Question about re zoning elementary schools in S. Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drew got 55% poors. Oh hell nah am I getting rezoned drew.

You realize if they rezone a bunch of affluent Henry families to Drew it won't be 55% poor anymore.

50% for fall 2019 would be an optimistic target. Drew's current rate is a little over 50, but the student body is mostly montessori. The graded program is probably up near 70, and that's what the "new Drew" will start with. So it will be important that the students who are rezoned to Drew are not disproportionately poor or the rate will skyrocket.

Current neighborhood program is about 200 kids. Even if those 200 are 100% FRL, as a proportion of a full Drew school at 600 students (if not more), that's only 1/3 or 33% FRL.
That leaves a lot of space for more low-income before the school reaches an undesirable over 40%. Yes, APS needs to be cognizant of who they redistrict to Drew; but it's not like the guaranteed starting point is 60%. I hope Staff does a good job of showing the stats for the various boundary possibilities because if the zoned boundary is in the 40% range, I think a lot more MC families will stick around and that will only lead to even better things for Drew in the coming years.

But, APS can easily screw it up. Actually, Staff does a pretty good job trying to balance the various factors - the SB is who will screw it up.

If there are 600 total students and Drew has a farms rate of 50%, that means that 300 kids are disadvantaged. If all 200 of the graded program is ED, then 100 of the Montessori kids are. In this exagerated scenario, the graded program farms rate is 100% and the Montessori rate is 25%. So let's be more realistic and suppose that 80 percent, or 160 of the graded kids are ED. That means that about 140 of the Montessori kids are, or 35%.

So - in order to keep a farms rate of 60%, no more than about a third of the students being rezoned to Drew could be ED.

Professional working couples are not going to let their kids get rezoned to school with Farms over 50%, let alone 60-70%. If they cant stop it, they will go private or move. Walkability, diversity, IB and all the other stuff are a side show when over half the kids in the class come from poor families. Educated professionals have their Limits. Drew will become 100% poor.

Look, professional working couples already send their kids to schools that are at or near 60%, otherwise Barrett, Barcroft, and Campbell would be 100% fr/l. And Henry and Oakridge and Hoffman-Boston and Abingdon never would've gone under 50%. The PP was pointing out how unlikely it is that the fr/l rate will be above 60%. It probably won't even be above 50%. So save your drama, and I guess your money if you think you need to move or go private.

All of the rezoned families wont move or go private. But I wont be surprised if a majority of them do (assuming we cant stop it). The examples you cite are not relatively wealthy kids being rezoned from a low farms school into a high farms school. Do you think if 20% of Jamestown was rezoned to Drew, all of those families would simply accept that fate for their kids. We are not paying high cost of living in NA only to send our kids to what is now essentially a ghetto school.

Wow. You are insufferable. Please, just move to Fairfax or NA now. You will be much happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drew got 55% poors. Oh hell nah am I getting rezoned drew.

You realize if they rezone a bunch of affluent Henry families to Drew it won't be 55% poor anymore.

50% for fall 2019 would be an optimistic target. Drew's current rate is a little over 50, but the student body is mostly montessori. The graded program is probably up near 70, and that's what the "new Drew" will start with. So it will be important that the students who are rezoned to Drew are not disproportionately poor or the rate will skyrocket.

Current neighborhood program is about 200 kids. Even if those 200 are 100% FRL, as a proportion of a full Drew school at 600 students (if not more), that's only 1/3 or 33% FRL.
That leaves a lot of space for more low-income before the school reaches an undesirable over 40%. Yes, APS needs to be cognizant of who they redistrict to Drew; but it's not like the guaranteed starting point is 60%. I hope Staff does a good job of showing the stats for the various boundary possibilities because if the zoned boundary is in the 40% range, I think a lot more MC families will stick around and that will only lead to even better things for Drew in the coming years.

But, APS can easily screw it up. Actually, Staff does a pretty good job trying to balance the various factors - the SB is who will screw it up.

If there are 600 total students and Drew has a farms rate of 50%, that means that 300 kids are disadvantaged. If all 200 of the graded program is ED, then 100 of the Montessori kids are. In this exagerated scenario, the graded program farms rate is 100% and the Montessori rate is 25%. So let's be more realistic and suppose that 80 percent, or 160 of the graded kids are ED. That means that about 140 of the Montessori kids are, or 35%.

So - in order to keep a farms rate of 60%, no more than about a third of the students being rezoned to Drew could be ED.

Professional working couples are not going to let their kids get rezoned to school with Farms over 50%, let alone 60-70%. If they cant stop it, they will go private or move. Walkability, diversity, IB and all the other stuff are a side show when over half the kids in the class come from poor families. Educated professionals have their Limits. Drew will become 100% poor.

Look, professional working couples already send their kids to schools that are at or near 60%, otherwise Barrett, Barcroft, and Campbell would be 100% fr/l. And Henry and Oakridge and Hoffman-Boston and Abingdon never would've gone under 50%. The PP was pointing out how unlikely it is that the fr/l rate will be above 60%. It probably won't even be above 50%. So save your drama, and I guess your money if you think you need to move or go private.

All of the rezoned families wont move or go private. But I wont be surprised if a majority of them do (assuming we cant stop it). The examples you cite are not relatively wealthy kids being rezoned from a low farms school into a high farms school. Do you think if 20% of Jamestown was rezoned to Drew, all of those families would simply accept that fate for their kids. We are not paying high cost of living in NA only to send our kids to what is now essentially a ghetto school.

Pretty sure you're trolling now, but in case you're not, don't let the door hit ya and kindly GFY. The Chief Propagandist will be your personal welcome wagon at Jamestown when you arrive. You'll fit right in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

Can you describe? My elementary school experience of tracking was that teachers paired off, usually they had adjacent classrooms. Two classses combined was generally enough to create an "advanced" and a "regular" class. So if you were a pretty advanced reader, you might go to the neighborhing classroom for an hour each day. Math was the same way. Things like "social studies" and science were not tracked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

No one is changing their mind about Barcroft. The Barcroft delusion is incredible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

Can you describe? My elementary school experience of tracking was that teachers paired off, usually they had adjacent classrooms. Two classses combined was generally enough to create an "advanced" and a "regular" class. So if you were a pretty advanced reader, you might go to the neighborhing classroom for an hour each day. Math was the same way. Things like "social studies" and science were not tracked.

To me, "tracking" is like AAP -- all the advanced kids are in a separate classroom all day. What you describe as grouping with peers for reading/math is normal in APS elementaries. For example, starting in K, DS was grouped with kids from a couple classes for a higher level math group while being in a different group of kids in the classroom for reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

No one is changing their mind about Barcroft. The Barcroft delusion is incredible.

Not with the current calendar they aren't, not in a significant way.

Anyway, what PP has described isn't tracking. It's clustering of students, and it's what every APS school is supposed to do so that kids have academic peers. If they weren't doing that under the last principal, no wonder parents left the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

No one is changing their mind about Barcroft. The Barcroft delusion is incredible.

Not with the current calendar they aren't, not in a significant way.

Anyway, what PP has described isn't tracking. It's clustering of students, and it's what every APS school is supposed to do so that kids have academic peers. If they weren't doing that under the last principal, no wonder parents left the school.

PP here who described my elementary experience. The key thing is that the two classrooms I described were instructed at a different pace and covered slightly different material and lesson plans differed. To be clear, it was not a matter of working in small groups with like ability peers, and but with every group covering the same material with the same teacher. That is just working in small groups, and if that's what every aps elementary does, it's not what I'd consider tracking.

AAP is a diff kind of tracking. I had a version of that too and it was a godsend for me to be around kids who liked to learn, even if it was only a couple hours of pullout per week. That was the main benefit. The challenge and the social acceptance of academic effort from my peers.

[Anonymous]

You have to actually have peers in those classes...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

I am a N. Arlington parent in an elementary school and also a former teacher. I have not been overly impressed with my DC's teacher from last year; however, I did notice that there were wide disparities in the classroom this year in terms of reading ability, etc. What I noticed is that the vast majority were not able to read and the teacher had to spend a lot of time with them this year. The few that could were left to read to the other kids. I can imagine that if the classroom is even further behind grade milestones, how that could slow down the pace even further. I'm sure there are exceptions in every school, and if the teacher had fewer kids in his/her class who were behind, they could challenge the kids more who could.

Careful, careful....that sounds like tracking.

Tracking is cool now - they do it at Barcroft. I think that's why so many people are changing their minds about it.

No one is changing their mind about Barcroft. The Barcroft delusion is incredible.

They've been doing clustering at Barcroft for years. In fact, one of the former RTGs at Barcroft is the one who brought it to APS and Barcroft. Regardless of what it's called or how it's done, it's still essentially tracking. One form works better than the other; while the other looks better than the first.


Not with the current calendar they aren't, not in a significant way.

Anyway, what PP has described isn't tracking. It's clustering of students, and it's what every APS school is supposed to do so that kids have academic peers. If they weren't doing that under the last principal, no wonder parents left the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Former SA parent at one of the schools mentioned. Now in NA. I spent innumerable hours meeting with classroom teacher, RTG, and principal attempting to get appropriate differentiation for my child. I can only imagine how much harder that is for a parent with an advanced child new to the country with language barriers. But i moved to NA and I have not been involved one bit. My child is challenged by the teachers and peers. Night and day. There are crazy helicopters in NA and SA. But this is not that.

Arlington Blvd is magic. Cross the golden road and all your child's problems disappear...

Or stay and have everyone assume because your kids first language is English and they were born here that they have no problems of consequence compared to their poorer immigrant classmates and "will be fine" and can be ignored.

Congrats. Now your poor child doesn't have to be ignored & victimized. Once the SA teachers got a look at your son's birth certificate, they knew it was ok to let him flounder in class. Being native born, they had no reason to care about his well being.

It's not about "floundering." SA neighborhood elementaries are specialist when it's comes to floundering. It's about accepting mediocrity from the most capable students in the class because ESL, SOL are simply a higher priority. No one will admits that publicly but it's just common sense and the experience of people who have moved bears it out.

So the "most capable" students are getting mediocre grades. But yet, you know - probably because your child was one of them - that they couldn't possibly just be mediocre students. No, there must be another reason. Oh yeah, it's those darn ESL kids: they're sapping all the teacher's attention, and now she doesn't have time to bring out the best in my budding genius.