Reply to If ATS is so popular, why not create two of them?

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Reply to "If ATS is so popular, why not create two of them?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Old APS parent here. Knowing what I know now, I absolutely would have applied to send my kids to ATS (we did not even lottery, though I did learn about it at kindergarten info night).

How I think of it is, ATS runs like schools ran when I was a kid. Traditional. Other APS schools are trying new models that generally are not proven and not as effective.

We switched to Catholic during Covid which also runs a more traditional model, but which you pay for out of pocket.

I do think we should add another ATS. The question is where to put it, because you have to take offline an existing ES, and that's a nightmare like all boundary stuff is.

But as an Arlington taxpayer, I would love to see all our schools swinging back toward a more traditional learning model.

I also completely agree on the importance of having one teacher who really gets to know your kid and be invested in them. I hated when our APS elem started rotating kids in 4th grade and all those connections got broken.[/quote]

Love Montessori for the reason of my kids teachers knowing them for years. Also why we should have more Montessori in APS. Waitlist similar to ATS, and it reserves more spots for underprivileged, and even raises revenue for coffers. I'm not against ATS existing - let it be. But disagree with trying to grow it: too much pain (boundaries) for too little ROI (secret sauce loses power has population grows p, kind of like how flying in airplanes went from luxury to ghetto as mainstream America started doing it regularly). [/quote]

Montessori does not raise revenue, it allows higher income students ages 3 and 4 to enroll (not otherwise available to higher income Arlington children through APS) and pay tuition. Its not like it is adding money into the system--the tuition just offsets the cost of those students. The Montessori planning factor also has an aide for every elementary classroom, which regular elementary classrooms do not, so it actually costs more per student than regular school models. Not sure about lately, but a few years ago breakout score reports showed Montessori having much worse test scores than ATS....? [/quote]

Not true.  APS Montessori raises more than 1m for APS every year. No other standalone option does, not ATS not immersion. That money goes into general coffer, not Montessori. As for the fallacy that Montessori must cost more, it doesn't and that's a fact. There was a FOiA before pandemic and it showed MPsA in middle of ELS and... get this...below coveted neighborhood ELS for cost per pupil than like Jamestown. Reasons are several, starting with tenured teachers self-select to nice white ELS where population is easier ( including parents). But the fact remains. Your high fallutin Narl school costs more to provide services to students and that is before you include revenue generation from Montessori community, which is far more disadvantaged and what I'd call "leaves a bad taste in your mouth" about who gets charged money and why. As fo scores, wait for latest SOLs. You might be surprised. Now that Montessori has been settled finally in new school for a few years, word on the street is scores are all right. Question is how much tuition should be charged for ATS students, and will they reserve two-thirds slots for underprivileged every year. Why not?[/quote]

Montessori doesn't raise money. Any money you're talking about is preschool Montessori tuition. Also, Montessori is not 2/3 FRL. There's a difference between that and "underprivileged." Otherwise, you should be clamoring about the superiority of Barcroft and advocating for expanding that.  And it took your own building to get your scores up. Not exactly an argument for the pedagogy and its effectiveness historically. And exactly how does today's demographic profile compare  to that when you were at the Drew building? You refer to ATS tuition; but how about we just raise the tuition for preschool Montessori and raise even more of that general revenue Montessori is contributing to the benefit of us all?[/quote]

Montessori has the lowest FARMS rate in south Arlington.[/quote]

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