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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP. My kid is at a SA Title 1 school frequently posted as a “failing school” on these boards. I can say from first-hand experience the school is anything but failing. Nay, it is thriving under a relatively new powerhouse principal, amazing teachers, and a small but dedicated PTA. My child is learning and interacting daily with people different from our normal social group (UMC) and that is making them a better person. I couldn’t be happier with our choice to send them to the neighborhood school. I add this anecdote here because I fear these boards are often one-sided and I know parents are looking here to help guide tough decisions. Also look to the parents at your neighborhood school. Talk to the PTA. Get a sense for things on your own. I see APS appears to have a lot of serious problems at high-level leadership right now, which I believe is the original point of this thread, but that has not affected the day-to-day life at my child’s school.[/quote]

More people like you should speak up. I suspect they don't lurk on these boards like the rest of us though.[/quote]

DP - many of us HAVE spoken up; but we're quickly dismissed, cut-down, criticized, or "that's great BUT it isn't like that for me or the other people I know" etc etc etc.  But I do hope this parent is able to speak up within her own neighborhood and school zone and convince more of her like-peers to also attend the school.[/quote]

It’s great that you’re having a good experience but it doesn’t make you “right.” It just means you like what you have going, it satisfies your expectations and appeals to your moral sensibilities. Other people for whom it doesn’t do those things aren’t “wrong”.[/quote]

How does PP's experience not make her right? it's her experience!  How should her experience stack up against PPs who are projecting from statistical tables to infer classroom conditions?  It's not actually evidence-based to look at a stat that a school is 50% ESOL/HILT and state that your kid would be in a class with 2/3 kids who don't speak English. It's fear. as a PP called it, middle-class anxiety. Hey, I feel it too. We're renting and homeownership slips away more each day. But feelings aren't facts. [/quote]

Her experience is hers alone. It’s not evidence that SA schools are “fine” and everyone should go. You really think that it’s just fear and racism that keeps people from attending schools with these challenges. Get real. Only someone with zero experience of them would say that. They face serious challenges and they have to devote almost all their resources to addressing them. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Many, many people start their kids in these SA schools and bail after finally coming to terms with it. [/quote]

And many many others stay and become successful members of society - just like those who bailed.[/quote]

Yup. It’s not something that will decide your kids future. But it is one thing, among others, that is going to shape it. For me it is really a question of the experience. There are definitely trade offs at both high income and low income schools. Middle income schools split the difference but there are precious few of those in Arlington county.[/quote]

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