What do you expect from APS staff (option/neighborhood) on 4/30?

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand this thread.
Montessori has basically shut out kids who don’t lottery in. Obviously more people want the program, than are getting into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this thread.
Montessori has basically shut out kids who don’t lottery in. Obviously more people want the program, than are getting into it.

Yes, those who don't lottery in as preschoolers are not going to get a spot for the foreseeable future. Time for this thread to take a new tangent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The largest numbers at Drew are from perceived under-performing schools. I would love to know how many of these people applied to more than one lottery just to get away from their home school, regardless of the program.

Why does it matter?

Because there really isn’t a clamoring for Montessori like AMAC tries to lead us to believe. There are a few Montessori zealots who are happy for Arlington to pay for essentially private school for their kids. The vast majority of Drew is people fleeing under-performing schools. Break up the extreme pockets of poverty, raise school performance levels and people won’t feel the need to leave

For f$cks sake, how many times does it need to be pointed out that 2/3rds of montesorri seats in aps preschool are reserved for low to middle income families, and that aps preschool now completely fills the Drew/Henry program? It's by design a mixed income cohort.

NOT talking about Preschool. Talking about 1-5 elementary. Most kids in the 17 Montessori classrooms around the count do not (in fact, cannot) stay with Montessori.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The largest numbers at Drew are from perceived under-performing schools. I would love to know how many of these people applied to more than one lottery just to get away from their home school, regardless of the program.

Why does it matter?

Because there really isn’t a clamoring for Montessori like AMAC tries to lead us to believe. There are a few Montessori zealots who are happy for Arlington to pay for essentially private school for their kids. The vast majority of Drew is people fleeing under-performing schools. Break up the extreme pockets of poverty, raise school performance levels and people won’t feel the need to leave

For f$cks sake, how many times does it need to be pointed out that 2/3rds of montesorri seats in aps preschool are reserved for low to middle income families, and that aps preschool now completely fills the Drew/Henry program? It's by design a mixed income cohort.

NOT talking about Preschool. Talking about 1-5 elementary. Most kids in the 17 Montessori classrooms around the count do not (in fact, cannot) stay with Montessori.

Why "cannot"? Please explain.

[Anonymous]

Because there is no space. How many times does that need to be stated? There is a waitlist of siblings, kids from satellite classrooms, and others, and APS is not growing the program to accommodate any. Meanwhile neighborhood schools get more and more overcrowded.

As for the low income argument, the preschool is 2/3 low income and the 3 and 4 year old lottery is divided into two pools to enforce that. Elementary applicants are not and cannot be divided the same way. It is pretty much moot though because all spots are filled by Drew preschoolers so the low income preference carries over.

It is the same at other choice programs where there is a VPI or Montessori classroom in the building - those kids are guaranteed admission but the remaining lottery spots are open to all. At Drew, there are no remaining lottery spots because the school size has been capped by APS.

Can you imagine if ATS were told that all elementary spots had to be low income? Why should that be the case at Drew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there is no space. How many times does that need to be stated? There is a waitlist of siblings, kids from satellite classrooms, and others, and APS is not growing the program to accommodate any. Meanwhile neighborhood schools get more and more overcrowded.

As for the low income argument, the preschool is 2/3 low income and the 3 and 4 year old lottery is divided into two pools to enforce that. Elementary applicants are not and cannot be divided the same way. It is pretty much moot though because all spots are filled by Drew preschoolers so the low income preference carries over.

It is the same at other choice programs where there is a VPI or Montessori classroom in the building - those kids are guaranteed admission but the remaining lottery spots are open to all. At Drew, there are no remaining lottery spots because the school size has been capped by APS.

Can you imagine if ATS were told that all elementary spots had to be low income? Why should that be the case at Drew?

Jesus, thank you. It's like talking good to a brick wall here. Montessori is by design mixed income. ATS is the private school here, not montesorri.

[Anonymous]

This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

Interesting, I hadn't realized that was the case at Campbell. I'm a believer in making preschool more available to low and middle income families. It's the source of achievement gaps- these gaps everyone is concerned about are large and evident by kindergarten and so it's preschool that matters. Kids who don't go really do get to elementary school far behind peers who did go. Pretty much all well-off kids in Arlington go to preschool, mostly private ones because there's no room at aps ones. I'm ok with that. My kid does, I happily pay the equivalent of a second mortgage because I value education.

