Are any APS Elementary Schools Offering After School Tutoring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am screaming here in my mind at some of the backseat comments posted here. I am a parent here with DC that is diagnosed with learning disabilities and during virtual learing they got little to no support despite virtual learning be a disaster for them. There are still learning gaps in my DC 2nd grade classroom in non title I north APS classroom. I know because I request math materials being taught to be sent home a head of time, and the circulum is the end of first grade. So not only is my DC behind,but many are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if most students are still behind it is a high probability that those with a disability are even further behind. I agree the COVID-19 remediation support money was mismanaged, and it still digusts me.....sorry it is harder to let go when you had to pay thousands for tutoring support and math curriculum for home to basically catch your child up despite working 40 plus hours a week yourself.....so yes sorry it is easier said than done to just get over how APS is doing little to nothing to support our youngest learners that lost the most fundamental skills during virtual!!!!! For crying out loud my DC 1st grade teacher was given permission to ask parents to volunteer to come in and support her all of last year because the learning lost was so grave, and why because APS had no funds to support an aide as they have in K classrooms. I know several other school districts that did use the government funds for tutoring support etc. People are being prosecuted for Misuse or lying on their PP loans so why shouldn't a school district be held to a same standard 🤔 for misuse of government aide funds????? So please save your empty comments unless you have experienced what OP is referring to or can at least empathize with it as it is a real problem ongoing.

If your kid has learning disabilities then he/she probably clustered with other kids with similar abilities. And not all kids in the class are necessarily getting the same content as other kids in the same class/grade. That has been my experience with my kid with LDs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am screaming here in my mind at some of the backseat comments posted here. I am a parent here with DC that is diagnosed with learning disabilities and during virtual learing they got little to no support despite virtual learning be a disaster for them. There are still learning gaps in my DC 2nd grade classroom in non title I north APS classroom. I know because I request math materials being taught to be sent home a head of time, and the circulum is the end of first grade. So not only is my DC behind,but many are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if most students are still behind it is a high probability that those with a disability are even further behind. I agree the COVID-19 remediation support money was mismanaged, and it still digusts me.....sorry it is harder to let go when you had to pay thousands for tutoring support and math curriculum for home to basically catch your child up despite working 40 plus hours a week yourself.....so yes sorry it is easier said than done to just get over how APS is doing little to nothing to support our youngest learners that lost the most fundamental skills during virtual!!!!! For crying out loud my DC 1st grade teacher was given permission to ask parents to volunteer to come in and support her all of last year because the learning lost was so grave, and why because APS had no funds to support an aide as they have in K classrooms. I know several other school districts that did use the government funds for tutoring support etc. People are being prosecuted for Misuse or lying on their PP loans so why shouldn't a school district be held to a same standard 🤔 for misuse of government aide funds????? So please save your empty comments unless you have experienced what OP is referring to or can at least empathize with it as it is a real problem ongoing.

If your kid has learning disabilities then he/she probably clustered with other kids with similar abilities. And not all kids in the class are necessarily getting the same content as other kids in the same class/grade. That has been my experience with my kid with LDs.

Was your child in a class that was co-taught with a special education teacher? That sounds like situations where they might cluster. But there would still be non-SWDs in that class. I'll trust your experience, but have to assume that the teacher/s were providing differentiated instruction since even in a cluster there would be students with different abilities/strengths/weaknesses. But our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not clustered. During virtual year, we could even see other kids in pull out SpEd classes and the 3-4 kids were from various classrooms. DC got a mix of pull-out/push-in services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am screaming here in my mind at some of the backseat comments posted here. I am a parent here with DC that is diagnosed with learning disabilities and during virtual learing they got little to no support despite virtual learning be a disaster for them. There are still learning gaps in my DC 2nd grade classroom in non title I north APS classroom. I know because I request math materials being taught to be sent home a head of time, and the circulum is the end of first grade. So not only is my DC behind,but many are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if most students are still behind it is a high probability that those with a disability are even further behind. I agree the COVID-19 remediation support money was mismanaged, and it still digusts me.....sorry it is harder to let go when you had to pay thousands for tutoring support and math curriculum for home to basically catch your child up despite working 40 plus hours a week yourself.....so yes sorry it is easier said than done to just get over how APS is doing little to nothing to support our youngest learners that lost the most fundamental skills during virtual!!!!! For crying out loud my DC 1st grade teacher was given permission to ask parents to volunteer to come in and support her all of last year because the learning lost was so grave, and why because APS had no funds to support an aide as they have in K classrooms. I know several other school districts that did use the government funds for tutoring support etc. People are being prosecuted for Misuse or lying on their PP loans so why shouldn't a school district be held to a same standard 🤔 for misuse of government aide funds????? So please save your empty comments unless you have experienced what OP is referring to or can at least empathize with it as it is a real problem ongoing.

