s/o If You Left APS this Past Year for Private, What Differences Did You Notice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Hold on - there are no textbooks in APS??? My DS is starting K and we are keeping him at current preschool for the K year because of small class and were then planning to move to an APS ES school. I'm going to date myself here, but kids don't have workbooks like "Wordly Wise," etc or books for social studies reading or math problems? What do they have? I have a PhD in the humanities and my main way of learning was reading independently - hate group work etc. Is that all there is in APS? Tell me more!



My impression as a parent is there isn't much of a curriculum in APS elementary. It's what caused so much chaos in distance learning last spring. There are standards of learning but each teacher is expected to reinvent the wheel and develop their own ways to meet the standards. It seems so exhausting for teachers and so wasteful of their time.



THIS. ~(Parent with child who completed K and 1st at an APS Immersion school before moving out of state to an open public school last year)

Figuring out what your child is learning is extremely difficult in APS. You have to piece it together from worksheets unless your teacher is a great communicator (by email or blog). Getting a teacher's attention is tough when they have 55 students (Immersion students have 2 teachers half-day daily/hence each teacher has double the students over-all). I constantly told myself "At least they're learning Spanish," because I could not figure out that they were actively doing spelling/phonics in English or learning any social studies to speak of. Science and math seemed to be decent despite no textbooks. There's an obsession with "reading by the end of K" but no clear method to get there. It seems every teacher has to do their own thing.

At our new out of state public, 2nd grader does "Singapore Math" in a book, and has more clear curriculum "units," than APS, particularly in Social Studies where they follow a curriculum similar to what I remember growing up (Learn about your community, local government and then go bigger.) To be fair we still don't have any other textbooks at the new school either, but class sizes are smaller and teaching seems to be more on par with a private. (To make a direct comparison, APS is supposedly the #1 public in VA, and our new public is #4 in a different state, but much smaller in size, which helps the students get much more attention). Our child's class at the new public has 18 students. My child was identified as needing an IEP for speech/language this year (I'm certain this would have been missed during a remote year of learning at an Immersion school- so grateful it was caught now).

I do miss the Spanish Immersion a lot, but literally nothing else. Since APS offers both AP and IB in high school, I'm guessing their high school education level is comparable with any very good high schools, but I was not impressed with their elementary education, and middle school is always tough, let alone in an over-crowded school. APS's focus on "woke" political culture above all else was also grating, especially so during a pandemic.

I get the sense from reading these boards that Fairfax has pretty much the same issues as APS, but that's just my speculation. I know ACPS is a mess for various reasons and from friends' experiences. If we had to stay in Northern Virginia we would have switched to a Lutheran or Catholic school for the education/size/values.

My advice to anyone in Northern Virginia would be "don't pay North Arlington house prices for APS." Move to Alexandria or Falls Church if you're still trying to stay close to DC (because home prices MAY be slightly less insane) and go private. Or be prepared to supplement heavily at home.

According to whom? APS is not the #1 school district in VA, or even the #1 district in NoVa. Sounds like someone didn't do their homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Hold on - there are no textbooks in APS??? My DS is starting K and we are keeping him at current preschool for the K year because of small class and were then planning to move to an APS ES school. I'm going to date myself here, but kids don't have workbooks like "Wordly Wise," etc or books for social studies reading or math problems? What do they have? I have a PhD in the humanities and my main way of learning was reading independently - hate group work etc. Is that all there is in APS? Tell me more!



My impression as a parent is there isn't much of a curriculum in APS elementary. It's what caused so much chaos in distance learning last spring. There are standards of learning but each teacher is expected to reinvent the wheel and develop their own ways to meet the standards. It seems so exhausting for teachers and so wasteful of their time.



