Trump's new educational secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, have a reaching affect on VA Public Schools?

[Anonymous]

I expect fcps will focus even less on actual teaching than they are now and go to full-time begging and fearmongering.

Charters may not work everywhere but I'd like to see them in bloated, too big to fail fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Best candidates locally for charters are Alexandria City, South Arlington and Mount Vernon in Fairfax. Worst schools in NoVa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine her appointment having a huge impact on VA schools. For one, we don't have any charter schools in VA. Secondly, most FCPS schools are functioning so there's no reason for vouchers. I think most educational efforts are focused on reforming Title 1 and innercity schools. VA has been left pretty much unscathed by this wave of education reform and NCLB that's been going on for over a decade.

There are two charter ES schools in Loudoun (Middleburg and Hillsboro), both recently created as conversions from older public ES schools, and both with waiting lists. I put my daughter into the lottery for one for K and she was so far down the waiting list that we didn't even bother staying on the list. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see more spring up around Loudoun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best candidates locally for charters are Alexandria City, South Arlington and Mount Vernon in Fairfax. Worst schools in NoVa.

I think you meant the most segregated schools in NoVa, at least that's the case in south Arlington. That's what happens when the school boards allows one of the smallest and wealthiest school systems in the area to remain segregated along socioeconomic lines. Some schools have PTA budgets over $100,000 and others don't even have PTA's. Throwing charters or vouchers into the mix will not help the schools with the highest percentage of children from low-income families. It may offer a "choice" or an "out" for a lucky few, but most students will be left behind at a school that now has even fewer resources. I think you know this and either don't care, or hope to punish certain people just for existing. We will fight you every step of the way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best candidates locally for charters are Alexandria City, South Arlington and Mount Vernon in Fairfax. Worst schools in NoVa.

I think you meant the most segregated schools in NoVa, at least that's the case in south Arlington. That's what happens when the school boards allows one of the smallest and wealthiest school systems in the area to remain segregated along socioeconomic lines. Some schools have PTA budgets over $100,000 and others don't even have PTA's. Throwing charters or vouchers into the mix will not help the schools with the highest percentage of children from low-income families. It may offer a "choice" or an "out" for a lucky few, but most students will be left behind at a school that now has even fewer resources. I think you know this and either don't care, or hope to punish certain people just for existing. We will fight you every step of the way.

APS can't do anything about terrible housing policy.

[Anonymous]

Community schools are better than enforced bussing. I taught in one with bussing back in the '70's. When the kids don't live in the neighborhood, it is very difficult to get parents in for conferences --these are parents who do not look at schools as warm places, and the distance does not help.

I do not have the answer--but you cannot desegregate schools by bussing. It just does not work well.

[Anonymous]

This is what happens when you concentrate poverty. I hope south Arlington parents do fight for charters. I'll be right there with them. My kid is just as deserving as a kid at Jamestown. A day of reckoning is at hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when you concentrate poverty. I hope south Arlington parents do fight for charters. I'll be right there with them. My kid is just as deserving as a kid at Jamestown. A day of reckoning is at hand.

I don't really understand the issues in Arlington, so am asking for clarification because to me Arlington represents a very successful county that has integrated schools all under one supervisory administration with a lot of variation and lottery placement without the use of Charters. It's one I look up to as a successfully run county school system. It's also a very wealthy county with a well reputed school system overall. Living in Fairfax, I'd take any school in Arlington over Fairfax's lowest performing schools any day.

The concentration of poverty is primarily a zoning/land use issue that people often don't realize affects school so they take their fight to the school level when really they should be taking their fight to land use. Charters can provide some redistribution of wealth in schools, but to make it better for all parts of living, land use is the better mechanism. Any over concentration of apartments especially those that are built at the same time will in time result in a concentration of poverty as those properties deteriorate. So if there are natural pockets of poverty, it is likely that it was created by land use decisions that kept some northern single family areas devoid of apartments and concentrated apartments in the southern area of Arlington. Lax laws and enforcement of overcrowding in housing especially when an area is inviting to illegal immigrants furthers this unevenness.

What I see in Arlington at the school level is a great effort to provide variety in school choice through lottery process. All schools in Arlington seem to have at least four choices to attend. At least 8 schools out of 20 just at the elementary level seem to be lottery schools. These include immersion, traditional, science focus, Montessori and then even with the other schools there are focusses on year round calendars, arts, and sciences. At the middle and high school level there are also lotteries and the option of applying to Thomas Jefferson which is a top rated school in the nation. Practically all of Arlington's schools have received awards and the budget per pupil is the envy of all the surrounding school systems.

If Arlington can't make their school system work without charters, I'm not sure there is any hope for the rest of the country. Do you really want money to be siphoned off for private schools or do you just want less concentration of poverty in the county?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when you concentrate poverty. I hope south Arlington parents do fight for charters. I'll be right there with them. My kid is just as deserving as a kid at Jamestown. A day of reckoning is at hand.

