Reply to Replicating ATS success — what are exact differences

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know someone asked why ATS is different from other option schools and someone else mentioned absenteeism.  For  reference. ATS has 1.7% of kids with chronic absenteeism. Claremont is 18.83% and Campbell is 19.94%.

Everyone can discuss this to death. But it is the makeup of the school. THAT is the difference. ATS doesn't have some magic solution. They haven't solved education. They have a very specific self selecting group of families who highly value education. And that is super wonderful.

It is just hard to fight against nearly 20% of the school being chronically absent. The population of the school is just different.

Also, this got me looking at absentee rates at schools.

Drew 23.66%
Randolph 21.76%
Barcroft 15.5%

Lets Compare to N. Arlington schools

Nottingham .51%
Taylor 4.02% 
Cardinal 2.14%

Chronic Absenteeism is probably the real problem we need to solve to help close the achievement gap.

[/quote]

Yet ATS is doing better than all the North Arlington schools you mentioned with the same level of chronic absenteeism. It’s not just the parent population. My friend’s two kids came from a poor performing South Arlington school and were not at grade level for anything. The parents are super involved in their kids education but the kids were falling behind because the school sucks. The youngest started last year. ATS caught her up to grade level. She came middle of first grade and could barely read. Now the eldest is at ATS. Being caught up well. The parents were super involved but as immigrants they didn’t know how to teach their kids the mechanics of reading. Also the classroom environment wasn’t safe (literally - kids were throwing stuff all the time) and both their kids were subject to bullying. Once they switched to ATS everything changed. Kids were doing better academically, socially and emotionally.[/quote]

Came here to say something similar. The families and type of kids that attend ATS may contribute to the success, but there is also something different about their programing. They certainly haven't discovered a special magic solution or solved education, but, they have figured out a method that is clearly seeing results.

We received slots to ATS in 2nd and 3rd grade for our two DCs. Our kids as well as us were able to see very stark differences in the day-to-day classroom learning. Their understanding and [b]desire to continue learning drastically changed too[/b]. 
[/quote]

BINGO!!
When kids are appropriately challenged, they become more engaged.
When kids are insufficiently challenged, they know the adults have lower expectations of them.[/quote]

**unless the family culture is one that doesn’t prioritize school. Then kids don’t turn in their homework/misbehave/don’t show up to school.[/quote]

I repeat:
When kids are appropriately challenged, they become more engaged.
When kids are insufficiently challenged, they know the adults have lower expectations of them.
[b]If kids are misbehaving, they're either not appropriately challenged and engaged; or they have behavioral issues that need medical attention.
If kids are not turning in their homework or showing up to school, they have more significant problems that require medical/social attention.[/quote][/b]

OR (and this is probably many of them), they have sh!tty parents. No amount of teacher engagement can change a family culture of IDGAF.[/quote]
You are talking about upper elementary before the kids may even realize that there are consequences for not turning in work.  Getting a kindergartener or first grader to do homework is hard.  If a parent thinks that there is little value, it’s not the kids fault if they don’t have space/time/resources at home to do it.   [/quote]

To be clear, it’s not a child’s fault if his/her parents do drugs, let them watch TV all day, model terrible behavior, and don’t make them go to school.

That’s an uphill battle for the kid for sure.

[b]No amount of teacher positivity and raised expectations can negate that though.
[/b]
Want better schools? Look at your COMMUNITY.[/quote]

It often takes just one special teacher to make all the difference for a kid. Having a school full of those special teachers who care, engage, provide interesting instruction, and encourage effort to reach the goals the teacher knows they can achieve rather than lowered goals to "meet the child where they are" can make a huge difference. Just because a school can't replace or fully make-up for a lousy parent doesn't mean schools can't do better than they are for the kids.

Perhaps you'd be willing to expand on your thought about looking to the community for better schools? With it following your previous comment, I don't see your point.[/quote]

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