Reply to How did Herndon/Westfield HS go from top to bottom?

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Reply to "How did Herndon/Westfield HS go from top to bottom?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Tearing apart the community is commonly presented as an excuse to keep everything the same. That works on the assumption that the current status of the situation is the "correct" status, and that it has "always been that way." It's a downward spiral when one pocket of poverty gets established, and it will stay that way without intervention.

Do we just give up and accept that Herndon will forever be a place where low-income families live, and poor kids have to be nearby so they can go to work after school, and we need to keep them in that state because that's just what poor people do? I'm sure many people would be in favor of that, but it's obvious that school boundaries are a significant factor in [i]further[/i] concentrating poverty.[/quote]

So, you think it is a good thing to tear apart communities?  Got it.[/quote]

Again, people conflate school location with community as if the school boundary lines are solid delineators, as if they are and have been the gospel that is correct as is which defines communities. I won't deny that school boundaries and neighborhoods are intertwined, but adjusting boundaries is hardly tearing communities apart. Nobody is forced to leave their home. What do Woodson families west of Ffx County Parkway share in community with Woodson families bordering 4-95, other than high SES?

The benefit is that teachers of one school pyramid don't have to do all the hard work of teaching ELL learners, it's as simple as that. [/quote]

Teaching is hard work, period.

This exaggeration that there is one pyramid with all the ELL learners is ridiculous.

When have the teachers of Herndon organized to complain to the board that they have too many ELL students?

[/quote]

I know teaching is hard work in all schools. Most teachers truly care about helping their audience, especially ESOL-specific teachers. But you cannot deny that high concentrations of ELL/FARMs students add pressure onto administrators and teachers because SOL scores and truancy do in fact matter significantly to Gatehouse. When SOL scores are low and truancy is high (as is the norm with ELL/FARMs), principals get moved around in an effort to boost scores and quality of teachers is unjustly brought into question. Frequent changes in principals who come in and lay down the hammer further leads to teachers that want to seek other placements to avoid micro-managers. It is undeniable that the school is put on the hot seat by both the general public and Gatehouse for factors that they cannot control.

Of course, every school deals with some of this, but it is magnified when poverty is concentrated. I do not shift the blame to ELL/FARMs, they must be supported. But concentrating them does a disservice to their potential when they are surrounded by high truancy and low academic achievement and see it as the norm for themselves. It is a difficult cycle to break. [b]Most of you haven't lived in the shoes of a URM, and don't know what it's like to [i]actually[/i] lift yourself up by the bootstraps out of poverty[/b].[/quote]

As to the bolder, I didn’t have to because my parents did that.

What you are suggesting is that Gatehouse address average test scores by moving hundreds of kids, disrupting them and their families, instead of moving a handful of principals who can accept or decline the offer to relocate.
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