We have friends with 2 kids there, and they’ve had a fantastic experience.

The only people I’ve ever heard speak poorly of the school are people on this board who most likely have never set foot inside. But they are very scared of schools zoned with apartments and not only $2M+ SFH.

Anonymous wrote:One more thing, a huge benefit in my opinion is the diversity. Kids are seeing kids with vastly different backgrounds. There's international students, children of immigrants with totally different cultures, and kids raised by all kinds of families. The things they've learned from their friends about the appreciation of diverse perspectives is the kind of thing that's really hard to teach later.

I was afraid of drugs, violence, and learning bad things. My kids have gotten no more exposure in school than they have out of school. I feel safe in the school and my kids feel safe there. They love it

I am chuckling to myself as I read this because my kids went to Oakridge and I couldn't imagine anyone being this complementary of that school, even though it is not title 1 and has higher test scores. People are afraid of silly things.

I'm very glad your kids like Drew, PP!

One more thing, a huge benefit in my opinion is the diversity. Kids are seeing kids with vastly different backgrounds. There's international students, children of immigrants with totally different cultures, and kids raised by all kinds of families. The things they've learned from their friends about the appreciation of diverse perspectives is the kind of thing that's really hard to teach later.

I was afraid of drugs, violence, and learning bad things. My kids have gotten no more exposure in school than they have out of school. I feel safe in the school and my kids feel safe there. They love it

I have two kids in the school. Both are fairly high achieving, well behaved kids. Here's my general thoughts:

- the student/teacher ratio is really low. My kids gets tons on one in one time because a lot of students are pulled out for additional supports. They are challenged and are learning. There's tons of opportunities for enrichment.

- the teachers are fantastic. His teachers were engaged, kind, and patient. The school community seems close and wonderful.

- my kids have made friends and the other parents are nice. There's plenty of opportunities for me to volunteer and be in the school and I always see a very engaged school community.

- the test scores are low, but a lot of that is not reflective of the teaching. It's a high needs community and when kids start far below grade level, even if they make a ton of progress, they still may be well below grade level. My kids are above average and have made considerable growth, so the high needs aren't impeding their learning.

- there's behavioral problems. The kids can be loud and impulsive. They get in trouble. But as a former teacher, they aren't worse than North Arlington kids. There's a great special education team to build in supports for the kids that need it.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will be starting kindergarten this fall and we are zoned for Charles Drew Elementary. We’ll enter the lottery for ATS but seems like the likelihood of getting in is low. Does anyone have any experience with having their kids at Drew? Any advice or comments? Just curious. We are new to the area and don’t know a lot of other families here.

You will get the pros and the cons with being at a Title I school. The good-- well, they have A LOT of resources due to their Title I Status. They have a huge Dragon's Den Lab that is outfitted with lots of high end robotics equipment and materials for students to create projects and a teacher who is dedicated to running this program. Also due to the Title I status, they are able to bring a lot of programs to the school free of charge for families and the school. Additionally, there is more money allotted for reading teachers and other specialist teachers to support students. Therefore, the student to teacher ratio is lower than you'd find at other non-Title I schools. There is a fair amount of teacher turnover, but the staff that stay are extremely dedicated to the students and the community. Another pro, in my opinion, is the diverse student body and staff. ATS is diverse as well when it comes to the student body, but I don't if the staff is also as diverse.

The cons are that there are more students who are behind academically, which means the focus is often remediating students to "catch up". If your child is behind, this means they will get the support they need at the school because of the extra staffing, but if you child is ahead-- they likely won't have as large an academic peer group at Drew than ATS or some other non-Title I schools in APS.

You probably already know this since you live close enough to be zoned there, but the area directly next to school grounds is kind of sketchy. It has nothing to do with the school itself, but the school has had to go into lockdown various times due to incidents happening next door. Hopefully the community efforts to clean it up are working.

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/12/21/green-valley-to-see-ramped-up-public-safety-efforts-after-months-of-resident-advocacy/

Anonymous wrote:Run

If you haven't gone there please see yourself out. Otherwise your answer comes off as "run away from black, brown and poor children"

Run

I have been a substitute there and I liked it. It’s a title 1 school and a lot of kids are very behind academically, but the school had pretty high expectations for behavior compared to other elementary schools in the area. The best behaved classes I taught in elementary were all at Drew. And the kids were sweet! Also if you look at the test scores, they are quite good for a title 1 school.

We don't go there but live in the neighborhood..when we made the decision not to go to drew it was a very different school. Lots of my neighbors go there and they all seem to like it and are happy.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will be starting kindergarten this fall and we are zoned for Charles Drew Elementary. We’ll enter the lottery for ATS but seems like the likelihood of getting in is low. Does anyone have any experience with having their kids at Drew? Any advice or comments? Just curious. We are new to the area and don’t know a lot of other families here.

Hopefully someone chimes in. The historic Green Valley community that the school serves is very tight knit and multi-generational. It reopened as a community school a few years back.

My daughter will be starting kindergarten this fall and we are zoned for Charles Drew Elementary. We’ll enter the lottery for ATS but seems like the likelihood of getting in is low. Does anyone have any experience with having their kids at Drew? Any advice or comments? Just curious. We are new to the area and don’t know a lot of other families here.