Reply to ATS Principal and Assistant Principal both left/leaving school.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m still trying to understand exactly what ATS is and what makes it “traditional”. Shouldn’t all the schools be run that way (whatever that way is) if they get better results? [/quote]

As a parent with two kids at ATS I agree. But other parents clearly hate ATS so ….

It is traditional because instead of inquiry based learning it uses the traditional form of instructional which is teacher guided instruction. So as to not waste precious time classrooms are self contained, meaning instead of the kids going to different classrooms, the teachers come to them. There is a dress code, homework and an expectation of excellence for each child. There is a lot of extra help for students who are below grade level. There’s a lot of emphasis on the basics (the three Rs). There is a lot of communication - parents get weekly progress reports about how their kids are doing…[/quote]

Interesting - thanks for summarizing. This is how I went to school and what I wanted for my kids. The inquiry based stuff makes sense to a certain extent but there seems potential for kids to get lost or not actually learn stuff. Fundamentals are important. [/quote]

ATS, originally Page Traditional School, was created in the 70s in response to the “open concept learning” that APS then embraced. Glebe, Woodmont, Long Branch, TJ, and W-L were all renovated or rebuilt without classroom partitions. Unfortunately, without walls, noise carried over from class to class.  Parents would often camp out to ensure their child had a coveted spot at Page. (Parents would also camp outside H-B to secure a spot, since that school also had physical classrooms.) So in sum, there were no traditional classrooms at the rebuilt schools. By the late 90s, the open interiors were converted into more traditional classrooms.

Over the years, ATS has retained a more traditional approach while APS adopted new and evolving pedagogies for the neighborhood elementary schools. [/quote]

Interesting. I had no idea.[/quote]

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