If your kid has learning disabilities then he/she probably clustered with other kids with similar abilities. And not all kids in the class are necessarily getting the same content as other kids in the same class/grade. That has been my experience with my kid with LDs.

Was your child in a class that was co-taught with a special education teacher? That sounds like situations where they might cluster. But there would still be non-SWDs in that class. I'll trust your experience, but have to assume that the teacher/s were providing differentiated instruction since even in a cluster there would be students with different abilities/strengths/weaknesses. But our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not clustered. During virtual year, we could even see other kids in pull out SpEd classes and the 3-4 kids were from various classrooms. DC got a mix of pull-out/push-in services.

Not co-taught full-time but a specialist would get pulled in during ELA and/or math. And in later ES the kids switched for math.

APS clusters both gifted and SN kids - sometimes in the same homeroom. It’s not always obvious though because the differentiation happens in small groups so you don’t always see what other kids are doing.

[Anonymous]

^ this was for in-person school. The “pullout” small groups were inconsistent during virtual school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am screaming here in my mind at some of the backseat comments posted here. I am a parent here with DC that is diagnosed with learning disabilities and during virtual learing they got little to no support despite virtual learning be a disaster for them. There are still learning gaps in my DC 2nd grade classroom in non title I north APS classroom. I know because I request math materials being taught to be sent home a head of time, and the circulum is the end of first grade. So not only is my DC behind,but many are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if most students are still behind it is a high probability that those with a disability are even further behind. I agree the COVID-19 remediation support money was mismanaged, and it still digusts me.....sorry it is harder to let go when you had to pay thousands for tutoring support and math curriculum for home to basically catch your child up despite working 40 plus hours a week yourself.....so yes sorry it is easier said than done to just get over how APS is doing little to nothing to support our youngest learners that lost the most fundamental skills during virtual!!!!! For crying out loud my DC 1st grade teacher was given permission to ask parents to volunteer to come in and support her all of last year because the learning lost was so grave, and why because APS had no funds to support an aide as they have in K classrooms. I know several other school districts that did use the government funds for tutoring support etc. People are being prosecuted for Misuse or lying on their PP loans so why shouldn't a school district be held to a same standard 🤔 for misuse of government aide funds????? So please save your empty comments unless you have experienced what OP is referring to or can at least empathize with it as it is a real problem ongoing.

If your kid has learning disabilities then he/she probably clustered with other kids with similar abilities. And not all kids in the class are necessarily getting the same content as other kids in the same class/grade. That has been my experience with my kid with LDs.

Was your child in a class that was co-taught with a special education teacher? That sounds like situations where they might cluster. But there would still be non-SWDs in that class. I'll trust your experience, but have to assume that the teacher/s were providing differentiated instruction since even in a cluster there would be students with different abilities/strengths/weaknesses. But our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not clustered. During virtual year, we could even see other kids in pull out SpEd classes and the 3-4 kids were from various classrooms. DC got a mix of pull-out/push-in services.

PP here. My child is in mainstream classroom so there are the majority of kids with no learning disabilities and handful with them (4 in total) out of 24 kids. I know this because my DC is a chatter box and tells me about everything happening at school. DC gets pulled out Doran small group,but they just review the same materials taught in the main classroom. My DC teacher accidentally sent home another students work, and not an IEP child as DC confirmed, and yes the work was the same. My DC worksheets indicates if they were assisted or not, that is the differienated work. There are only two classrooms at our grade level with LD needs, and the rest without as we made a request to change teachers at the beginning of the year, and was told it was not possible for this reason. I'm not saying all children are behind, but for the math content to be behind grade level there must be a significant amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe there Title 1 schools that have after school tutoring programs run by other entities (Aspire/ACH). Unfortunately APS blew its pandemic funding on virtual school program. It should have gone directly to parents to find interventionists/tutors on their own. What APS did with its pandemic $ seems criminal. I hope they are investigated.