Yes, but if your child doesn't get a spot, you are in a worse position than you started in. Charters do not, by and large, have better outcomes than public schools, and getting a charter spot is not a guarantee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when you concentrate poverty. I hope south Arlington parents do fight for charters. I'll be right there with them. My kid is just as deserving as a kid at Jamestown. A day of reckoning is at hand.

I don't really understand the issues in Arlington, so am asking for clarification because to me Arlington represents a very successful county that has integrated schools all under one supervisory administration with a lot of variation and lottery placement without the use of Charters. It's one I look up to as a successfully run county school system. It's also a very wealthy county with a well reputed school system overall. Living in Fairfax, I'd take any school in Arlington over Fairfax's lowest performing schools any day.

The concentration of poverty is primarily a zoning/land use issue that people often don't realize affects school so they take their fight to the school level when really they should be taking their fight to land use. Charters can provide some redistribution of wealth in schools, but to make it better for all parts of living, land use is the better mechanism. Any over concentration of apartments especially those that are built at the same time will in time result in a concentration of poverty as those properties deteriorate. So if there are natural pockets of poverty, it is likely that it was created by land use decisions that kept some northern single family areas devoid of apartments and concentrated apartments in the southern area of Arlington. Lax laws and enforcement of overcrowding in housing especially when an area is inviting to illegal immigrants furthers this unevenness.

What I see in Arlington at the school level is a great effort to provide variety in school choice through lottery process. All schools in Arlington seem to have at least four choices to attend. At least 8 schools out of 20 just at the elementary level seem to be lottery schools. These include immersion, traditional, science focus, Montessori and then even with the other schools there are focusses on year round calendars, arts, and sciences. At the middle and high school level there are also lotteries and the option of applying to Thomas Jefferson which is a top rated school in the nation. Practically all of Arlington's schools have received awards and the budget per pupil is the envy of all the surrounding school systems.

If Arlington can't make their school system work without charters, I'm not sure there is any hope for the rest of the country. Do you really want money to be siphoned off for private schools or do you just want less concentration of poverty in the county?

You greatly exaggerate the degree of choice for those zoned for the low-performing middle and high schools in South Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Well it is a lot more than you get in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when you concentrate poverty. I hope south Arlington parents do fight for charters. I'll be right there with them. My kid is just as deserving as a kid at Jamestown. A day of reckoning is at hand.

Yes, but if your child doesn't get a spot, you are in a worse position than you started in. Charters do not, by and large, have better outcomes than public schools, and getting a charter spot is not a guarantee.

Trust me, it can't get worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when you concentrate poverty. I hope south Arlington parents do fight for charters. I'll be right there with them. My kid is just as deserving as a kid at Jamestown. A day of reckoning is at hand.

Yes, but if your child doesn't get a spot, you are in a worse position than you started in. Charters do not, by and large, have better outcomes than public schools, and getting a charter spot is not a guarantee.

Trust me, it can't get worse.

Niche rated all except 3 Arlington's elementary schools as a top school in the state. The other three schools are listed in the top 250 schools in the state whereas Fairfax's elementary schools are rated all the way down close to 600. The top 10 schools in the state were all Arlington schools. In addition, Arlington is rated the best school system in both the state of Virginia and the metro area and the best rated system for teachers in the metro area and the state of Virginia. All of the high schools except an alternative vocational school and Wakefield are also very highly rated in both the state and the nation on many high school ranking lists. Wakefield is the only low performing school in Arlington and the school was just recently renovated. You think the federal government can do a better job than Arlington Public Schools has done already even though it's a "sanctuary county with many apartment buildings that are getting older"? Why are you blaming the school system for a land use issue? Arlington already pays less in real estate taxes than Fairfax and still is the best rated school system. If you think Arlington County runs their schools so poorly that there is no hope, you really need to get out more. Instead of focusing on charters, time would be better spent on land use issues and overcrowding around the entire county and working towards helping Wakefield's test scores improve. If Wakefield improves, the elementary and middle schools will improve and you will have a completely successful county school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well it is a lot more than you get in FCPS.

Not so. No AAP in APS, more language immersion options and Academy programs in FCPS, more TJ slots, and easier to transfer to IB and AP high schools in FCPS. Plus SATs at Wakefield in South Arlington would be in bottom 5% of FCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

12:05 - You have a very rosy view of APS. Yes, it is a highly ranked system, but has huge disparities within the system. Sorry, you cannot compare the student experience at a north arlington school such as Nottingham, to Barcoft or any of the 4 other elementary schools with high FARMS rates. APS can throw all the money it wants at these schools, it will not eliminate the achievement gap and improve the experience. Yes, land use and related housing policy is the issue and it is almost impossible to change it at this point as long as affordable housing (which includes the developers) have such sway over the decisionmakers - and wealthier families north of 50 work to keep it that way.

As far as Wakefield, yes just renovated and about to be over crowded again. Wasn't it also the last to be renovated? The school board is about to make the FARMs rate at that school even higher and the county plans to build about 10,000 more affordable housing units within its boundaries - you think the scores will improve????