Asiandale

Anonymous wrote:

I think it's generally considered on these boards that the public schools in nova are superior to a majority of the country. So, it could very well be because so much of the rest of the country has high farm rates. Those schools aren't as great and the SES make up is the reason.

The big problem with the federal vision of education is that in their eyes (the fed DOE) it is the schools that are poor (or doing a poor job), when it is the students that are poor inside the school and the issues of poverty are what need to be addressed. Many schools, in general, are doing the best they can with the population that they serve, but they tend to get dinged for something that they cannot control.

All that said, yes, it is going to be a better situation for a "nonpoor" student to go to a school where there is not an overwhelming number of lower SES students. Schools with lots of FARMS are overwhelmed by nonacademic issues. Society needs to address the economic situation that is causing higher and higher numbers of poor students in our schools. The schools and teachers are not at fault in this.

I don't think any federal agency can address the myriad factors that result in poverty and schools with high concentrations of poverty. I think it's a good thing if they try to prevent schools from giving in to a culture of defeatism, where everyone just shrugs, throws up their hands and assumes failure. The problem is dinging students and teachers for things they really cannot control.

I think it's generally considered on these boards that the public schools in nova are superior to a majority of the country. So, it could very well be because so much of the rest of the country has high farm rates. Those schools aren't as great and the SES make up is the reason.

The big problem with the federal vision of education is that in their eyes (the fed DOE) it is the schools that are poor (or doing a poor job), when it is the students that are poor inside the school and the issues of poverty are what need to be addressed. Many schools, in general, are doing the best they can with the population that they serve, but they tend to get dinged for something that they cannot control.

All that said, yes, it is going to be a better situation for a "nonpoor" student to go to a school where there is not an overwhelming number of lower SES students. Schools with lots of FARMS are overwhelmed by nonacademic issues. Society needs to address the economic situation that is causing higher and higher numbers of poor students in our schools. The schools and teachers are not at fault in this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Here- I don't have kids yet, so forgive me. Is IB less desirable than AP? Why?

In Fairfax County, all of the "good" high schools have AP.

I took AP in high school, and will be sending my children to a high school that offers AP classes. Even the top prep schools that my managers and directors send their kids to offer AP classes.

So, most DCUM people would consider Marshall and Robinson "good" schools, and they are IB. Many would consider South Lakes a "good" school, and it is IB. The rest get disparaged, but they have their supporters.

The issue here really ought not to be whether the "good" schools have AP, but whether IB is the right program for the schools that have it. The data suggests to me that this isn't the case, and that there's an over-supply of IB in one part of the county. It's as if FCPS handed out IB like Halloween candy in eastern Fairfax for a few years, but isn't willing to admit that it didn't have such a great shelf life.

Typo - should be "Willston," not "Williston."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're facilitating death spirals. Building more multi-family housing in areas where there is already too much. Strip out the single-Family-homes that provide a critical mass. "Concentrate" services.

It's deliberate.

I've had the same thought, as well, and as an Annandale pyramid parent, it is infuriating. I wonder if there is any action, legal or otherwise, that I can take.

If you are focusing on school boundaries, legal challenges to boundary decisions in FCPS/VA always seem to fail. I think you would be better off trying to speak to the School Board reps in Mason and Braddock, Sandy Evans and Megan McLaughlin, as well as the citizen representatives from those districts on the FPAC, which is an advisory group to the School Board on facilities issues. I might also ask to meet privately with the at-large members on the School Board. Most if not all of the decisions that pulled single-family neighborhoods out of Annandale were made before either Evans or McLaughlin were elected. I don't know that McLaughlin would be any help, because she's a Woodson parent, but I've always sensed that Evans wants to do the right thing. She just gets pulled in a lot of different directions by people telling her that her top priority should be overcrowding at Bailey's and Glen Forest, the use of the Williston facility at Seven Corners, renovations at Falls Church HS, etc. McIlveen might take an interest, too.

In terms of what gets built in Annandale, that's a BOS issue, except to the extent that FCPS gets involved in predicting what the student yields should be and developing estimates as to what types of proffers should be sought from the developers. I know Evans has been pushing to get the Facilities Staff to develop better estimates that would result in higher proffers in areas where more people with kids end up moving into multi-family housing than the current models predict. The bigger issue, of course, is the BOS's decision to approve more multi-family construction without a clearly articulated vision of how they'll affect the surrounding areas. It is one thing to build new MFH within walking distance of the Orange or Silver Line, but another thing to do it in the middle of Annandale. You probably have to get rid of Penny Gross if you want that to change.

Anonymous wrote:OP Here- I don't have kids yet, so forgive me. Is IB less desirable than AP? Why?

