined so much that they otherwise would have closed down some schools -- they could be made into choice programs because there was space, money, and demand for the option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they intentionally increase their numbers with a blind lottery?

ATS' increased FRL% is due to increasing the # of VPI classes at the school. Those students now have the the option to stay through 5th grade. I don't know how many do - you need to find the student demographics by grade chart for that. But I doubt they all stay; and I suspect the FRL population is "bottom heavy" as in mostly they are in the preK classes. The option to stay after preschool is new, though; so maybe the #s per grade level are starting to work their way up?

They all stay. It's an exact match by grade level for the [b]Buber who were admitted as K students. I've explained it on here multiple times. Someone doesn't want to hear the truth.

For the number. Last year was the first year they had two VPI classes. They have had just one for many years, and VPI students always had preferred admission to K at all option schools that had VPI classrooms. The latest policy update just made it explicit that all option schools will have VPI classes.

I apologize - you're right. The VPI students in neighborhood schools that were not their assigned neighborhood school did not used to have the option to remain where they were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought that the option schools were put in place to give people with bad school districts an "option" to go to a better school.

No. Montessori was an experiment started in the 1970s. ATS was an experiment in the opposite direction in the 70's -- a "traditional" school model during the open-classroom era that created things like HB Woodlawn aka Hippie High. Immersion was created in the 80's when student enrollment declined so much that they otherwise would have closed down some schools -- they could be made into choice programs because there was space, money, and demand for the option.

APS own history states another reason for immersion was to lure the white middle class back to Key.

"As the Hispanic population grew in the area surrounding Key Elementary, a Spanish Immersion Program was introduced in 1986 in part to attract non-Hispanic families and provide a balanced enrollment at the school."

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Diversity-in-APS-Report-4page.pdf