Anonymous wrote:Disagree w having more option schools. The answer is to follow the ATS model in neighborhood schools. We seem to be moving in opposite direction though w equity grading.

I guess I could never get a good feel for what "traditional" meant. I realize there's a heavy emphasis on reading and homework every day. And tucking in shirts (maybe that went away).

But I asked the principal at an info session (this was in 2018) and she gave me this line about the school having walls with doors. I was SO confused. My kid's neighborhood school has walls and doors?

I know the school culture is most likely a bit part of what makes kids successful. But if the ideas there are so well done, why aren't we doing it APS wide? What is the main difference between the way ATS does teaching and the rest of the county? I don't' want to hear it's kindergarten kids reading for 30 minutes a night. That's not a curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:Build 2 and then y’all will start screaming about duplication of resources.

I would get rid of the one we have because it doesn’t actually have a unique pedagogy. It’s good because all of the parents, including the low income ones, lottery in. That’s it. That’s the special sauce. The children perform well because every parent GAF.

Build 2 and then y’all will start screaming about duplication of resources.

Where are we putting it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t want to drain neighborhood schools and leave them only with kids whose parents couldn’t/didn’t navigate the lottery.

why not

Do the words separate but equal ring any bells for you?

Anonymous wrote:Don’t want to drain neighborhood schools and leave them only with kids whose parents couldn’t/didn’t navigate the lottery.

why not

Disagree w having more option schools. The answer is to follow the ATS model in neighborhood schools. We seem to be moving in opposite direction though w equity grading.

Fine, we're taking away your neighborhood school and putting in a school that your kid won't be able to attend because they didn't win the lottery. Happy now?

Or you do win the lottery, but your kid isn't reading at the end of kindergarten. Not reading before 7 is developmentally appropriate, but ATS says your kid has to repeat K. Happy now?

Anonymous wrote:After we visited the school, most parents milled outside wondering why more schools weren't like this. It really did not seem like an out of the world school that couldn't be recreated. It seemed like a good school with high expectations for children and parents and it made us sad that it seemed to be such an outlier (such that a lottery was necessary due to all the demand)

It’s the “no deadweight” model. Literally every kid has a parent that knows about and has figured out how to navigate the lottery. That’s the part that can’t be replicated, at least not without eating into the neighborhood schools.

Don’t want to drain neighborhood schools and leave them only with kids whose parents couldn’t/didn’t navigate the lottery.

After we visited the school, most parents milled outside wondering why more schools weren't like this. It really did not seem like an out of the world school that couldn't be recreated. It seemed like a good school with high expectations for children and parents and it made us sad that it seemed to be such an outlier (such that a lottery was necessary due to all the demand)

I agree 100%.
There should at the very least be 2 of them.

Anonymous wrote:I disagree. We should have zero choice schools.

Bussing is a huge cost and they can't get bus drivers anyway. We need all neighborhood schools.

Disagree with both. We need demographically balanced schools across the system.

I disagree. We should have zero choice schools.

Bussing is a huge cost and they can't get bus drivers anyway. We need all neighborhood schools.

Note that I didn’t apply to ATS. But in the same way that we have two Spanish immersion elementary schools, we could have two elementary schools that are like ATS, perhaps one in North Arlington and one in South Arlington to make the bus routes easier. And two HB Woodlawns. Would it be too costly? It seems like the busing would be the only additional cost because it’s the same total number of kids and schools.