Reply to Powerful Letter to the Arlington County School Board about Diversity

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Reply to "Powerful Letter to the Arlington County School Board about Diversity"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The thing is, this isn't even "white flight" from diverse schools. This is our crappy school board moving boundaries to make schools less diverse.

People say being on the school board is a thankless task. I can't think of anything ours has done to deserve thanks. [/quote]

Yes, I agree. This letter is about the school board and their actions, but I see parents also contributing. Parents are scared away from neighborhoods that are zoned for areas that included diverse student bodies whether it is race or socioeconomic (FARMS) because often these schools have lower overall tests scores. When families avoid or pull their children out of these schools, it only causes the overall scores to fall even more exacerbating the problem. I see this in my own neighborhood. People love our neighborhood, but often say, "Your neighborhood is amazing, but I wouldn't move there because of the schools." Well, if those same people would just move here than the schools wouldn't have this segregation issue in the first place. The thing is--as this article points out (http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/white-kids-benefits-diverse-schools)--the kids in our neighborhood do great in our schools. My kids are passing and pass advancing their SOLS (if that is the type of thing you care about) and love their school and classmates. The main issue I see--at least in our elementary school--is that because of the high rate of FARMS kids, we don't have a very strong community or active PTA compared to other schools. The parents of many of the students don't have the money, time, or transportation to the school to be really engaged. Another issue has been that the administration was so focused on raising the SOLS scores, that a lot of the extracurricular activities fell by the wayside. The school is working on this, but they also need parents to be involved. [/quote]

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