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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is the 2.5¢ tax Duran is asking for?

APS is very well funded already. They just WASTE those funds on unnecessary programs and positions. Get rid of Syphax bloat. Cut Outdoor Lab. Cut the 80/20 immersion program back to 50/50 if it’s more expensive. Get rid of ALL the option schools if they’re more expensive to run than neighborhood schools. FFS, get rid of iPads in K-5, switch to Chromebooks for 6-12.[/quote]

Agree and disagree.
Rid the bloat -  YES.

Cut relatively inexpensive programs that provide a unique and often lasting/life-changing learning experience like Outdoor Lab that are unique to APS? NO. (That goes for TJHSST, too)

80/20 immersion is only "more expensive" as they transition to the model and implement the new parts of the curriculum and provide teacher training. Once the model is established, it is no longer has the extra expense. And again, if this is an instructional model that has a notable positive impact on learning and achievement, especially for English learners and underprivileged students - and especially especially for underprivileged English learners - then NO.

Get rid of option schools that do not show a significant benefit for students v. a typical neighborhood school of similar demographics or less diverse? YES. 
Get rid of option programs that are not clearly distinctive from non-option programs and any specific characteristics of which could be incorporated into every school? YES. (looking at you, MPSA, ATS, and HB)

Get rid of iPads entirely? YES YES and YES
Replace iPads 6-8 with laptops/Macbooks?  YES. (But maybe not start 1:1 at all until 7th. 6th can continue with classroom sets)
Replace MacBooks with Chromebooks - POSSIBLY. I'd like to see the side-by-side comparisons in costs and security, maintenance, etc.

[/quote]

Im a pro-immersion person too, but you should [b]be really careful about holding up your program [/b]as some hallmark of pedagogy. You’re not. You’re in massive flux, you just got rewritten, in part because the old model nd old locations were proving unsustainable. You literally couldn’t get the students you needed. Can it be certified? Do you have more than best practices and a mission statement to point to? By contrast, Montessori is internationally recognized as a pedagogy and certified. There are two US institutions that certify both Montessori schools and teachers. Recently there was a study about public Montessori v. traditional. The Career Center nd ArlTech programs are all run on recognized and often certified pedagogies too. Immersion is somewhere in between all of those and ATS, so be careful about volunteering criteria. [/quote]

My "program" was our assigned  Title I neighborhood schools from K to 12. 
A general study about public Montessori v. private Montessori doesn't  justify or prove the performance of MPSA v. other APS schools specifically. I don't care that Montessori is a "certifiable" program. So is IB, and I wouldn't have any issues reconsidering the overall value to the current and near future Arlington school system of that and eliminating those (minimally at the elementary and middle school level) either. I have no doubts about the validity of immersion pedagogies, "certified" program or not. APS is not just throwing students and teachers who speak Spanish into a school and calling it immersion. Their instructional models are based on actual proven instructional models - more so than, say, HBW. As for ATS, that's not a certified program; but it obviously is based on a long tradition of successful educating that shouldn't have to be a "pedagogy and certified." It should merely be incorporated into every neighborhood school in the system. Furthermore, all teachers are certified to teach by a recognized authority (well, eventually - that's another issue: APS is not hiring the most qualified teachers anymore, partly because the pool of candidates isn't what it used to be).

I don't believe required specialized training and certification need to be the deciding factors for what programs APS implements or retains. Performance v. neighborhood schools, viability, any additional costs, feasibility of persistently providing the quality and # of teachers needed, level of interest, level of distinction v ability to implement key aspects into the "regular" classroom, role in the K-12 spectrum, etc. [/quote]

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