Reply to APS Free and Reduced Meals

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "APS Free and Reduced Meals - New Report"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]APS has nothing to do with housing. You don't like the huge FARMS rates at certain schools? Go advocate to the County Board that you want to see affordable housing around Jamestown and Tuckahoe.

Alternatively, go advocate in front of APS that you want forced busing to equalize FARMS rates across schools.

People love to complain about this issue, but they're unwilling to actually do anything about it.

[/quote]

Yup, and then try to convince the brown FARMS families at Randolph that they will be better off bused to Jamestown. They don't want to leave their neighborhood either.

[b]The people who complain about high FARMS rates are the white UMC families in those schools in SA[/b]. They moved to those zip codes to get a bigger house for less $, but then once there they do not want their white UMC kids in a school with lots of brown kids and high FARMS. You don't usually hear the FARMS families complaining. [/quote]

Of course - what reason do you white folks in extreme low poverty schools have to complain?
However, you are mistaken about the housing purchases. South Arlington has a much fuller range of incomes than the far north of Arlington. It isn't FRL or 1%ers. It's heavy in the middle. So not everyone who isn't FRL in south Arlington could afford a house in north Arlington. There are other reasons to buy a house in south Arlington, too.

As to the PP's comment about "brown FARMS" from Randolph not wanting to bus to Jamestown.....you are a stunning example as to why the conversations about increasing diversity across the system never goes anywhere. That isn't the only solution. Try being at least a little creative.[/quote]

I would love to hear creative solutions but as to the bussing, I am literally just repeating the preferences that I have heard from low-income families of color in S. Arlington. [/quote]

Same here, I live in S. Arlington and parents I talk to like it here even if they are "low income" and their kids don't have as many PTA-funded activities or fancy equipment.  For many immigrants, it's still far better than what they left behind.  It's very convenient to be able to walk to school.  My neighborhood is filled with walking trains of kids walking together to school every day.  They stop and spontaneously play in the grass on the way, some are watching siblings after school, they go to each others' apartments to hang out after school, etc.  It is a nice life and I don't blame them for not wanting to give that up to bus their kids to Jamestown.[/quote]

Agreed. I enjoyed the middle school years when our kids could just walk, and we could just walk for events. 
However, if that weren't the system we had here, we would have managed with whatever school they went to.  Transition is the hardest. Once a system has been around, people know that's how it works and it becomes less an obstacle because it's no longer about that fear of change.[/quote]

How do you know it would be better?  How do you know those low poverty schools in the north are "better"?  I have heard many times that Title 1 teachers often have to work harder and smarter to reach every kid in their diverse classrooms.  If you are looking at test scores, you really can't compare and it's not fair to judge classrooms where many kids are immigrants who are still learning English.  But my point is, those schools are still great schools with excellent teachers where kids are getting an amazing education!  The teachers at my kids' Title 1 school were so fabulous, warm, and caring.  I was so impressed with the instruction and environment.  [b]There's no need to uproot kids from their neighborhood and tear apart their social fabric and community.[/b][/quote]

See previous comments in this thread. "Better" is subjective; but the experiences are clearly different. And I know by being involved at different schools, through knowing others' experiences via friends and my childrens' friends, by being in conversations with others and learning what their PTAs do and don't do and what their perceptions and experiences are - including their experiences at Title I schools and transferring (by lottery or by moving) to other schools.

Title I teachers do have to work hard and smart to reach every kid. That doesn't necessarily optimize the experience for every kid, especially those who don't need as much extra "hard and smart" efforts.  Those kids may or may not be challenged as much as they need to be, or like they would be at those other schools with faster classroom pace and more peers on their level to keep moving forward (or more deeply) with more robust learning or more in the curriculum....more reading, more writing, additional opportunities, etc.  We had great Title I teachers and specialists (and some crappy ones....just like you can get at any school), and a warm nurturing environment.  That doesn't mean we had an equal level of academic experience to what we would have had at other schools that were able to put on plays in elementary school, had better musical instruments available and more students who could afford private lessons (thereby kicking up the musical education a notch), or were expected to read more or give more presentations/reports, had more opportunities and resources and time to pursue more independent projects, or got to do more science experiments, etc.

Overall test scores are not apples to apples. But peer group test scores between schools are more indicative.

And there we go again with the tearing communities apart comment....Why do people insist that kids would be dispersed by handfuls to several different schools rather than half a neighborhood or a quarter of a neighborhood going together? Why don't people see that school is part of the child/family's community even if it isn't all the same people living in their neighborhood? How do you think people at option schools feel? Do they feel torn apart and without community?  It could be an extended community, or it could just be a different community.   And who says you have to rip kids out of their schools immediately rather than implement new boundaries with a future date....as existing students matriculate out of their current schools, for example?[/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