Reply to Barcroft elementary/ south Arlington crisis

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]No one here is discounting the quality of the teachers, the community feeling, or how hard Barcroft tries to succeed. in the end though, the kids don't do nearly as well as their peers in north schools. And that is true among demographic groups. [b]That tells you your kid is not getting as good an education as they would somewhere else[/b]. We all hate those darn tests, but the comparisons are undeniable. Anecdotes about happy parents doesn't change thst. Comparing Performance measures says it all. [/quote]

No. What it tells you is that some of those kids are not getting as much support at home as the kids who live in N. Arlington.

Your first sentence does not disguise your clear bias against the quality of teachers at schools like Barcroft. Just remember that teachers can only meet students where they are. If they are not coming in with background knowledge and many experiences, including weekly visits to the library, they cannot make as many connections as a kid who is coming in with those things. If the parents have to worry about how to put food on the table, as some families there do, they will not have the time to take them to the zoo, to museums, etc.

I would take five teachers from a school like Barcroft over nearly any teacher at a N. Arlington school.
[/quote]

Not the previous poster, but I think you might be a little sensitive on this point. I'm certain the teachers are wonderful. I truly don't think anyone on this thread thinks the teachers are the problem. My concern when I look at the scores ( which I know aren't the end all be all) is that when you break down along peer groups, there is still a gap. Upper SES kids in the struggling S Arl schools aren't performing as well as their north Arlington counter parts, and by a significant margin. It's about a 10 point difference. That doesn't completely scare me off from the schools, and I will send my kids to one of the poorest schools we have mentioned. I absolutely believe DH and I can pick up the slack at home, but it is clear that when schools are this over burdened with a majority of under privledged children, all of the students get slowed down. I don't see a way around it.
The county seems to think it's just fine, and are actively trying to increase those numbers. Maybe they know something we don't... But it seems more likely that they just want everything to be fine and for us to shut up about it.[/quote]

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