HB Woodlawn and ATS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Lord, people. The same complaints about HBW and ATS have been going on by parents who are jealous for decades. Test scores at both reflect nothing but self selection. Kids who don’t get in and have the same sort of parents do just as well at neighborhood schools. In fact, I know many education obsessed parents who think HBW isn’t rigorous enough for their kids. One family I know (this has been awhile) had a kid who was very happy at HB’s middle school but insisted they transfer to the neighborhood school for high school because they though the education was too soft. Kid ended up at Harvard Law.

There’s another thread just posted on Arlington college acceptances by high school. Take a look. Note that there’s no difference in college acceptance rates for HBW compared to the neighborhood schools.

What does anything you are saying have to do with ATS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Lord, people. The same complaints about HBW and ATS have been going on by parents who are jealous for decades. Test scores at both reflect nothing but self selection. Kids who don’t get in and have the same sort of parents do just as well at neighborhood schools. In fact, I know many education obsessed parents who think HBW isn’t rigorous enough for their kids. One family I know (this has been awhile) had a kid who was very happy at HB’s middle school but insisted they transfer to the neighborhood school for high school because they though the education was too soft. Kid ended up at Harvard Law.

There’s another thread just posted on Arlington college acceptances by high school. Take a look. Note that there’s no difference in college acceptance rates for HBW compared to the neighborhood schools.

What does anything you are saying have to do with ATS?

Not PP, but a lot of ATS students have ended up at HBW. So, from that perspective, it's the same self-selected families factor - even though ATS and HBW styles couldn't be much farther apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

Here we go again. A person who’s kids don’t know to ATS claiming that they know what ATS does. No ATS doesn’t teach to the test. The reason they have such high scores is because they believe structured literacy and focus on phonics and phonemic awareness as opposed to balanced literacy. While the rest of APS was using Lucy Calkins and does phonics on the fly, ATS was using Wilson’s reading and Heggerty. They also have an ELA curriculum that they made that is knowledge rich (focus on social studies). They were so successful in fact that APS adopted Heggerty a few years ago for all schools. Now the entire country is moving towards structured literacy & knowledge rich ELA curriculums. Virginia passed a literacy act and APS adopted CKLA which is phonics based and is knowledge rich. Hopefully this means that the quality of all APS schools goes up. ATS also has a two hour ELA block as opposed to a much shorter block in other APS schools.

Not an ATS parent here - so hope you accept my ignorant opinion - but I agree. It is the neighborhood schools that "teach to the tests" which have lower standards than ATS has for its students. ATS' success is primarily due to the expectations and standards it sets for its students and the curriculum and instructional methods it employs. Lower the bar, kids will perform accordingly. Raise the bar, kids will perform accordingly. The rest of ATS' success is due to the students and families who choose to go there, who appreciate and want those higher standards and proven instruction methods and curricula, who don't mind or even value the structure and discipline and return to their neighborhood schools if they don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

Here we go again. A person who’s kids don’t know to ATS claiming that they know what ATS does. No ATS doesn’t teach to the test. The reason they have such high scores is because they believe structured literacy and focus on phonics and phonemic awareness as opposed to balanced literacy. While the rest of APS was using Lucy Calkins and does phonics on the fly, ATS was using Wilson’s reading and Heggerty. They also have an ELA curriculum that they made that is knowledge rich (focus on social studies). They were so successful in fact that APS adopted Heggerty a few years ago for all schools. Now the entire country is moving towards structured literacy & knowledge rich ELA curriculums. Virginia passed a literacy act and APS adopted CKLA which is phonics based and is knowledge rich. Hopefully this means that the quality of all APS schools goes up. ATS also has a two hour ELA block as opposed to a much shorter block in other APS schools.

Yes to this. I’m super excited about CKLA. It is based on the science of reading and has produced real results in districts that have adopted it. My concern is whether there was enough time for teacher training since I believe the new curriculum was adopted end of the previous school year. Our school just got the new CKLA materials last Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

It's not just about being "the best." HB has a particular model that works well for some and doesn't work well for others. There are kids who get that lottery seat then transfer out after a couple years, or more likely for HS, for many reasons.

The issue is they don't have enough seats for those who do want it. That's why it's a great idea to use WL to create those seats in a new HB program. Neither transforming all HS to the HB model nor getting rid of HB altogether would be an ideal outcome.

