Buying in Arlington Village (Columbia Pike) — currently Drew ES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

Mandatory preschool at age 3. Except we don't even have mandatory K, so I doubt this will ever happen.

It’s been proven that head start isn’t even enough.
Sometimes I just feel hopeless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

Mandatory preschool at age 3. Except we don't even have mandatory K, so I doubt this will ever happen.

I'd agree with that. Or a variant. Universal prek, not mandatory. Don't go? Fine. You go to class with other kids who didn't, so that you're all on the same page. Kids who do go to prek go to class with others who did. I'd love to see aps release statistics, by school, showing what percentage of k and 1st had preschool. Would be very telling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

I'm not, but thanks for playing. I think you are a lazy parent. Lazy and expecting that GS 10 to do all the work for you. Spoiler alert: donkeys don't turn into horses when you put them in a nicer stable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

Mandatory preschool at age 3. Except we don't even have mandatory K, so I doubt this will ever happen.

It’s been proven that head start isn’t even enough.
Sometimes I just feel hopeless.

It's not enough, not if then send them to highly segregated neighborhood schools for K-12. None of these thing alone are the magic bullet. But if you do all the things? Then it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

I'm not, but thanks for playing. I think you are a lazy parent. Lazy and expecting that GS 10 to do all the work for you. Spoiler alert: donkeys don't turn into horses when you put them in a nicer stable.

So either way- you’re an ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

I'm not, but thanks for playing. I think you are a lazy parent. Lazy and expecting that GS 10 to do all the work for you. Spoiler alert: donkeys don't turn into horses when you put them in a nicer stable.

Buck up entitled millennial! Here’s your chance to show us all! What the heck do we know? Now get yourself out there, start building a coalition, and make it happen! We are rooting for you!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

I'm not, but thanks for playing. I think you are a lazy parent. Lazy and expecting that GS 10 to do all the work for you. Spoiler alert: donkeys don't turn into horses when you put them in a nicer stable.

What exactly are you advocating for, again? I see insults but no plan. It's pretty rude to tell someone with direct experience who actually did give the schools a chance that their experience isn't valid.

[Anonymous]

We are at one of the "good" SA schools and you couldn't pay me to live in NA and yes I could afford to. The diversity here is what makes it great. But we need to stop sinking some of our schools.

If you look at this 8 school process:
-- Long Branch, Fleet, Oakridge, Hoffman-Boston, & Abingdon are all fine
-- It remains to be seen what will happen at Drew
-- Randolph and Barcroft will continue to struggle as poor schools

If Amazon brings another 1000 units of AH to the Pike though that is undeniably bad news for all those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at one of the "good" SA schools and you couldn't pay me to live in NA and yes I could afford to. The diversity here is what makes it great. But we need to stop sinking some of our schools.

If you look at this 8 school process:
-- Long Branch, Fleet, Oakridge, Hoffman-Boston, & Abingdon are all fine
-- It remains to be seen what will happen at Drew
-- Randolph and Barcroft will continue to struggle as poor schools

If Amazon brings another 1000 units of AH to the Pike though that is undeniably bad news for all those schools.

There is no realistic chance Drew will have an actual FRL rate under 60, with or without South Fairlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at one of the "good" SA schools and you couldn't pay me to live in NA and yes I could afford to. The diversity here is what makes it great. But we need to stop sinking some of our schools.

If you look at this 8 school process:
-- Long Branch, Fleet, Oakridge, Hoffman-Boston, & Abingdon are all fine
-- It remains to be seen what will happen at Drew
-- Randolph and Barcroft will continue to struggle as poor schools

If Amazon brings another 1000 units of AH to the Pike though that is undeniably bad news for all those schools.

I'm sure the county was explicit with Amazon and told them that gentrifying the Pike was a deal breaker. Hence the only mention of the pike in all these promo materials is with regard to AH. Seriously, I think they said that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

Do- the point is, it won’t make a difference and you will be called a racist for your troubles.

It will make a difference if enough people who've experience this firsthand speak up. If you can't do better than complaining anonymously on here then you are being pretty cowardly.