THIS. ~(Parent with child who completed K and 1st at an APS Immersion school before moving out of state to an open public school last year)

Figuring out what your child is learning is extremely difficult in APS. You have to piece it together from worksheets unless your teacher is a great communicator (by email or blog). Getting a teacher's attention is tough when they have 55 students (Immersion students have 2 teachers half-day daily/hence each teacher has double the students over-all). I constantly told myself "At least they're learning Spanish," because I could not figure out that they were actively doing spelling/phonics in English or learning any social studies to speak of. Science and math seemed to be decent despite no textbooks. There's an obsession with "reading by the end of K" but no clear method to get there. It seems every teacher has to do their own thing.

At our new out of state public, 2nd grader does "Singapore Math" in a book, and has more clear curriculum "units," than APS, particularly in Social Studies where they follow a curriculum similar to what I remember growing up (Learn about your community, local government and then go bigger.) To be fair we still don't have any other textbooks at the new school either, but class sizes are smaller and teaching seems to be more on par with a private. (To make a direct comparison, APS is supposedly the #1 public in VA, and our new public is #4 in a different state, but much smaller in size, which helps the students get much more attention). Our child's class at the new public has 18 students. My child was identified as needing an IEP for speech/language this year (I'm certain this would have been missed during a remote year of learning at an Immersion school- so grateful it was caught now).

I do miss the Spanish Immersion a lot, but literally nothing else. Since APS offers both AP and IB in high school, I'm guessing their high school education level is comparable with any very good high schools, but I was not impressed with their elementary education, and middle school is always tough, let alone in an over-crowded school. APS's focus on "woke" political culture above all else was also grating, especially so during a pandemic.

I get the sense from reading these boards that Fairfax has pretty much the same issues as APS, but that's just my speculation. I know ACPS is a mess for various reasons and from friends' experiences. If we had to stay in Northern Virginia we would have switched to a Lutheran or Catholic school for the education/size/values.

My advice to anyone in Northern Virginia would be "don't pay North Arlington house prices for APS." Move to Alexandria or Falls Church if you're still trying to stay close to DC (because home prices MAY be slightly less insane) and go private. Or be prepared to supplement heavily at home.

According to whom? APS is not the #1 school district in VA, or even the #1 district in NoVa. Sounds like someone didn't do their homework.

Agree, yet I find it shocking that some districts are considered worse. How?! How in the world is anything worse than the bottom of the barrel that is APS?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Hold on - there are no textbooks in APS??? My DS is starting K and we are keeping him at current preschool for the K year because of small class and were then planning to move to an APS ES school. I'm going to date myself here, but kids don't have workbooks like "Wordly Wise," etc or books for social studies reading or math problems? What do they have? I have a PhD in the humanities and my main way of learning was reading independently - hate group work etc. Is that all there is in APS? Tell me more!



My impression as a parent is there isn't much of a curriculum in APS elementary. It's what caused so much chaos in distance learning last spring. There are standards of learning but each teacher is expected to reinvent the wheel and develop their own ways to meet the standards. It seems so exhausting for teachers and so wasteful of their time.



THIS. ~(Parent with child who completed K and 1st at an APS Immersion school before moving out of state to an open public school last year)

Figuring out what your child is learning is extremely difficult in APS. You have to piece it together from worksheets unless your teacher is a great communicator (by email or blog). Getting a teacher's attention is tough when they have 55 students (Immersion students have 2 teachers half-day daily/hence each teacher has double the students over-all). I constantly told myself "At least they're learning Spanish," because I could not figure out that they were actively doing spelling/phonics in English or learning any social studies to speak of. Science and math seemed to be decent despite no textbooks. There's an obsession with "reading by the end of K" but no clear method to get there. It seems every teacher has to do their own thing.

At our new out of state public, 2nd grader does "Singapore Math" in a book, and has more clear curriculum "units," than APS, particularly in Social Studies where they follow a curriculum similar to what I remember growing up (Learn about your community, local government and then go bigger.) To be fair we still don't have any other textbooks at the new school either, but class sizes are smaller and teaching seems to be more on par with a private. (To make a direct comparison, APS is supposedly the #1 public in VA, and our new public is #4 in a different state, but much smaller in size, which helps the students get much more attention). Our child's class at the new public has 18 students. My child was identified as needing an IEP for speech/language this year (I'm certain this would have been missed during a remote year of learning at an Immersion school- so grateful it was caught now).

