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][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]

I don't know how it happens, could be that parents of students with disabilities don't enroll their children, could be that students with disabilities are counseled out. However, the APS data is pretty clear. For some reason ATS and Key are well below the county average and the other option schools are not. This is from the APS equity dashboard:

All APS elementary students with disabilities: 14.37%
ATS students with disabilities: 7.65%
Escuela Key students with disabilities: 9.72%
Campbell students with disabilities: 18.93%
Claremont students with disabilities: 13.28%
Montessori students with disabilities: 14.29%[/quote]

What you’ll notice though is the number of students with disabilities are more or less constant over the past three years (with a slight increase  in 2021-2022). Unfortunately I can’t look further back. So no one is being counseled out. More likely than not parents of students with disabilities are less likely to apply to ATS for one reason or another. No one is counseled out of applying. It’s a lottery. There’s no interview.[/quote]

The lack of an interview is irrelevant. The “counseling” happens a quarter or two after the kid starts. Or later, but most often on the sooner end. Lots of my students have gone to ATS, only to return 6-12 months later with that report from families.

—teacher [/quote]

Please stop making things up. Look at the data. The number of students with disabilities is relatively stable year after year. No one is being counseled to leave. If you have numbers to prove otherwise please present them.[/quote]

A stable number of students with disabilities does not mean no one is encouraged to leave. Presumably new kids are diagnosed each year to replace those that left. The percentage of students with disabilities is more telling. Over time you would expect the percentage to move to the county average, and it has not.

Also, the total number of students at ATS has increased by 50 over the last 2 years, but the number of students with disabilities has gone from 59 (20-21) to 66 (21-22) to 51 (22-23). Why is that?[/quote]

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