So how about big bonuses for teachers working at the specific schools like J-H?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Naive" ACPS teacher here trying to find solutions... what do neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics do better than we do? How can we emulate their successes? So far in this discussion, here are the proposals that make sense to me: more summer school opportunities; funding after-school tutoring at rec centers; more culturally/linguistically-sensitive and -informed teachers; distribution of SOL scores (and SUBSCORES ) to teachers at the beginning of the school year; and higher teacher salaries.

how about redistricting to balance out the FARMs rate among ACPS elementary schools?

This is a good suggestion, but I think it's easier said than done.

Over 20 plus years? That hard?

You don't get it. The last big redistricting was done specifically to isolate the low income children at specific schools, thereby attracting middle and upper class children back to the other schools. (I've posted articles from the WaPo and Alexandria papers where this was acknowledged, but I don't have time to go find them again now). It worked. Now the "best" (i.e., middle class) schools are overcrowded, and the disparity is readily apparent and shocking, but there is no way the school board is going to even things back out again. The parents of the more affluent kids destined for J-H will go private or move to Arlington (which is what almost everyone did before).

I also agree with those who point out that ACPS is almost solely focused on improving the test scores of underprivileged children. That's not a bad thing, but when you do that, don't be surprised if the more privileged take their children elsewhere. I was in a meeting with the Superintendent (Sherman, at the time), who was asked how ACPS could attract private school students back to public school, and he said "Private school is a good option for some people."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redistricting to evenly balance out the FARMS rates would result in busing all over the city, to which several earlier posters seem vehemently opposed.

No buses (or long ride if used) needed for Jefferson-Houston and Lyles-Crouch FARM equalization in Old Town. It offends Alexandria City residents that the white-african american disparity exists to this day in 2018!

+1 This was a huge missed opportunity. Don't know what the hell was accomplished from redistricting, but the boundaries in Old Town/South Rosemont were really kooky and remain so.

The entire point was to grab enough UMC white kids from Maury to dilute the crappy test scores.

Seems like they took the kids from Potomac Yards from Jefferson-Houston and shifted them to Cora Kelly for similar reasons and leaving J-H even more lopsided.

The demographics of Alexandria schoolchildren are qualitatively different than Fairfax or Arlington Counties. Over 60% of ACPS students are from low-income families. That is about the same as Prince George's County and only a little lower than DC. In contrast Arlington is about one-third and Fairfax County is a little under 30%. Consequently, the Alexandria system-wide and school-specific measures are going to be very different/lower unless you have massive segregation by race and income.

For each individual family, the question is whether their children are being well-served by the adults in their schools. In our case, we had some good teachers and some great teachers, but we never experienced awful teachers. My children's SOLs were excellent, no matter what the school averages were.

The reason some of us have little patience for complaints from other UMC parents is that too often they seem little more than thinly veiled calls to huddle all the better off students (nearly all white) into one class or school away from "them." Demanding more resources only for people like "us" is just plain backwards and won't produce any better educational achievement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redistricting to evenly balance out the FARMS rates would result in busing all over the city, to which several earlier posters seem vehemently opposed.

No buses (or long ride if used) needed for Jefferson-Houston and Lyles-Crouch FARM equalization in Old Town. It offends Alexandria City residents that the white-african american disparity exists to this day in 2018!

Lyles-Crouch Data
Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy is fully accredited and meets Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). To learn more, review the Virginia School Report Card on the Virginia Department of Education Web site or review recent test scores.
Demographics
Enrollment (as of 2016-17): 443 students
African American: 29.3%
Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian: 0.03%
Hispanic: 7.4%
Two or More Races: 5.2%
White: 54.9%

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/977

Jefferson-Houston Elementary: Unaccredited
Demographics
Enrollment (as of 1/8/2017): 566 students
African American: 59.5%
Hispanic: 20%
White: 14.5%
Asian: 2.5%
Pacific Islander and American Indian: 1.5%
Multi-racial (two or more ethnic groups): 2%

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/915

+1 This was a huge missed opportunity. Don't know what the hell was accomplished from redistricting, but the boundaries in Old Town/South Rosemont were really kooky and remain so.

The entire point was to grab enough UMC white kids from Maury to dilute the crappy test scores of the poor black kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redistricting to evenly balance out the FARMS rates would result in busing all over the city, to which several earlier posters seem vehemently opposed.

No buses (or long ride if used) needed for Jefferson-Houston and Lyles-Crouch FARM equalization in Old Town. It offends Alexandria City residents that the white-african american disparity exists to this day in 2018!

Lyles-Crouch Data
Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy is fully accredited and meets Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). To learn more, review the Virginia School Report Card on the Virginia Department of Education Web site or review recent test scores.
Demographics
Enrollment (as of 2016-17): 443 students
African American: 29.3%
Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian: 0.03%
Hispanic: 7.4%
Two or More Races: 5.2%
White: 54.9%

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/977

Jefferson-Houston Elementary: Unaccredited
Demographics
Enrollment (as of 1/8/2017): 566 students
African American: 59.5%
Hispanic: 20%
White: 14.5%
Asian: 2.5%
Pacific Islander and American Indian: 1.5%
Multi-racial (two or more ethnic groups): 2%

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/915

+1 This was a huge missed opportunity. Don't know what the hell was accomplished from redistricting, but the boundaries in Old Town/South Rosemont were really kooky and remain so.

