Reply to Thoreau AAP

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "Thoreau AAP"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]But, really, anything is possible. To go on and on about possible outcomes that MAY occur years from now, when there was a current (actual) problem (overcrowding at lj) that needed to be solved, and was somewhat, seems to be a waste of time and energy. Let it go already. [/quote]

There were other ways to address the problem that didn't involve pulling higher-income areas out of Jackson and weakening the pyramid, like FCPS has already done to other pyramids like Annandale and Lee.

So, no, not going to "let it go." School Board elections are coming up next year and people like Hynes, Palchik, and Keys-Gamarra need to go.

[/quote]

Then focus yourself on something else like running for the school board yourself.  Don’t you see you’re not changing minds?  A few (very few) agree with you but no one else has changed an opinions on this. You’re all up in arms about a possible outcome that may or may not happen. The reality is that we had a very real problem that this partially solved.  You’re soooo focused on the forest (much of which is so exaggerated that you lose all credibility)  that you’re missing all the trees. [/quote]

I give you credit for flipping the line on its head, but it's typically expressed as someone "can't see the forest for all the trees."

Which is exactly what happened here.  FCPS facilities staff is so focused on moving bodies that it pays no attention to the consequences of its action, and a School Board that increasingly focuses on fringe issues and national politics didn't lift a finger to ask probing questions or demand the exploration of other alternatives.

The forest here - which a number of posters do see - is that FCPS, through both its actions and its inaction, concentrates poverty in certain pyramids, which serves as a form of educational red-lining.  When FCPS asks for money to expand West Potomac, when there are empty seats at Mount Vernon, it sends the message that Mount Vernon is toxic.  It does the same thing when it leaves empty seats at Lee, or when it responds to temporary overcrowding at Annandale by repeatedly moving single-family neighborhoods to wealthier schools like Lake Braddock and Woodson.  In this case, there were other options to reduce overcrowding at Jackson and expand enrollment at Thoreau that would not drive up the poverty rates at Jackson (the primary middle-school feeder to Falls Church), and yet the facilities staff opted for the option that it knew could be rammed through the quickest.  In doing so, it has weakened the entire FCHS pyramid.

Again, the evidence is compelling that such changes will concentrate poverty in certain pyramids.  In 2005, before FCPS went on its spree of moving wealthier areas out of Annandale and Poe, Annandale was 38% FARMS and Poe was 46%  Today Annandale is 57% FARMS and Poe is 72%.  Increases of 19% and 26%, vs. increases of only 1% at Jackson over the same period.  But, instead of trying to keep another school from exceeding a tipping point, FCPS kicks them over with no real consideration, and notwithstanding the substantial body of social science research indicating that poorer students fare worse in high-poverty schools.

The liberals on the School Board ought to know better.  It's time to replace them with others who are more knowledgeable or, at the very least, less hypocritical.  [/quote]

And with capacity at other middle schools it's worth the question on whether an expansion was even needed at Thoreau to begin with.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics