Reply to We know ACPS is bad but WHY

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Reply to "We know ACPS is bad but WHY"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Adverse selection. Alexandria has a robust enough private school infrastructure that well-to-do parents can opt out. The result is greater concentration of problem children and underperformers as you get to higher grades. A lot of it dates back to the desegregation era, but the same effect can be found in jurisdictions that were never formally segregated to begin with. Other school districts avoided this by adding choice schools and being larger in general, which gave them flexibility to shuffle around pyramids just enough to prevent a mass exodus to private schools while still nominally desegregating. Over time many of those jurisdictions were able to gradually improve their racial and socioeconomic mix (though some took this more seriously than others).

ACPS was too small for this, and now they're stuck. If they open a second high school they'll unleash a mad scramble to get "good" kids in the "good" school and avoid getting put in the "bad" school. If they manage to fight off those forces and open a second high school with identical demographics then they won't actually do a better job of retaining all those kids who are currently going private. So they just keep plugging along. [/quote]

OP here. Super helpful. Thanks.

It is so frustrating. We love Alexandria but don't want 50k/yr in private tuition. And we don't believe in the schools' capacity for change. So, it looks like moving. And it's really a shame.[/quote]

It really is a shame. I'm able to stay home and homeschool so we'll keep doing that as long as it works. If public school becomes necessary or it becomes a better idea financially, we'll move. [/quote]

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