Oh good lord, this again? Just because you disagree with the use of the funds hardly makes it criminal. And you think the funds should have gone directly to you instead? Sorry, I don't think so.

FCPS is reimbursing parents for compensatory services parents had to pay for during closed school. So...not a far fetched idea really that parents should have been able to use on tutoring etc. when APS used more than half their ARP funds on a tiny minority of students that ended up being so bad and ineffective they closed the program completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe there Title 1 schools that have after school tutoring programs run by other entities (Aspire/ACH). Unfortunately APS blew its pandemic funding on virtual school program. It should have gone directly to parents to find interventionists/tutors on their own. What APS did with its pandemic $ seems criminal. I hope they are investigated.

Oh good lord, this again? Just because you disagree with the use of the funds hardly makes it criminal. And you think the funds should have gone directly to you instead? Sorry, I don't think so.

FCPS is reimbursing parents for compensatory services parents had to pay for during closed school. So...not a far fetched idea really that parents should have been able to use on tutoring etc. when APS used more than half their ARP funds on a tiny minority of students that ended up being so bad and ineffective they closed the program completely.

APS has only six math interventionists to work with struggling kids. They need to hire a lot more. Redirect some of the math coaches' time from working with teachers to working with students. Provide double math class time in elementary (temporarily poaching time from less critical subjects). Ask parents to come in across APS to assist classroom teachers. Anything that gets struggling kids the additional time and help they need. The last three options don't involve cost; they are doable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you say struggling do you mean behind grade level or that they have to work really hard to stay at grade level?

Our child has been what a special educator friend described as “on the bubble” probably since covid closed things down. He wasn’t failing but he wasn’t thriving. He has struggled to keep up with peers in prior years, which is why we had him tested to see if there was anything underlying that would help explain his struggles. It seems academics just don’t come naturally to him.

This week though his teacher called to tell us that his report card would have a D for his math grade. She indicated that he struggles when he is not in small groups or 1:1. That he just gets lost, tries to finish super fast without checking for accuracy or correctness and then gets a bad score.

I was told when I tried to raise the question of additional interventions or supports two years ago that he had “to be two grade levels behind” in order to qualify for extra services. This was the VP at the time who said that in a group meeting.

D as in “developing” or d as in the letter grade d. A d in standards based grading isn’t bad. A d letter grade isn’t possible at aps anymore for third grade (didn’t everyone move to standards based grading?).

[Anonymous]

Your AP told you he had to be two grades behind to receive services like tutoring or summer school. YOU can request a sped evaluation at any time and within 60 days they must complete it to determine if he qualifies for special education . If he does, this would be your avenue to have him in self contained/small group math if that’s the only way he can learn it. Your AP was not talking about special education when he said additional services. You need to request a special education evaluation for your son to determine if there is significant enough learning impact from one of the 14 IDEA categorized disabilities for him to qualify for an IEP. If you already have an ADHD diagnosis, that may help your case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you say struggling do you mean behind grade level or that they have to work really hard to stay at grade level?

Our child has been what a special educator friend described as “on the bubble” probably since covid closed things down. He wasn’t failing but he wasn’t thriving. He has struggled to keep up with peers in prior years, which is why we had him tested to see if there was anything underlying that would help explain his struggles. It seems academics just don’t come naturally to him.

This week though his teacher called to tell us that his report card would have a D for his math grade. She indicated that he struggles when he is not in small groups or 1:1. That he just gets lost, tries to finish super fast without checking for accuracy or correctness and then gets a bad score.

I was told when I tried to raise the question of additional interventions or supports two years ago that he had “to be two grade levels behind” in order to qualify for extra services. This was the VP at the time who said that in a group meeting.

D as in “developing” or d as in the letter grade d. A d in standards based grading isn’t bad. A d letter grade isn’t possible at aps anymore for third grade (didn’t everyone move to standards based grading?).

