Reply to What do you expect from APS staff (option/neighborhood) on 4/30?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm going to paraphrase/cross-post what I just posted on the ATS to IB thread, because I think it's very relevant to this discuss as well but I realize most of the people here aren't looking at that thread. All of the sniping going on is just noise and details, but there is a really big core decision that needs to be made regarding our priorities as a community. There's no point in sniping about whether Nottingham should be the option site in NW until the bigger decision was made.

Leaving aside the exact details of where, the choice presented in the second draft analysis is essentially this: Is it more important that we maintain/improve neighborhood school proximity and reduce crowding in South Arlington, or that we maintain/improve access to choice programs while also improving the diversity balance across elementary schools?

Moving immersion to ATS and ATS to another school in NW (Nottingham or otherwise) will reduce access to ATS from South Arlington and make it less diverse overall. This will for a few reasons, namely that the new location will make VPI less accessible to ED families, it would increase applications to ATS from that corner of the community, and it would reduce applications from South Arlington. The transfer report on ATS makes it pretty clear that proximity to the program is a big part of who attends. On the plus side, keeping both of these option programs in North Arlington means more neighborhood seats in South Arlington, so more families there can be in close proximity to less crowded neighborhood schools.

On the other hand, keeping ATS where it is and moving immersion to Barcroft means maintaining greater access to ATS for South Arlington, making immersion even more accessible, and potentially breaking up the poverty clusters around Carlin Springs and Barcroft (and possibly cascading to Randolph as well) if APS were to start busing kids across 50 (Ashlawn will have tons of excess capacity after Reed, and busing across 50 means no crazy boundaries there anymore). The resulting shift in boundaries could do a lot to improve socioeconomic diversity generally in the elementary schools. The downside to all of this increased access to option schools and improvements in diversity is that South Arlington would have fewer neighborhood seats (how many fewer would depend on how the moves affected applications to choice programs from North Arlington), and many families may lose proximity to their neighborhood schools. Since ED families generally face the greatest challenges from losing proximity to neighborhood schools and from overcrowding, this is no small consideration.

That's a really big decision to make on policy/priorities, and it's not an easy one. Until we decide where we fall on that, the rest of this debate is just a waste of our time.[/quote]

It is more important to make effective choice programs more accessible to ED communities and to break-up the concentrations of high poverty in our schools.  There may be fewer neighborhood seats in the south with this proposal; but keep in mind that there are a lot of schools in close proximity to each other as well.  Barcroft is within 1 mile of 5 elementary schools.  And, I suspect a great many "walkers" (of which there are really few) to Carlin Springs will apply to the immersion program.  It will all take years to work itself out as current students make their way through 5th grade and the new policies eliminating geographical preference settle in.  But it all depends on how the boundaries are redrawn - are all those ED students just shoved into already high-FRL schools like Abingdon, Randolph, Barrett?

ATS will lose its diversity if it is relocated farther north. But if 2 or 3 of the highest-poverty concentrations are broken-up, that more than makes-up for the loss of "eh" economic diversity of 20% or so at ATS.  Claremont becoming a neighborhood school and the new boundaries needed for Drew would create tremendous opportunities here, especially if boundary-makers can start thinking up and down instead of just south.  No reason some boundaries can't start crossing the great divide of route 50 in this reorganization.

Why not Barrett for the immersion program instead of Barcroft?  Still close proximity for collaboration and sharing resources with Carlin Springs - and still close to a lot of native S panish-speaking families.[/quote]

If ATS doesn’t move south, everything you discuss is a feel good band aid that is going to result in the less diverse parts of n Arlington becoming even less diverse.[/quote]

Too many walkers to Barrett. Won’t be an option program. [/quote]

Barcroft is one of the more walkable schools, too.  And the FRL % is actually less than Barrett this year - so they are very similar.  And Barrett doesn't make three geographically consecutive option schools on the west end of the Pike.  What happened to the importance of walkable neighborhood school options?  Barrett is also more accessible for all those buses and parents driving their kids to their option schools.   FWIW, I think ATS is a better location for immersion if there's another immersion program at Carlin Springs anyway.[/quote]

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