I do miss the Spanish Immersion a lot, but literally nothing else. Since APS offers both AP and IB in high school, I'm guessing their high school education level is comparable with any very good high schools, but I was not impressed with their elementary education, and middle school is always tough, let alone in an over-crowded school. APS's focus on "woke" political culture above all else was also grating, especially so during a pandemic.

I get the sense from reading these boards that Fairfax has pretty much the same issues as APS, but that's just my speculation. I know ACPS is a mess for various reasons and from friends' experiences. If we had to stay in Northern Virginia we would have switched to a Lutheran or Catholic school for the education/size/values.

My advice to anyone in Northern Virginia would be "don't pay North Arlington house prices for APS." Move to Alexandria or Falls Church if you're still trying to stay close to DC (because home prices MAY be slightly less insane) and go private. Or be prepared to supplement heavily at home.

According to whom? APS is not the #1 school district in VA, or even the #1 district in NoVa. Sounds like someone didn't do their homework.

Agree, yet I find it shocking that some districts are considered worse. How?! How in the world is anything worse than the bottom of the barrel that is APS?!

Get help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Hold on - there are no textbooks in APS??? My DS is starting K and we are keeping him at current preschool for the K year because of small class and were then planning to move to an APS ES school. I'm going to date myself here, but kids don't have workbooks like "Wordly Wise," etc or books for social studies reading or math problems? What do they have? I have a PhD in the humanities and my main way of learning was reading independently - hate group work etc. Is that all there is in APS? Tell me more!



My impression as a parent is there isn't much of a curriculum in APS elementary. It's what caused so much chaos in distance learning last spring. There are standards of learning but each teacher is expected to reinvent the wheel and develop their own ways to meet the standards. It seems so exhausting for teachers and so wasteful of their time.



THIS. ~(Parent with child who completed K and 1st at an APS Immersion school before moving out of state to an open public school last year)

Figuring out what your child is learning is extremely difficult in APS. You have to piece it together from worksheets unless your teacher is a great communicator (by email or blog). Getting a teacher's attention is tough when they have 55 students (Immersion students have 2 teachers half-day daily/hence each teacher has double the students over-all). I constantly told myself "At least they're learning Spanish," because I could not figure out that they were actively doing spelling/phonics in English or learning any social studies to speak of. Science and math seemed to be decent despite no textbooks. There's an obsession with "reading by the end of K" but no clear method to get there. It seems every teacher has to do their own thing.

At our new out of state public, 2nd grader does "Singapore Math" in a book, and has more clear curriculum "units," than APS, particularly in Social Studies where they follow a curriculum similar to what I remember growing up (Learn about your community, local government and then go bigger.) To be fair we still don't have any other textbooks at the new school either, but class sizes are smaller and teaching seems to be more on par with a private. (To make a direct comparison, APS is supposedly the #1 public in VA, and our new public is #4 in a different state, but much smaller in size, which helps the students get much more attention). Our child's class at the new public has 18 students. My child was identified as needing an IEP for speech/language this year (I'm certain this would have been missed during a remote year of learning at an Immersion school- so grateful it was caught now).

I do miss the Spanish Immersion a lot, but literally nothing else. Since APS offers both AP and IB in high school, I'm guessing their high school education level is comparable with any very good high schools, but I was not impressed with their elementary education, and middle school is always tough, let alone in an over-crowded school. APS's focus on "woke" political culture above all else was also grating, especially so during a pandemic.

I get the sense from reading these boards that Fairfax has pretty much the same issues as APS, but that's just my speculation. I know ACPS is a mess for various reasons and from friends' experiences. If we had to stay in Northern Virginia we would have switched to a Lutheran or Catholic school for the education/size/values.

