Middle School Momentum in Alexandria

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

then it's probably in everyone's best interests that you went private. I take his comments to be a candid acknowledgment that TC is a public school, not a private school, and that it can't promise parents that their children will get the individualized attention that they would receive at a local private.

You make it sound as if wanting individualized attention for your child is some sort of stuck up thing that only an elitist snob would look for. To me, it seems like a pretty basic thing that the average parent would want for their child.

I thought it was fairly clear that I was referring to "[the amount of] individual atttention that they would receive at a local private." Maybe not. I think it's reasonable to expect that a student in HS can get some individualized attention, when it is needed, but that it's unreasonable to expect the TC principal to treat sucking up to a small group of parents who are on the fence about sending their kids to TC vs. private school as his primary mission. He has bigger fish to fry. As I said before, it ought to be simple enough for Sherman, if he has not done so already, to craft a message to such parents that is welcoming, but not sycophantic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You make it sound as if wanting individualized attention for your child is some sort of stuck up thing that only an elitist snob would look for. To me, it seems like a pretty basic thing that the average parent would want for their child.

I thought it was fairly clear that I was referring to "[the amount of] individual atttention that they would receive at a local private." Maybe not. I think it's reasonable to expect that a student in HS can get some individualized attention, when it is needed, but that it's unreasonable to expect the TC principal to treat sucking up to a small group of parents who are on the fence about sending their kids to TC vs. private school as his primary mission. He has bigger fish to fry. As I said before, it ought to be simple enough for Sherman, if he has not done so already, to craft a message to such parents that is welcoming, but not sycophantic.

He has. We went private. We simply hated almost every single thing about it. We pulled, now been in ACPS for a few years. It is terrific and we are glad we did. We actually spoke with Sherman directly before doing so. During the year, he initiated contact and asked us how it was going. ACPS and Sherman should not have to waste their time "marketing" to the pretend-rich who go to NoVa private schools; that would be a waste of time and money. Actual parents moving actual kids to their system? That, they engage, right away, and very well.

[Anonymous]

unreasonable to expect the TC principal to treat sucking up to a small group of parents who are on the fence about sending their kids to TC vs. private school as his primary mission

I don't think anyone has suggested that he should do so (and we were discussing Mr. Sheman, not the principal of TC Williams). A reasonable approach, as other posters have described, would be to highlight the many offerings that TC Willams has, and state that ACPS hopes that parents will consider the school in light of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

unreasonable to expect the TC principal to treat sucking up to a small group of parents who are on the fence about sending their kids to TC vs. private school as his primary mission

I don't think anyone has suggested that he should do so (and we were discussing Mr. Sheman, not the principal of TC Williams). A reasonable approach, as other posters have described, would be to highlight the many offerings that TC Willams has, and state that ACPS hopes that parents will consider the school in light of them.

Oops; do know he's the ACPS Superintendent, not the principal of TC. Multi-tasking and all that.

I was, in fact, the poster who suggested the "reasonable approach" for Sherman to take that you ascribed to other posters. If Sherman is basically blowing off some parents, based on the assumption that they will go private no matter what he has to say, shame on him, but that's not my impression as to the message ACPS is currently trying to convey. My impression is that ACPS is trying to differentiate TC from private (and other public) schools in a way that actually registers as authentic with most parents. That seems obvious, but historically it is not something that ACPS has done very well.

[Anonymous]

As for middle school momentum, just 22% of 8th graders in ACPS passed the MATH SOL, down from 62% last year.

Before you start on how they changed the test and declines were expected, yes, we know.

The rest of the state fell 82% to 60% for math. I think a 40-point drop in ACPS falls WAY outside the bell curve.

[Anonymous]

No argument that the Math scores need to get better. While they fell across the state, they fell more in ACPS than the state average.
HOWEVER, I wondered if the really bad Math 8 scores were related to the push to get 8th graders to take Algebra. Spoke to a staff person, and turns out yes. The kids taking Math 8 were made up almost entirely of students who were Special Ed, ESOL, or both.
The pass rates for the 5 middle schools in Algebra were: 84, 72, 85, 86, 74.
Again, as PP said, it's still unacceptable--the school needs all the scores in all the subgroups to go up. I'd also like to know what percentage of 8th graders were taking Algebra (or Geometry) vs. Math 8.

[Anonymous]

If Sherman is basically blowing off some parents, based on the assumption that they will go private no matter what he has to say, shame on him, but that's not my impression as to the message ACPS is currently trying to convey. My impression is that ACPS is trying to differentiate TC from private (and other public) schools in a way that actually registers as authentic with most parents

That's fair enough. A large public school just isn't going to be the best place for some kids. My son is probably one of them, he's exceedingly shy and has some learning disabilities. No matter what ACPS said, they probably couldn't convince me that TC Williams was the best place for him, not because it is an inherently bad school, but because it just isn't the right fit for my particular kid. On the other hand, not everyone whose kid needs something different than what TC can offer is a rich snob looking for a prep school experience.