To emphasize your "for many reasons," this isn't usually due to methodology. Yes, some find it not a good fit; but often any who jump ship for high school do so because of HBW's lack of sports and marching band - not because the academic model doesn't suit them. Also, the model isn't what's attracting families the way it did originally. What's attracting families is HB's reputation and its size. Just about every single parent of an HB student or wanna-be-student has cited the smaller environment being better for their kid, for the more individualized attention and teacher-student relationships that smaller size brings. The second-most cited reason is because their kid is "different" or "quirky" or would be more welcomed and emotionally supported there than in their assigned high school. Not a single one ever mentions the HBW instructional model as their reason for applying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

ATS and HB also have teachers who applied to teach there. The requirements to teach at those schools are different -- at HB, for instance, they don't have guidance counselors. Middle school teachers are the counselors for their homeroom, and HS teachers take on a counseling load for 6-8 students including college counseling. Working in a school with different behavior standards than regular schools also requires different teaching styles. You can't just have every school change to the ATS or HB model.

HB model, probably not. But ATS' "model" isn't structurally different just because teachers apply to work there. They have the same structure as any other elementary school (except Montessori with its extra staffing and specific teacher training requirements). So I disagree that you can't make all the elementary schools more like ATS - it's the curriculum and instruction, bringing kids up to the high standards rather than "meeting each child where they are" and setting standards accordingly. A student who is behind but makes "one year's progress" will still be behind next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two of my kids graduated from HB over 15 years ago. This same drivel was written then as it is now. No reason to be so damned jealous. Our kids at Yorktown got just as good an education.

BS. 15 years ago the other high schools were not overcrowded anything like now nor as constrained by resources as the school board no longer cares about academics excellence as a goal for the system.

My HB kid graduated in the last 5 years and didn't get great skills in math and a couple of the hard sciences. My other kids went to WL, IB and got a better education, imo. I blame the HB education on the fact that you have fewer teachers.

This is interesting. If you make anything a scarce resource, though (like ATS and HB Woodlaw are) people will covet it just because it’s scarce. So adding more seats to schools that are just like ATS and Woodlawn would not only add seats but would make these schools less rare. Then the people who really want what they are offering will apply rather than people going just because they are a limited resource.

I love this post. 1000% true (H-B math represented there.)

Any program that is different requires additional teacher training, bus schedules and other extras. Ask Barcroft - they recently ended a beloved special program due to $$ pressures. H-B and ATS also very much cause unnecessary dedicated resources to space. Schools were much less overcrowded 15 years ago. This specialty school thing needs to go away.

Seriously, why is Montessori not lumped into these discussions? They get aides in the classrooms through 5th grade, which other elementaries don’t. You lye the busing, dedicated building, etc.

It’s not because clearly the reason we are having this discussion is not because people are concerned about resources but simply because they hate ATS and HB Woodlawn. If it were about resources then Montessori would be lumped into the discussion as well.

It’s mostly because people are less familiar with Montessori (I thought it was actually only a low income program like VPI — doesn’t it accept most students from preschool and 80% are VPI eligible?). ATS and HB are much larger and don’t have the majority as low income program.

Attacking a low income program would be in poor taste, hence Montessori is spared. ATS and HBW are majority UMC families getting private school on public dime, so get have no so concern.

As of 2019 ATS had a higher FARMS rate than Montessori

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SNPMonthlyEligibilityReport.pdf

Well they are basically equivalent. Point well taken though. And as PP stated it’s in poor taste to attack
Montessori and therefore in poor taste to attack ATS.

Nonsense.
If you're basing rationale for bashing on FRM rates, then people should stop bashing our Title I schools and equivalent (40%+ middle and high schools).

You are responding to me. I’m not basing the rationale for bashing on farm rates. The PP who said it is in poor taste to attack a low income program is. PP is using that to explain why it’s not ok to bash the Montessori program but ok to bash ATS. However PP’s logic is flawed. Both schools have similar farms rates. So based on PPs flawed logic both schools should be treated the same.

I agree with you. I was responding to the PP; my comment just followed yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should get rid of HB all together and make it a HS.