Several schools still use traditional grading

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you say struggling do you mean behind grade level or that they have to work really hard to stay at grade level?

Our child has been what a special educator friend described as “on the bubble” probably since covid closed things down. He wasn’t failing but he wasn’t thriving. He has struggled to keep up with peers in prior years, which is why we had him tested to see if there was anything underlying that would help explain his struggles. It seems academics just don’t come naturally to him.

This week though his teacher called to tell us that his report card would have a D for his math grade. She indicated that he struggles when he is not in small groups or 1:1. That he just gets lost, tries to finish super fast without checking for accuracy or correctness and then gets a bad score.

I was told when I tried to raise the question of additional interventions or supports two years ago that he had “to be two grade levels behind” in order to qualify for extra services. This was the VP at the time who said that in a group meeting.

D as in “developing” or d as in the letter grade d. A d in standards based grading isn’t bad. A d letter grade isn’t possible at aps anymore for third grade (didn’t everyone move to standards based grading?).

Several schools still use traditional grading

OP here. D as in letter grade is what the teacher said when we spoke with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe there Title 1 schools that have after school tutoring programs run by other entities (Aspire/ACH). Unfortunately APS blew its pandemic funding on virtual school program. It should have gone directly to parents to find interventionists/tutors on their own. What APS did with its pandemic $ seems criminal. I hope they are investigated.

Oh good lord, this again? Just because you disagree with the use of the funds hardly makes it criminal. And you think the funds should have gone directly to you instead? Sorry, I don't think so.

FCPS is reimbursing parents for compensatory services parents had to pay for during closed school. So...not a far fetched idea really that parents should have been able to use on tutoring etc. when APS used more than half their ARP funds on a tiny minority of students that ended up being so bad and ineffective they closed the program completely.

FCPS may reimburse some parents but that is not a guarantee. I have a kid with an IEP in FCPS. All we have been told is that there will be additional meetings to discuss whether services were not provided, the impact on our child, and how the county s going to address any issue.

In all fairness, our kids IEP is for speech and we are pretty certain he is going to be done with ST. He has been provided services since K and has meet the final goal that had been sent. We have heard the improvement and will be fine with ST ending. So I don't think our meeting is a priority for anyone. Just saying that all we have heard is what the process is going to be and that we don't know anyone who has started the process for compensation even though we know a few parents who could be in a position to receive compensation.

[Anonymous]

NP. My DS is in private school but also does not pick up Math lessons because he doesn't always pay close attention in class (mild ADHD/ADD). Every night, I spend time reviewing homework with him. But even better, I find home school You Tube videos to visually explain simple Math concepts way better than I do.

My older DD in APS watches YouTube Math videos for review. Honestly, some of the videos I've watch are better at explanations than a teacher or tutor can provide. Try it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. My DS is in private school but also does not pick up Math lessons because he doesn't always pay close attention in class (mild ADHD/ADD). Every night, I spend time reviewing homework with him. But even better, I find home school You Tube videos to visually explain simple Math concepts way better than I do.

My older DD in APS watches YouTube Math videos for review. Honestly, some of the videos I've watch are better at explanations than a teacher or tutor can provide. Try it.

YouTube and Khan Academy are great for all kids to review. Even my NT straight-A student likes them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Lots of thoughts and feedback. Appreciate it. But also curious, for everyone that is bothered by the lack of readily available resources for kids who need support—are you all advocating to your individual school admins or the school board or the county board? The wheels of advocacy don’t turn if only one person is pushing. I’d love to think we are all collectively using our voices and power to raise these issues, but, it seems like a lot of Arlingtonians are comfortable just complaining and leaving it at that.

We did discuss holding our child back after the pandemic. The school emphasized that they really only do that for kids who are not at grade level with social emotional/maturity issues. I would argue that the pandemic should suspend historical notions of what the criteria are for holding a child back.

We have had him assessed for learning disabilities, and he does not have any per the testing about two years ago.

He was in K when covid struck and all of the useless virtual school time really set him back. I did not receive millions of dollars in federal funding to address that, APS did. Can we all push this responsibility on them where it belongs?

umm, what are you doing to advocate PP?