That said, making option schools unavailable to UMC families like mine is eventually going to have consequences. It's not going to "force" me to send my kid to a neighborhood school that is great at teaching English and study skills to 1st gen immigrants but lacks resources to challenge other kinds of kids in other ways, and has no PTA. Families like mine will just move if they see no pathway to a diverse elementary school with at least average test scores and parent involvement. And that will just lead to increased segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

There are actually 2 VPI classes (not 1) at Campbell that get priority
admission to K at Campbell. This is for traditionally 3 K classes. This
Fall they will add one K class for a total of 4. After spots filled by 2 VPI
classes and siblings the remaining spots were filled by lottery. I think they expected
to have about 40 “outside” K spots. They got 188 applications.

Also I think is the first year the lottery was open to the entire county. It should be interesting to see
how geographically diverse (or not) the incoming K class will be.

[Anonymous]

PP: Are you describing Barcroft, Randolph or Carlin Springs. Apt description of all 3 schools!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

There are actually 2 VPI classes (not 1) at Campbell that get priority
admission to K at Campbell. This is for traditionally 3 K classes. This
Fall they will add one K class for a total of 4. After spots filled by 2 VPI
classes and siblings the remaining spots were filled by lottery. I think they expected
to have about 40 “outside” K spots. They got 188 applications.

Also I think is the first year the lottery was open to the entire county. It should be interesting to see
how geographically diverse (or not) the incoming K class will be.

Actually there are 3 VPI classes at Campbell.

[Anonymous]

Up until this last year, enter K at Campbell was maybe 29 students. That is the equivalent of one classroom. The school is always 55-60% low income students. The VPI kids from from local community so Campbell is really a neighborhood low income school with a handful of UMC who like the programming and want to escape even lower performing neighborhood schools.

Now that the school is county wide they had to open up a few more seats. But unless they take away a VPI class, it will never be a true choice School. I know option schools are supposed to have their fair share of vpi, but Campbell takes so many the school becomes anything but an option for families and lacks diversity. When over half of the kids are poor, that is not diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

There are actually 2 VPI classes (not 1) at Campbell that get priority
admission to K at Campbell. This is for traditionally 3 K classes. This
Fall they will add one K class for a total of 4. After spots filled by 2 VPI
classes and siblings the remaining spots were filled by lottery. I think they expected
to have about 40 “outside” K spots. They got 188 applications.

Also I think is the first year the lottery was open to the entire county. It should be interesting to see
how geographically diverse (or not) the incoming K class will be.

Actually there are 3 VPI classes at Campbell.

I think it’s 2 VPI and one Montessori. The principal mentioned that the Montessori class is being moved out this year. So that leaves two matriculating VPI classes into 4 K classes total. This is what we were told at info session by principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Up until this last year, enter K at Campbell was maybe 29 students. That is the equivalent of one classroom. The school is always 55-60% low income students. The VPI kids from from local community so Campbell is really a neighborhood low income school with a handful of UMC who like the programming and want to escape even lower performing neighborhood schools.

Now that the school is county wide they had to open up a few more seats. But unless they take away a VPI class, it will never be a true choice School. I know option schools are supposed to have their fair share of vpi, but Campbell takes so many the school becomes anything but an option for families and lacks diversity. When over half of the kids are poor, that is not diverse.

They added an entire additional class of K for fall 2018 to help with county crowding. I think over time it will slowly have a broader mix of economic backgrounds with 1/2 the spots going to lottery each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

Interesting, I hadn't realized that was the case at Campbell. I'm a believer in making preschool more available to low and middle income families. It's the source of achievement gaps- these gaps everyone is concerned about are large and evident by kindergarten and so it's preschool that matters. Kids who don't go really do get to elementary school far behind peers who did go. Pretty much all well-off kids in Arlington go to preschool, mostly private ones because there's no room at aps ones. I'm ok with that. My kid does, I happily pay the equivalent of a second mortgage because I value education.

That said, making option schools unavailable to UMC families like mine is eventually going to have consequences. It's not going to "force" me to send my kid to a neighborhood school that is great at teaching English and study skills to 1st gen immigrants but lacks resources to challenge other kinds of kids in other ways, and has no PTA. Families like mine will just move if they see no pathway to a diverse elementary school with at least average test scores and parent involvement. And that will just lead to increased segregation.

They're not trying to make option schools unavailable to you. My heavens, the privilege. You CAN move, that's the difference. Also, by trying to re-locate the option schools to certain neighborhoods, they ARE suggesting the only way to get more balance is through choice, because doing it by force doesn't seem to be working and people like you DO move, and you take your time and money with you and that leaves some schools, and the children who have NO CHOICE about where they live, at a distinct disadvantage.