Reply to Another choice school in N Arlington?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]10:18 - you missed my point.  I'm saying that if you populated a school solely with the same exact population of kids in the under-performing schools in Arlington, that school would be similarly under-performing.  Those kids would come to the new school with the same challenges they brought to their old school.  The scores at Jamestown and Discovery and others are higher than the schools with high FARMS and ESL because those kids are coming to school every day with fewer outside challenges.  ATS has a mix of those kids - some with outside challenges, some without.

I'm saying that it's generally not the underprivileged kids' parents complaining on this forum.  It's the parents who bought into Carlin Springs or Randolph or Barcroft hoping they could choice into ATS or Campbell or ASFS and then got upset because they couldn't.

Nobody is forcing anyone to live in Arlington.  I decided against living in DC because I couldn't afford a house or rowhouse in a good school district and didn't want to have to deal with charter lotteries.  I moved from Fairfax because the commute was too long.  People make decisions like this every day - to live in Arlington or Fairfax or Alexandria or Falls Church (or MD or DC.)  The school decision should absolutely factor into where you buy.  Why get mad when someone makes it a big factor?

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I didn't miss your point but you are wrong. Getting into aps and vpi is a time consuming process that might be a challenge if English is not your first language or if you work very long hours and don't SAH.

[b]If you populate ATS with VPI and those who apply but are not from N. ARL schoo[/b]l[b]s, I guarantee that scores will stay up. Why?[/b] Great teachers, great environment, expectation that they'd do it and,[b] stay with me, their parents will demand it[/b].  Just because a parent needs free lunch for the kid and affordable housing does not mean they will not push them for higher scores.[/quote]

[b]So the parents of VPI and South Arlington students cannot demand this at any other school except ATS[/b]?[/quote]

No, I think every child in the country should be getting this things and I think that every parent should demand them. But I think some people in this discussion are trying to have it both ways. (And forgive me if I'm referring to completely different posters.) Some people claim that there's nothing special about ATS and that the only reason people want to go there is the cachet of having won a lottery so it can "make them feel special." Isn't it possible that they are doing something important there in terms of their style, hiring, administration, approach, etc. that is leading to their success? If anything, wouldn't it be best to figure out how their approach could be translated to other schools? There is always a lot of criticism of ATS on this board and a lot of misinformation about "stifling kids' creativity" and "too much discipline" but clearly something there is working. Yes, they have a very involved community of parents and I think that's  huge factor, but it's not the only one.

I have to say I'm also confused by the argument about moving it somewhere else. With the county schools so overcrowded, do you seriously think there is anywhere they could put it where someone in that neighborhood wouldn't complain that it should be used as a neighborhood school? [/quote]

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