Is APS really looking to close a N. Arlington elem school again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

[Anonymous]

Why is no one citing this about Montessori: https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-led-national-study-finds-montessori-preschool-boosts-learning-cuts-costs

MPSA students actually participated in this longitudinal study which shows the benefits of this method of teaching.

Public Montessori preschoolers have stronger reading skills than their peers by end of kindergarten, study finds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

NP but this is a failed model. Look at San Francisco. Most people, including low-income people btw, value a neighborhood school and want it for convenience and community building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is no one citing this about Montessori: https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-led-national-study-finds-montessori-preschool-boosts-learning-cuts-costs

MPSA students actually participated in this longitudinal study which shows the benefits of this method of teaching.

Public Montessori preschoolers have stronger reading skills than their peers by end of kindergarten, study finds.

Yes preschoolers. Montessori works well up to 1st grade. Not so well after. That’s why there are so many Montessori preschools but so little Montessori elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

Ignorant.

You, Arlington taxpayer, don't pour anything into them. They receive additional Federal funds via Title I. Buses and the bus drivers who drive buses are a real cost. Traffic issues are a real impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close the option schools, use what actually works (everyone wants ATS, great, we all get ATS), and rezone to balance attendance. Done.

you are so far from reality or what parents actually want

I am an APS parent. South Arlington parents want “diversity” and a bigger house, but don’t actually want to send their kids to a neighborhood school where they might have to go to school with their neighbors’ kids. Wealthy parents want the private school experience if they can get it for free. Everyone’s looking for something special.

End the special. Make all schools equal and - this is important - equally good. Save the money on the busses, end the waitlists, toss the lottos. The school near your house is where you go (except for something like special ed where it actually makes sense to concentrate resources).

if you really want to make schools equally good then end the neighborhood schools because they will never be equal. never.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

NP but this is a failed model. Look at San Francisco. Most people, including low-income people btw, value a neighborhood school and want it for convenience and community building.

It works in other places!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

NP but this is a failed model. Look at San Francisco. Most people, including low-income people btw, value a neighborhood school and want it for convenience and community building.

I don't think you can compare a city school district to one like Arlington. How was SF doing before this? What criteria makes it "failed"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

NP but this is a failed model. Look at San Francisco. Most people, including low-income people btw, value a neighborhood school and want it for convenience and community building.

It works in other places!

New York, Denver, New Orleans, LA. Only about 30% proficient in grade-level knowledge and skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most MPSA students come from south Arlington. There is a need for seats in SA, the question is how many people would stick with it if moved across the county and would neighborhood schools have the space to handle those who didn’t?

The MPSA parents are like a cult. They will stick with it wherever it is located.

Samuel, but the North Arlington to South Arlington extended day pick up or 30 minute bus ride is a deterrent for a lot of people.

It doesn’t deter all the South Arlington parents who choose ATS.

30 minute bus rides are common for option school kids, IME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most MPSA students come from south Arlington. There is a need for seats in SA, the question is how many people would stick with it if moved across the county and would neighborhood schools have the space to handle those who didn’t?

The MPSA parents are like a cult. They will stick with it wherever it is located.

Samuel, but the North Arlington to South Arlington extended day pick up or 30 minute bus ride is a deterrent for a lot of people.

It doesn’t deter all the South Arlington parents who choose ATS.

30 minute bus rides are common for option school kids, IME.

Kids are bused from North Highlands to Taylor past TWO elementary schools - almost 3 miles in a county 5 miles across.

30 minutes for options kids is nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most MPSA students come from south Arlington. There is a need for seats in SA, the question is how many people would stick with it if moved across the county and would neighborhood schools have the space to handle those who didn’t?

The MPSA parents are like a cult. They will stick with it wherever it is located.

Samuel, but the North Arlington to South Arlington extended day pick up or 30 minute bus ride is a deterrent for a lot of people.

It doesn’t deter all the South Arlington parents who choose ATS.

30 minute bus rides are common for option school kids, IME.

Kids are bused from North Highlands to Taylor past TWO elementary schools - almost 3 miles in a county 5 miles across.

30 minutes for options kids is nothing.

great then we can close Taylor and they can go to the closer schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has 28,000 students, the vast majority of them in neighborhood schools. This is in contrast to the percentage of commenters in this blog that support options schools. It also seems strange that options school parents here never talk about transportation, an overwhelming cost and issue. Just a bit of reality check.

Overwhelming? Please. How about all the resources we have to pour into our underperforming neighborhood schools?

If you love your neighborhood schools and others love their options schools, let each be. But if I had to pick, I'd go all option. Solves a lot of problems.

NP but this is a failed model. Look at San Francisco. Most people, including low-income people btw, value a neighborhood school and want it for convenience and community building.

It works in other places!

New York, Denver, New Orleans, LA. Only about 30% proficient in grade-level knowledge and skills.

what's the proficiency in APS S Arlington schools again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is no one citing this about Montessori: https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-led-national-study-finds-montessori-preschool-boosts-learning-cuts-costs

MPSA students actually participated in this longitudinal study which shows the benefits of this method of teaching.

Public Montessori preschoolers have stronger reading skills than their peers by end of kindergarten, study finds.

Montessori is for the youngest students - the middle school “program” is laughable and a waste of money. Likewise there are only about 20 students in Spanish Immersion in HS. It’s a waste of money to have a separate track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ATS wait list is long enough to justify a 2nd ATS school. Maybe some other option schools also have long enough waitlists.

they do!

Not even close

ATS has almost 500 kids on wait list and MPSA is next with around 150.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

This is only because MPSA moved away from Drew and has become a high income parents school since then. Before that the wait list was 1/4 of that.