My advice to anyone in Northern Virginia would be "don't pay North Arlington house prices for APS." Move to Alexandria or Falls Church if you're still trying to stay close to DC (because home prices MAY be slightly less insane) and go private. Or be prepared to supplement heavily at home.

According to whom? APS is not the #1 school district in VA, or even the #1 district in NoVa. Sounds like someone didn't do their homework.

PP: According to this as of 2021 it's #2 in VA: https://www.niche.com/k12/d/arlington-public-schools-va/ Maybe it was 2020 where I saw it was #1? The point it is considered to be a very good school district in the state-or so I thought. But like the other poster below, based on my own experience, I'm wondering how this high ranking is possible given the number of issues, but most significantly, over-crowding at almost every single school which impacts the over-all quality of education.

[Anonymous]

APS does not use textbooks but that doesn’t mean there is no curriculum. The curriculum is the standards of learning SOLs. They use a variety of resources to teach the SOLs. For reading it’s a bit in flux as they transition from Lucy calkins to a science of trading based program. At the kinder level schools use heggerty phonemic awareness, Lucy Calkins phonics, reading and writing, and handwriting without tears. Expect a transition district wide in the next 2ish years to something like fundations. In math the district uses some math expressions and some district made resources to teach the SOLs. In upper elementary there is a science textbook and also resources such as generation genius and mystery science.

But no there are not textbooks and workbooks for all subjects at all levels.

[Anonymous]

Even if a teacher sends home a newsletter with the things they have been learning, they don’t talk about how they are learning it.

And really it doesn’t even matter that much because a) it’s not like I know whether or not my child needs extra help and b) even if I knew he needed extra help, it’s so hard for kids to muster the energy or motivation to do more reading and math when they already did that for like five hours during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is so great about textbooks?

I love textbooks because a) they have pictures you can refer to when you are reading the text (visuals assist in learning), and a textbook provides an opportunity for more practice. Also instead of learning separately what a caption or glossary is out of context, you can have much more familiarity with them when you’re actually using them consistently. Also if you need to go back and refresh your memory, you can do that without fumbling through worksheets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if a teacher sends home a newsletter with the things they have been learning, they don’t talk about how they are learning it.

And really it doesn’t even matter that much because a) it’s not like I know whether or not my child needs extra help and b) even if I knew he needed extra help, it’s so hard for kids to muster the energy or motivation to do more reading and math when they already did that for like five hours during the day.

Honestly, they're not doing reading or math for 5 hours a day in ES. There are a lot of transitions and specials and lining up and recess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if a teacher sends home a newsletter with the things they have been learning, they don’t talk about how they are learning it.

And really it doesn’t even matter that much because a) it’s not like I know whether or not my child needs extra help and b) even if I knew he needed extra help, it’s so hard for kids to muster the energy or motivation to do more reading and math when they already did that for like five hours during the day.

Honestly, they're not doing reading or math for 5 hours a day in ES. There are a lot of transitions and specials and lining up and recess.

Well, okay, four hours a day of reading and math a day and then another hour of other instruction? They are in school for over six hours, and most of that time is spent doing intellectual work. They don’t want to come home and get more instruction and I don’t blame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe teachers don’t understand why textbooks are important. Kids learn in different ways. As a kid I HATED the fun activities or group projects. It just want how I learned. I’d go home and read a textbook and write the answers at the end of the summary and then my teachers would correct it - even the grammar and spelling even if it was social studies! This thread has me very worried about APS. We moved my K to a parochial when APs declared it too hard to open. What is going at APS. Seriously!!!

Are teachers saying this? Are classroom teachers the ones buying county wide curriculum resources?

I know at least a few APS teachers who wish they had textbooks so I suppose there is not a teacher consensus.

I’m so confused - mother of a future APS kid here. Are there no textbooks?? Everything I read about school this year has me considering whether we should try for private right away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe teachers don’t understand why textbooks are important. Kids learn in different ways. As a kid I HATED the fun activities or group projects. It just want how I learned. I’d go home and read a textbook and write the answers at the end of the summary and then my teachers would correct it - even the grammar and spelling even if it was social studies! This thread has me very worried about APS. We moved my K to a parochial when APs declared it too hard to open. What is going at APS. Seriously!!!

Are teachers saying this? Are classroom teachers the ones buying county wide curriculum resources?

I know at least a few APS teachers who wish they had textbooks so I suppose there is not a teacher consensus.

I’m so confused - mother of a future APS kid here. Are there no textbooks?? Everything I read about school this year has me considering whether we should try for private right away

If having your kids learn via textbook is a high priority for you, APS is not your district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Hold on - there are no textbooks in APS??? My DS is starting K and we are keeping him at current preschool for the K year because of small class and were then planning to move to an APS ES school. I'm going to date myself here, but kids don't have workbooks like "Wordly Wise," etc or books for social studies reading or math problems? What do they have? I have a PhD in the humanities and my main way of learning was reading independently - hate group work etc. Is that all there is in APS? Tell me more!



My impression as a parent is there isn't much of a curriculum in APS elementary. It's what caused so much chaos in distance learning last spring. There are standards of learning but each teacher is expected to reinvent the wheel and develop their own ways to meet the standards. It seems so exhausting for teachers and so wasteful of their time.



THIS. ~(Parent with child who completed K and 1st at an APS Immersion school before moving out of state to an open public school last year)

Figuring out what your child is learning is extremely difficult in APS. You have to piece it together from worksheets unless your teacher is a great communicator (by email or blog). Getting a teacher's attention is tough when they have 55 students (Immersion students have 2 teachers half-day daily/hence each teacher has double the students over-all). I constantly told myself "At least they're learning Spanish," because I could not figure out that they were actively doing spelling/phonics in English or learning any social studies to speak of. Science and math seemed to be decent despite no textbooks. There's an obsession with "reading by the end of K" but no clear method to get there. It seems every teacher has to do their own thing.

At our new out of state public, 2nd grader does "Singapore Math" in a book, and has more clear curriculum "units," than APS, particularly in Social Studies where they follow a curriculum similar to what I remember growing up (Learn about your community, local government and then go bigger.) To be fair we still don't have any other textbooks at the new school either, but class sizes are smaller and teaching seems to be more on par with a private. (To make a direct comparison, APS is supposedly the #1 public in VA, and our new public is #4 in a different state, but much smaller in size, which helps the students get much more attention). Our child's class at the new public has 18 students. My child was identified as needing an IEP for speech/language this year (I'm certain this would have been missed during a remote year of learning at an Immersion school- so grateful it was caught now).

I do miss the Spanish Immersion a lot, but literally nothing else. Since APS offers both AP and IB in high school, I'm guessing their high school education level is comparable with any very good high schools, but I was not impressed with their elementary education, and middle school is always tough, let alone in an over-crowded school. APS's focus on "woke" political culture above all else was also grating, especially so during a pandemic.

I get the sense from reading these boards that Fairfax has pretty much the same issues as APS, but that's just my speculation. I know ACPS is a mess for various reasons and from friends' experiences. If we had to stay in Northern Virginia we would have switched to a Lutheran or Catholic school for the education/size/values.

My advice to anyone in Northern Virginia would be "don't pay North Arlington house prices for APS." Move to Alexandria or Falls Church if you're still trying to stay close to DC (because home prices MAY be slightly less insane) and go private. Or be prepared to supplement heavily at home.



According to whom? APS is not the #1 school district in VA, or even the #1 district in NoVa. Sounds like someone didn't do their homework.



PP: According to this as of 2021 it's #2 in VA: https://www.niche.com/k12/d/arlington-public-schools-va/ Maybe it was 2020 where I saw it was #1? The point it is considered to be a very good school district in the state-or so I thought. But like the other poster below, based on my own experience, I'm wondering how this high ranking is possible given the number of issues, but most significantly, over-crowding at almost every single school which impacts the over-all quality of education.

