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]Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.[/quote]

Just want to chime in as an ATS parent. What distinguishes ATS is the following:

- high expectations when it comes to academics
- high expectations when it comes to behavior
- direct interaction as opposed to inquiry based learning (this is the most important difference in my opinion)
- focus on phonics in the earlier grades
- curriculum has always been knowledge based even before the adoption of CKLA
- extremely diverse student body 
- no standards based grading in the higher grades
-homework
- arts focus

[/quote]

This all sounds pretty generic, though I'm not familiar with "direct interaction" vs. "inquiry based learning."  Again, the main issue I see with ATS, and why we didn't bother trying the lottery, is that they can't really identify what they're doing that is so special.  Anyone at ATS who hasn't also been at another school (most of ATS) has only experienced ATS and been told it is extra special.[/quote]

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