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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When they say “ missing middle”
I suspect they ( boomers) mean housing in north Arlington for their kids and grandkids.[/quote]

Pretty much. [/quote]

Maybe their kids can come and live in South Arlington. Then they'd care about the schools. [/quote]

I think most NA parents care deeply about SA schools, if nothing else if they improved it would likely alleviate overcrowding in the long term.

Na parents are happy to send money, resources, build new schools, whatever it takes. Sending their kids is a nonstarter both b/c of logistics and parental expectation.  That is unsurprising and not going to change.

So absent busing, what do SA schools need?  Is it simply the AH lobby dumping more and more ESOL students into the system?[/quote]

I wish that were true. There a voluntary PTA fund thru which APS school PTAs can donate to needier ones. Combined, over the last five years, the total contribution to that fund from NA schools is less than a fifth of what any single NA pta raises in a single year.

[/quote]

WTF, who has time to sort through that?  PTA funds can’t be used for salaries, capital expenditures or core curriculum.

Being able to take more field trips won’t bridge achievement gap

Identify real academic needs, bring to SB, heck  make a bond measure. You will find the help. [/quote]

So now you’re angry that I pointed out NA is hardly as generous as claimed? And now it’s uo to the school board to do it, not these generous north Arlington parents? Lol. SA schools are already social sector centers. The issue is not funds. The issue is that they are so imbalanced demographically that they can’t do anything but function as social service centers and teach to the bottom.[/quote]
I talked for a long time to someone from ccpta about this.  They have more funds that people could apply for, but some of the most in need schools don’t have a pta organized enough to do this.  
I agree with the pps though that field trips aren’t going to solve the type of disparity that people complain about here.  My kids go one maybe four field trips a year, I don’t think that spending one or two hours at a museum a few times a year is going to make a dent.  You need to identify exactly how the school is failing the average kid academically, and then take those identified needs to the sb. [/quote]
NP - you're right.  Field trips aren't the elixir for achievement gaps.  But they are a factor in opportunity gaps.
What IS a real factor in the achievement gap is socioeconomic diversity: exposure to others with the experiences and opportunities that have given them the higher vocabulary and skill sets that start them off at a higher place, that have given them a wider perspective of the world and a broader awareness of the world beyond their own low-income and low-opportunity neighborhood and family history, that expand a child's thinking beyond what has always been for their family.

If nobody wants to go to the purposeful busing approach of the past, then don't.  But we sure as heck can do better with boundaries, locations of option schools, and option school admissions policies.

[/quote]

Make all schools choice. Then everyone has to opt in and cap enrollment of people who live nearby to a certain percent and cap FARMs. [/quote]

So the kids who move to Arlington Mill in the middle of the year go to Jamestown or wherever because it’s the only place with FARMS spots? How would you provide buses under this scenario?[/quote]
They should stop providing buses to kids who live within a half mile or a mile of the school.  That would free up some resources.
Other ideas are to have teams of schools that pool resources/etc.  so everyone is guaranteed admission of one of the schools in their team.  Most people in Arlington are within a half mile of three elementary schools.  At least then you don’t have a school with <30% farms (Ashlawn) within a quarter mile of one that is over 50% farms (Carlin springs).[/quote]

Agree. You would have to ignore crossing major roads, which I am fine with, if you can get enough crossing guards and persuade people not to drive to schools. The team concept worked up until people crowded into the most desirable schools - see ASFS. You'd still need to balance those schools. But at least it you used teams, you could assign families to schools in those teams to create a balance across the area.[/quote]

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