Reply to George Mason Elementary parents...did you (or do you plan to) continue at ACPS after elementary?

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[quote=Anonymous]NP here.

This is a link to a report that was done jointly by the City of Alexandria and ACPS. It contains information on historic enrollment patterns, and makes enrollment projections.

http://alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/planning/info/Recent%20Growth%20in%20Alexandrias%20School%20Enrollment_The%20New%20Normal_%20FEB%2025%202013.pdf

In years past, the two organizations disagreed about enrollment projections, so it was a significant step for them to come out with a joint report.

For folks that like data,  there's a lot of great information.  (you know, as opposed to an anonymous poster insisting over and over again that "everyone" leaves Alexandria once their kids hit school age, or when their kids hit middle school.)

Here's just two items I'll point out.
On page 10, it lists the percentage of school-age children attending private school. 
Alexandria 12.1%
Fairfax County 12.5%

On page 17, it describe the "cohort survival rate." This is the number of kids that continue from one grade to the next.

According to certain posters on DCUM, we should see some significant drop. Here's the reality.
Current retention rate at middle schools 97.6%. (Elementary school was 97.8%).
It doesn't break out by demographic, but even if there is a higher number of white non-FARMS students in the group that is leaving, we are talking about 2.4% of the entire population at middle school. Hardly a mass exodus.

And now the posters critical of ACPS will insist that the current high retention is only because the economy tanked and people were forced to stay. 
The report provides some interesting information on that as well.
The pre 2007 retention rate at middle school was 93.5% for middle school (93.2% at elementary school.)
There are many factors that come into play here, but even is we go ahead and make a sweeping assumption that the entire difference between pre 2007 and current retention rates is due only to the economy, that is only a difference of 4.1 percent at the middle school level and 4.6% at the elementary level.
So even before the economic downturn, the reality is that the vast majority of children enrolled stayed enrolled, rather than fleeing. Also, it's a myth that  most white middle class folks in Alexandria are choosing private school for their kids, as our rate of private school children is at the same level as that of Fairfax County.

I know I will now be accused of being an irrational ACPS booster. This is not the case. I do not think ACPS is perfect, far from it. I do think that ACPS is routinely bashed on DCUM, and any parent who comes to post with a positive experience is immediately shot down. Any pro-ACPS comment is also dismissed as being from "the same one or two people." As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have not yet posted to this thread. These pro-ACPS posts clearly seem to come from a number of folks at different schools or with kids in different grades.

I get that some folks may have had a bad experience at an ACPS school. You can also find parents frustrated with aspects of their child's education in Arlington or (gasp!) Fairfax County. It's a free country and you certainly have the right to choose to move to a new jurisdiction or attend private. That does not mean that anyone who chooses to live in Alexandria and send their child through ACPS is in willful denial or an idiot.

OP, I'll just end by saying that feedback from an anonymous board will never be the most valuable source for information. Tour the schools, speak to parents of kids who are of middle school age, both enrolled in ACPS or not. You'll figure out the best fit for your family, and I wish you and your children a positive educational experience wherever you end up.
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