Reply to If ATS is so popular, why not create two of them?

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Reply to "If ATS is so popular, why not create two of them?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Disagree w having more option schools. The answer is to follow the ATS model in neighborhood schools. We seem to be moving in opposite direction though w equity grading. [/quote]

I guess I could never get a good feel for what "traditional" meant.  I realize there's a heavy emphasis on reading and homework every day.  And tucking in shirts (maybe that went away).

But I asked the principal at an info session (this was in 2018) and she gave me this line about the school having walls with doors.  I was SO confused.  My kid's neighborhood school has walls and doors?

I know the school culture is most likely a bit part of what makes kids successful.  But if the ideas there are so well done, why aren't we doing it APS wide?  [b]What is the main difference between the way ATS does teaching and the rest of the county?  I don't' want to hear it's kindergarten kids reading for 30 minutes a night.  That's not a curriculum.[/b][/quote]

ATS holds all their students to a high standard of reading and reading is a true part of their culture. That's the difference.  [/quote]

Right, which it can ONLY do because it's an option school.  So if it DOES NOT WORK for some children (say, those who struggle with reading!) they will not attend ATS, or they will be asked to leave.

That's EXACTLY why it can not be moved into every elementary school.  The population self selects into children with certain skills and abilities very quickly.[/quote]

Say what? Am I understanding your post correctly: ATS will kick students out if they are not performing on grade level?

Every poster here who said ATS holds its students to higher standards... I assumed on an attitude level? Kids literally get asked to leave if they struggle with reading? This is documented?[/quote]

There was an article in Arlington magazine about ATS praising the way the then-principal would tell kids who weren't reading that they would have a very special job next year welcoming kids who were in kindergarten for the first time.

But maybe Holly Hawthorne is just another disgruntled non-ATS parent, lying about school policy[/quote]
I don't think its the school policy, but I too have heard this from multiple parents (at multiple grade levels).  If your kid is not keeping up, they encourage you to leave.  My youngest is in fifth grade now, my eldest in college, and this is something I have heard over the years when we've met ATS families.  The number of times I've heard it from families at ATS would lead me to believe its true.
For what its worth, I heard the same thing about Key -- if your child has a learning disability they encourage you to go back to your neighborhood school so as to not compound the issue.  Not sure if there's truth there, other than I heard it from multiple families over the course of multiple years.  [/quote]

My impression re ATS in the past reflects this.
I don't know about Key; however, an immersion program is different from ATS. I have known families with children at Claremont who were behind in reading and ultimately left, "transferring" back to their neighborhood school. It isn't uncommon for kids learning in a bilingual program to be behind in reading. They decided that the bilingual program wasn't meeting their kids' needs. I don't know that Claremont "encouraged" them to leave. I'm just saying that the anecdotes you've heard from Key might need to be taken with a grain of salt.[/quote]

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