Niche.com? You do realize this "data" is based purely on parent ratings, don't you? There is no expert review of any kind involved in niche.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I cannot believe teachers don’t understand why textbooks are important. Kids learn in different ways. As a kid I HATED the fun activities or group projects. It just want how I learned. I’d go home and read a textbook and write the answers at the end of the summary and then my teachers would correct it - even the grammar and spelling even if it was social studies! This thread has me very worried about APS. We moved my K to a parochial when APs declared it too hard to open. What is going at APS. Seriously!!!



Are teachers saying this? Are classroom teachers the ones buying county wide curriculum resources?



I know at least a few APS teachers who wish they had textbooks so I suppose there is not a teacher consensus.



I’m so confused - mother of a future APS kid here. Are there no textbooks?? Everything I read about school this year has me considering whether we should try for private right away



If having your kids learn via textbook is a high priority for you, APS is not your district.

That's right, kids learn in different ways. And many of them will not learn at all if they are asked to simply read chapters in a textbook for homework. Some won't do it, some won't understand it, and still others won't understand it and won't have anyone at home who has the resources/time to help them understand it. It's a public schoolteacher's job to teach EVERY student in the class, not just the ones that read well, who will actually read the chapters, and who will get help at home reading the chapters. Just because it's convenient for the parents to have a textbook at home doesn't mean it's the best way to teach a classroom full of students with a wide range of abilities.

And PP, collaborative work is an important part of education now--employers want future workers who can play well with others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I cannot believe teachers don’t understand why textbooks are important. Kids learn in different ways. As a kid I HATED the fun activities or group projects. It just want how I learned. I’d go home and read a textbook and write the answers at the end of the summary and then my teachers would correct it - even the grammar and spelling even if it was social studies! This thread has me very worried about APS. We moved my K to a parochial when APs declared it too hard to open. What is going at APS. Seriously!!!



Are teachers saying this? Are classroom teachers the ones buying county wide curriculum resources?



I know at least a few APS teachers who wish they had textbooks so I suppose there is not a teacher consensus.



I’m so confused - mother of a future APS kid here. Are there no textbooks?? Everything I read about school this year has me considering whether we should try for private right away



If having your kids learn via textbook is a high priority for you, APS is not your district.

That's right, kids learn in different ways. And many of them will not learn at all if they are asked to simply read chapters in a textbook for homework. Some won't do it, some won't understand it, and still others won't understand it and won't have anyone at home who has the resources/time to help them understand it. It's a public schoolteacher's job to teach EVERY student in the class, not just the ones that read well, who will actually read the chapters, and who will get help at home reading the chapters. Just because it's convenient for the parents to have a textbook at home doesn't mean it's the best way to teach a classroom full of students with a wide range of abilities.

And PP, collaborative work is an important part of education now--employers want future workers who can play well with others.

Not PP; but does that collaborative work have to surpass individual learning and independent work beginning in kindergarten?
As you noted yourself, kids learn in different ways and some will learn better with textbooks. So, for the teacher to accommodate all the types of learners and abilities, textbooks should be available for those who could benefit from them or who would like a paper version of things to read and work with and the teacher should be able to accommodate that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That's right, kids learn in different ways. And many of them will not learn at all if they are asked to simply read chapters in a textbook for homework. Some won't do it, some won't understand it, and still others won't understand it and won't have anyone at home who has the resources/time to help them understand it. It's a public schoolteacher's job to teach EVERY student in the class, not just the ones that read well, who will actually read the chapters, and who will get help at home reading the chapters. Just because it's convenient for the parents to have a textbook at home doesn't mean it's the best way to teach a classroom full of students with a wide range of abilities.

And PP, collaborative work is an important part of education now--employers want future workers who can play well with others.

I'm an elementary school teacher at a private school in Arlington. We use textbooks, but we don't simply send a students home with textbooks and tell them to read a chapter. Good textbooks allow for differentiation. Good teachers supplement textbooks with outside material and use multiple approaches.