In Fairfax County, all of the "good" high schools have AP.

I took AP in high school, and will be sending my children to a high school that offers AP classes. Even the top prep schools that my managers and directors send their kids to offer AP classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

I went to a meeting at Glasgow MS this spring where Karen Garza and others discussed this, and there was no suggestion that students from other districts would be bussed to Stuart. The intent seemed to be two-fold: first, identify the best way to educate these high-needs kids and, second, give other families comfort that the rest of the school would go about its regular business.

Also, the affordable housing that you mention is mostly market-rate affordable housing in that area. It's not like the county decided to build a ton of housing projects at Bailey's Crossroads, so much as that over time, as newer housing with modern amenities was built elsewhere, garden apartments there became relatively affordable for lower-income immigrants.

The Board of Supervisors KEEPS approving multi-family housing projects in these pyramids, all under the guise of revitalization, which is absolute horsesh!t.

They are tearing down the Annandale AMF bowling to build multi-family housing, and a project on Columbia Pike got approved recently that is in the Glen Forest/Poe/Stuart pyramid. So no, it is not just old garden apartments that are the problem.

I think these new multi-family housing developments will just fill up with illegals and breed crime and further concentrate a high-needs populace in the area.

Actually, Glasgow middle, probably.

Glen Forest goes to Glasgow and Stuart. 80% of Poe goes to Annandale and the rest goes to Falls Church.

I know, which is why I corrected myself in the next post. I should know better, I've been to a number of meetings at Glasgow. I quite like Glasgow's campus, actually.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html

40% appears to be the threshhold for title I. If the spread the kids out evenly between schools I bet they would lose a lot of funding.

They might get less funding, but the schools probably would be better in the long run. Some schools are over 60% FARMS, how is that truly manageable, even with federal funding?

Majority-FARMS schools are the norm in many public school districts all over the country. Would you be saying this if the FARMS students were mostly rural whites rather than suburban Hispanics and AAs?

I think it's generally considered on these boards that the public schools in nova are superior to a majority of the country. So, it could very well be because so much of the rest of the country has high farm rates. Those schools aren't as great and the SES make up is the reason.

Anonymous wrote:They're facilitating death spirals. Building more multi-family housing in areas where there is already too much. Strip out the single-Family-homes that provide a critical mass. "Concentrate" services.

It's deliberate.

I've had the same thought, as well, and as an Annandale pyramid parent, it is infuriating. I wonder if there is any action, legal or otherwise, that I can take.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html

40% appears to be the threshhold for title I. If the spread the kids out evenly between schools I bet they would lose a lot of funding.

They might get less funding, but the schools probably would be better in the long run. Some schools are over 60% FARMS, how is that truly manageable, even with federal funding?

Majority-FARMS schools are the norm in many public school districts all over the country. Would you be saying this if the FARMS students were mostly rural whites rather than suburban Hispanics and AAs?

Anonymous wrote:http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html

40% appears to be the threshhold for title I. If the spread the kids out evenly between schools I bet they would lose a lot of funding.

They might get less funding, but the schools probably would be better in the long run. Some schools are over 60% FARMS, how is that truly manageable, even with federal funding?

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html

40% appears to be the threshhold for title I. If the spread the kids out evenly between schools I bet they would lose a lot of funding.

They're facilitating death spirals. Building more multi-family housing in areas where there is already too much. Strip out the single-Family-homes that provide a critical mass. "Concentrate" services.

It's deliberate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

I went to a meeting at Glasgow MS this spring where Karen Garza and others discussed this, and there was no suggestion that students from other districts would be bussed to Stuart. The intent seemed to be two-fold: first, identify the best way to educate these high-needs kids and, second, give other families comfort that the rest of the school would go about its regular business.

Also, the affordable housing that you mention is mostly market-rate affordable housing in that area. It's not like the county decided to build a ton of housing projects at Bailey's Crossroads, so much as that over time, as newer housing with modern amenities was built elsewhere, garden apartments there became relatively affordable for lower-income immigrants.

The Board of Supervisors KEEPS approving multi-family housing projects in these pyramids, all under the guise of revitalization, which is absolute horsesh!t.

They are tearing down the Annandale AMF bowling to build multi-family housing, and a project on Columbia Pike got approved recently that is in the Glen Forest/Poe/Stuart pyramid. So no, it is not just old garden apartments that are the problem.

I think these new multi-family housing developments will just fill up with illegals and breed crime and further concentrate a high-needs populace in the area.

Actually, Glasgow middle, probably.

Glen Forest goes to Glasgow and Stuart. 80% of Poe goes to Annandale and the rest goes to Falls Church.