How does sending 250 kids back to 5 middle schools (so, adding 50 kids per school) and then pulling 250 kids out of three high schools (so, 85 kids per school) to go the Heights building do anything about crowding? Or even if you went up to, say, adding 300 kids. Across 4 grades. How does reducing the number of kids in each grade at Wakefield, W-L, and Yorktown by 25 do ANYTHING, really, about overcrowding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

Here we go again. A person who’s kids don’t know to ATS claiming that they know what ATS does. No ATS doesn’t teach to the test. The reason they have such high scores is because they believe structured literacy and focus on phonics and phonemic awareness as opposed to balanced literacy. While the rest of APS was using Lucy Calkins and does phonics on the fly, ATS was using Wilson’s reading and Heggerty. They also have an ELA curriculum that they made that is knowledge rich (focus on social studies). They were so successful in fact that APS adopted Heggerty a few years ago for all schools. Now the entire country is moving towards structured literacy & knowledge rich ELA curriculums. Virginia passed a literacy act and APS adopted CKLA which is phonics based and is knowledge rich. Hopefully this means that the quality of all APS schools goes up. ATS also has a two hour ELA block as opposed to a much shorter block in other APS schools.

Do the same people who insist that ATS families have plenty of friends in the neighborhood also insist that the only way to know about ATS is to have kids who go there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

ATS and HB also have teachers who applied to teach there. The requirements to teach at those schools are different -- at HB, for instance, they don't have guidance counselors. Middle school teachers are the counselors for their homeroom, and HS teachers take on a counseling load for 6-8 students including college counseling. Working in a school with different behavior standards than regular schools also requires different teaching styles. You can't just have every school change to the ATS or HB model.

HB model, probably not. But ATS' "model" isn't structurally different just because teachers apply to work there. They have the same structure as any other elementary school (except Montessori with its extra staffing and specific teacher training requirements). So I disagree that you can't make all the elementary schools more like ATS - it's the curriculum and instruction, bringing kids up to the high standards rather than "meeting each child where they are" and setting standards accordingly. A student who is behind but makes "one year's progress" will still be behind next year.

They actually have a different model than many other (all?) schools in the upper grades, they don’t departmentalize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

Here we go again. A person who’s kids don’t know to ATS claiming that they know what ATS does. No ATS doesn’t teach to the test. The reason they have such high scores is because they believe structured literacy and focus on phonics and phonemic awareness as opposed to balanced literacy. While the rest of APS was using Lucy Calkins and does phonics on the fly, ATS was using Wilson’s reading and Heggerty. They also have an ELA curriculum that they made that is knowledge rich (focus on social studies). They were so successful in fact that APS adopted Heggerty a few years ago for all schools. Now the entire country is moving towards structured literacy & knowledge rich ELA curriculums. Virginia passed a literacy act and APS adopted CKLA which is phonics based and is knowledge rich. Hopefully this means that the quality of all APS schools goes up. ATS also has a two hour ELA block as opposed to a much shorter block in other APS schools.

Do the same people who insist that ATS families have plenty of friends in the neighborhood also insist that the only way to know about ATS is to have kids who go there?

Huh? What are you talking about? I am specifically responding to PP’s insinuating that the reason ATS students do well is because ATS teaches to the test. How would PP know that ATS teaches to the test if PP has no experience with the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

ATS and HB also have teachers who applied to teach there. The requirements to teach at those schools are different -- at HB, for instance, they don't have guidance counselors. Middle school teachers are the counselors for their homeroom, and HS teachers take on a counseling load for 6-8 students including college counseling. Working in a school with different behavior standards than regular schools also requires different teaching styles. You can't just have every school change to the ATS or HB model.

HB model, probably not. But ATS' "model" isn't structurally different just because teachers apply to work there. They have the same structure as any other elementary school (except Montessori with its extra staffing and specific teacher training requirements). So I disagree that you can't make all the elementary schools more like ATS - it's the curriculum and instruction, bringing kids up to the high standards rather than "meeting each child where they are" and setting standards accordingly. A student who is behind but makes "one year's progress" will still be behind next year.

They actually have a different model than many other (all?) schools in the upper grades, they don’t departmentalize.

Not PP but I definitely agree that more schools can become like ATS curriculum wise. I think this is already happening when it comes to structured literacy. I am not sure how this would apply to curriculum delivery. For example does CKLA require direct instruction which is the mode of instruction at ATS? (As a side note, see this article advocating for direct instruction: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2021/03/24/the-power-and-pitfalls-of-letting-students-learn-through-experience/?sh=cb047164b23d ) . Also what about homework? Is this something all elementary schools should push or should that remain an ATS thing? While APS is moving towards structured literacy and hence becoming more like ATS in that regard it is moving away from homework. Another thing that distinguishes ATS is the focus on good behavior, character learning etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

ATS and HB also have teachers who applied to teach there. The requirements to teach at those schools are different -- at HB, for instance, they don't have guidance counselors. Middle school teachers are the counselors for their homeroom, and HS teachers take on a counseling load for 6-8 students including college counseling. Working in a school with different behavior standards than regular schools also requires different teaching styles. You can't just have every school change to the ATS or HB model.

