Reply to Are option schools in Arlington reducing or exacerbating FARMS distribution

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think a really good study, with accurate numbers, on how options programs affect distribution of kids, with demographics, would be useful. But, until we have good data, can't be done.

I am a parent who pulled her kid out of a neighborhood school (in 3rd grade) with over 55% lower income kids in the school. I fully admit it. While I have nothing personally against the families and their kids from low income housing, but I am well aware of the conclusions reached by decades of research into how all kids in poorer schools miss out, both in the classroom and in extra curriculars (both parents in education/research). My observations here in Arlington validated my concerns.

This whole issue is based on game theory. If enough UMC parents like myself banded together to send our kids to the neighborhood school, the numbers may shift enough to meet our comfort level. But everyone has to do it. In fact, parents in my neighborhood school started to do that a while ago, and scores and parental satisfaction with the school started to increase. But, other forces changed things at the school and everything went down again. Reading this, you may be able to figure out which school I am talking about.

I think it is important to remember that even within these so called "diverse" schools (as APS likes to call it), there is a lot of segregation within the classrooms. Many schools group the gifted kids into one classroom (and guess who is more likely to test into the gifted program). The ELL students tend to be in one classroom. This is done to make it easier on the school, but the result is very segregated classrooms. I have seen it over and over and my average non-gifted kid was often the only UMC kid in his class. He had no ranges of capabilities in his classroom and expectations were very low. I guess the lesson there, to all you UMC families who are going to send your kid to a low performing neighborhood school - get your kid into the gifted program and while they will have fewer after school activities and less PTA support, they will not have the teacher always teaching to the bottom. That is the advice I have heard many parents say in my neighborhood. I didn't follow it. He is now in a classroom with kids at varying levels and thriving.

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So how can a school like Campbell be explained? They have the demographics of Barcroft/Barrett, but much higher test scores for every demographic group. What's the difference? [/quote]

It’s a self-selecting group. Parents who send their kids to option schools pretty much by definition are engaged with their kids’ education and have lower barriers to access.[/quote]
DP- that should have been obvious. How are posters this ignorant?[/quote]

I think a lot of people are willfully ignorant when it comes to things that don't support their personal agenda.[/quote]

You mean like claiming it's only motivated parents who wind up at Campbell and that's why the school is succeeding where others are not? No. You're saying that the kids who are disadvantaged can't possibly be doing better than they are because of something happening at the school, which is essentially saying that the kids at high poverty neighborhood schools all have limited potential because their parents aren't motivated enough to get them out, and that school doesn't matter, only home life does. If that's what you believe, why would it matter whether all the poor kids were corralled into Randolph and Drew?

I think you don't actaually know anything about kids who are living in poverty, kids who are ELL, or their families of origin.

ATS, you could maybe make the claim that it's self-selecting motivated families since it's far from disadvantaged neighborhoods and the families who apply have to be willing to accept the inconvenience of a less proximate school. You can't say the same for Campbell. It's the closer school for the lower income kids in that neighborhood. If anything, parents select it for VPI because it's closer to their home or because they know a friend or cousin who is there or who went there, so it's a known quantity. It's not because they think or believe it has more opportunities to offer than Carlin Springs and they are making some sort of informed decision. The MC families are doing that, but the disadvantaged kids get to Campbell through a lottery which only requires ticking one additional box on the VPI form. That's not a large hurdle to overcome. The difference in outcomes can't be explained away so easily. If it's a matter of self-selecting families, then let's abolish neighborhood schools in high poverty areas and make all MC families self-select to schools that also have set-asides for a large cohort of local disadvantaged kids. [/quote]

So much word salad. So much drivel. Of course it’s about a self selecting cohort. Please join the rest of us back down here on earth. 
I don’t disagree with your last idea. Dissolving neighborhood schools and dispersing poverty would have the greatest benefit for test scores. It’s just not a very feesible or kind thing to do to our least advantaged communities. 
Also Campbell is hovering around 50’% low income. It’s not over 70. [/quote]

It would put individual ED students into schools with higher average test scores, but that’s not the same thing as actually increasing their achievement. Tuckahoe has one of, if not the, lowest ED rates in APS, and there was a 30-point differential in SOL reading performance between ED students and the student body as a whole last year. [/quote]

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