It won't. my guess is you are a sa parent with a preschool aged kid and think that if other parents before you had raised a fuss years ago things would be different for you, now. It's wishful thinking. These schools are so unbalanced. There's just no way to give SA middle class kids with a lot of academic ability a comparable classroom experience to NA. Everyone who has direct experience knows this. It's just a total mismatch. The reality is that when you've got 4 kids who have been going to preschool since age 2 or 3 in the same classroom with 16 ESL kids whose parents might have graduated high school in a country that they don't even want to live in and left, the majority gets the attention and instruction and the school is geared to their needs and wants.

Saying that UMC should stick their neck out to make these schools "better" against insurmountable odds, is like telling recent immigrants to do the same with schools in their home country. Everyone wants opportunities for their kids, and will move to where those opportunities are if they can.

I'm not, but thanks for playing. I think you are a lazy parent. Lazy and expecting that GS 10 to do all the work for you. Spoiler alert: donkeys don't turn into horses when you put them in a nicer stable.

News alert, everyone in NA goes to preschool. Not so in SA. People learn from their peers. When you are 2 years ahead of your peers all they can teach you is patience and empathy. It's not nothing, but it's not something we measure, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at one of the "good" SA schools and you couldn't pay me to live in NA and yes I could afford to. The diversity here is what makes it great. But we need to stop sinking some of our schools.

If you look at this 8 school process:
-- Long Branch, Fleet, Oakridge, Hoffman-Boston, & Abingdon are all fine
-- It remains to be seen what will happen at Drew
-- Randolph and Barcroft will continue to struggle as poor schools

If Amazon brings another 1000 units of AH to the Pike though that is undeniably bad news for all those schools.

I'm sure the county was explicit with Amazon and told them that gentrifying the Pike was a deal breaker. Hence the only mention of the pike in all these promo materials is with regard to AH. Seriously, I think they said that.

I don't doubt it. Frankly, I think that's why we're only getting half and not all of Amazon's jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Person who pulled her kids here. We did not leave because of any one issue. It was not behavior related. It was a bit of being tired of feeling that I had to watch what was happening in class very, very closely and advocate more than I liked. I just had a gut that there was a higher middle that they were teaching to at a school that wasn't busy serving kids with so many needs--poverty, language, lack of prior educational experience or a substandard one in another country. Levels over 50% just aren't ideal. It was a hard decision, and it was not obvious when we made it. No regrets though.

Which school? Name names or nothing changes.

That's ridiculous. She made the important point: 50% FRL. Anyone can name which schools would apply - it's the same problem at every high poverty school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at one of the "good" SA schools and you couldn't pay me to live in NA and yes I could afford to. The diversity here is what makes it great. But we need to stop sinking some of our schools.

If you look at this 8 school process:
-- Long Branch, Fleet, Oakridge, Hoffman-Boston, & Abingdon are all fine
-- It remains to be seen what will happen at Drew
-- Randolph and Barcroft will continue to struggle as poor schools

If Amazon brings another 1000 units of AH to the Pike though that is undeniably bad news for all those schools.

There is no realistic chance Drew will have an actual FRL rate under 60, with or without South Fairlington.

What the predicted fr/l rate without SF? It makes sense to me to try to give them the best possible shot at a balanced boundary and not to take all the diversity out of Fleet, nor a large chunk of SFHs out of Barcroft, but what do I know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. There was not enough time to improve the school before my kids were going to be done with it. And my neighbors didn't agree with my judgment that it needed to be improved. They thought it was fine. So, please forgive me for not wanting to spend all my time fighting to improve the school when I could afford to move and spend that time with my kids instead. You are correct that I gave up and moved. I know that lots of kids who don't have anyone to speak for them are at a disadvantage as a result. I know as well as anyone because they were in class with my kids for 3 years. But I never agreed to take that on when I moved to S. Arlington. And no one else was taking up that flag with me. So I left. Don't blame me. Blame the affordable housing lobby, blame Arlington politics, blame hapless but well intentioned VOICE advocates.

I didn't say you had to stay. But don't come on here and complain anonymously and never name the exact school and never speak out in any place or in any way that will make a real difference.

DP - What is your big issue about calling out a specific school by name? Speaking out on these things about a particular school doesn't help. All it does is get you called elitist, entitled, and racist. The principles apply to every "under-performing" low-income school in Arlington and it doesn't matter which one this particular person left.