HB model, probably not. But ATS' "model" isn't structurally different just because teachers apply to work there. They have the same structure as any other elementary school (except Montessori with its extra staffing and specific teacher training requirements). So I disagree that you can't make all the elementary schools more like ATS - it's the curriculum and instruction, bringing kids up to the high standards rather than "meeting each child where they are" and setting standards accordingly. A student who is behind but makes "one year's progress" will still be behind next year.

They actually have a different model than many other (all?) schools in the upper grades, they don’t departmentalize.

Not PP but I definitely agree that more schools can become like ATS curriculum wise. I think this is already happening when it comes to structured literacy. I am not sure how this would apply to curriculum delivery. For example does CKLA require direct instruction which is the mode of instruction at ATS? (As a side note, see this article advocating for direct instruction: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2021/03/24/the-power-and-pitfalls-of-letting-students-learn-through-experience/?sh=cb047164b23d ) . Also what about homework? Is this something all elementary schools should push or should that remain an ATS thing? While APS is moving towards structured literacy and hence becoming more like ATS in that regard it is moving away from homework. Another thing that distinguishes ATS is the focus on good behavior, character learning etc.

Also would you mind elaborating on ATS not departmentalizing? I am an ATS parent so I’m not sure how it is elsewhere. But my impression is all schools have a homeroom teacher who teaches ELA/math/social studies and then specials teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should get rid of HB all together and make it a HS.

How does sending 250 kids back to 5 middle schools (so, adding 50 kids per school) and then pulling 250 kids out of three high schools (so, 85 kids per school) to go the Heights building do anything about crowding? Or even if you went up to, say, adding 300 kids. Across 4 grades. How does reducing the number of kids in each grade at Wakefield, W-L, and Yorktown by 25 do ANYTHING, really, about overcrowding?

We spent $30 million for 600 WL seats, so that change is worth $15M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say it again — I don’t think we should get rid of the special programs, I think we should find a way to offer more of them. Create a second ATS and house it at whichever of the neighborhood elementary schools is currently most underenrolled. Those parents would be IRATE but all the parents who get into the new ATS would be thrilled. Then use part of the WL building for a new HB Woodlawn. That way W-L doesn’t have to be so big and APS doesn’t have to find additional space for a new HB Woodlawn. Just use the WL space.

+ 1 million

Or they could just improve the instruction at all the other schools so every kid can have "the best."

ATS and HB are self-selecting populations. In the case of ATS, you're judging a program by its standardized test results when everything about ATS is leading up to getting good standardized test results. That's not everyone's goal.

HB has the second most affluent student population among the high schools. I think most high school kids would benefit from more independence, but let's not confuse correspondence with causation here.

Here we go again. A person who’s kids don’t know to ATS claiming that they know what ATS does. No ATS doesn’t teach to the test. The reason they have such high scores is because they believe structured literacy and focus on phonics and phonemic awareness as opposed to balanced literacy. While the rest of APS was using Lucy Calkins and does phonics on the fly, ATS was using Wilson’s reading and Heggerty. They also have an ELA curriculum that they made that is knowledge rich (focus on social studies). They were so successful in fact that APS adopted Heggerty a few years ago for all schools. Now the entire country is moving towards structured literacy & knowledge rich ELA curriculums. Virginia passed a literacy act and APS adopted CKLA which is phonics based and is knowledge rich. Hopefully this means that the quality of all APS schools goes up. ATS also has a two hour ELA block as opposed to a much shorter block in other APS schools.

Not an ATS parent here - so hope you accept my ignorant opinion - but I agree. It is the neighborhood schools that "teach to the tests" which have lower standards than ATS has for its students. ATS' success is primarily due to the expectations and standards it sets for its students and the curriculum and instructional methods it employs. Lower the bar, kids will perform accordingly. Raise the bar, kids will perform accordingly. The rest of ATS' success is due to the students and families who choose to go there, who appreciate and want those higher standards and proven instruction methods and curricula, who don't mind or even value the structure and discipline and return to their neighborhood schools if they don't.

Schools teach to the test because if they didn’t their scores and accreditation suffer. They don’t have the luxury of a motivated parents for EVERY student like they have at ATS. You have incarcerated parents, foster kids, ESL, low income, on and on and like zero of that at ATS