Anonymous wrote:Redistricting to evenly balance out the FARMS rates would result in busing all over the city, to which several earlier posters seem vehemently opposed.

No buses (or long ride if used) needed for Jefferson-Houston and Lyles-Crouch FARM equalization in Old Town. It offends Alexandria City residents that the white-african american disparity exists to this day in 2018!

Lyles-Crouch Data
Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy is fully accredited and meets Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). To learn more, review the Virginia School Report Card on the Virginia Department of Education Web site or review recent test scores.
Demographics
Enrollment (as of 2016-17): 443 students
African American: 29.3%
Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian: 0.03%
Hispanic: 7.4%
Two or More Races: 5.2%
White: 54.9%

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/977

Jefferson-Houston Elementary: Unaccredited
Demographics
Enrollment (as of 1/8/2017): 566 students
African American: 59.5%
Hispanic: 20%
White: 14.5%
Asian: 2.5%
Pacific Islander and American Indian: 1.5%
Multi-racial (two or more ethnic groups): 2%

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/915

Redistricting to evenly balance out the FARMS rates would result in busing all over the city, to which several earlier posters seem vehemently opposed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Naive" ACPS teacher here trying to find solutions... what do neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics do better than we do? How can we emulate their successes? So far in this discussion, here are the proposals that make sense to me: more summer school opportunities; funding after-school tutoring at rec centers; more culturally/linguistically-sensitive and -informed teachers; distribution of SOL scores (and SUBSCORES ) to teachers at the beginning of the school year; and higher teacher salaries.

how about redistricting to balance out the FARMs rate among ACPS elementary schools?

This is a good suggestion, but I think it's easier said than done.

Over 20 plus years? That hard?

Apparently, yes, it is that hard. Last year's redistricting is proof of that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My biggest take-away from these 21 pages is that I'm becoming more concerned, not less, about who is minding the shop so to speak.

We have lived here a long time (since 1987). We spoke out on ACPS our first year here and have ever since. ACPS has gone through many Superintendents and many Boards, as well as crazy ideology changes and central staff turnover since 1987.

ACPS has not improved it's overall standing in Virginia by much such 1987. It's a sad fact for we taxpayers, given Arlington and Fairfax County success. I'm tired of the ACPS excuses. Are we not to speak up? If so, why not? And where is our City Council on these matters?

Yup. They're nowhere, and that's by design. In 1993, the city charter was changed and the school board became independently elected for the first time. School board no longer had adult supervision. School board candidates could attain office via a popularity contest. School board members who were incompetent, or self-service, or nuts could no longer be removed by council. School board could pursue policies that are totally inconsistent with City finances, or revenues, or policy priorities. From that day forward, it has gotten worse and worse.

In fact, school board's #1 priority is the re-election of its own membership. Look at the school board "reconfiguration" plan, adopted unanimously at the 6/21/18 school board meeting. The very first item that school board considered, in connection with their proposal to reduce school board size, is whether incumbents could be more easily united by challengers. This is who these people are. See p. 15 at http://esbpublic.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/be77a3a7-bcd7-4ca0-9faf-2ac3b32c2fbf.pdf .

It's long past time to get rid of this board of malicious incompetents. School board needs to report to people who perceive political vulnerability and will directly supervise school board. School board should be appointed, not elected.

* unseated, not united

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My biggest take-away from these 21 pages is that I'm becoming more concerned, not less, about who is minding the shop so to speak.

We have lived here a long time (since 1987). We spoke out on ACPS our first year here and have ever since. ACPS has gone through many Superintendents and many Boards, as well as crazy ideology changes and central staff turnover since 1987.

ACPS has not improved it's overall standing in Virginia by much such 1987. It's a sad fact for we taxpayers, given Arlington and Fairfax County success. I'm tired of the ACPS excuses. Are we not to speak up? If so, why not? And where is our City Council on these matters?

Yup. They're nowhere, and that's by design. In 1993, the city charter was changed and the school board became independently elected for the first time. School board no longer had adult supervision. School board candidates could attain office via a popularity contest. School board members who were incompetent, or self-service, or nuts could no longer be removed by council. School board could pursue policies that are totally inconsistent with City finances, or revenues, or policy priorities. From that day forward, it has gotten worse and worse.

In fact, school board's #1 priority is the re-election of its own membership. Look at the school board "reconfiguration" plan, adopted unanimously at the 6/21/18 school board meeting. The very first item that school board considered, in connection with their proposal to reduce school board size, is whether incumbents could be more easily united by challengers. This is who these people are. See p. 15 at http://esbpublic.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/be77a3a7-bcd7-4ca0-9faf-2ac3b32c2fbf.pdf .

It's long past time to get rid of this board of malicious incompetents. School board needs to report to people who perceive political vulnerability and will directly supervise school board. School board should be appointed, not elected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Naive" ACPS teacher here trying to find solutions... what do neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics do better than we do? How can we emulate their successes? So far in this discussion, here are the proposals that make sense to me: more summer school opportunities; funding after-school tutoring at rec centers; more culturally/linguistically-sensitive and -informed teachers; distribution of SOL scores (and SUBSCORES ) to teachers at the beginning of the school year; and higher teacher salaries.

how about redistricting to balance out the FARMs rate among ACPS elementary schools?

This is a good suggestion, but I think it's easier said than done.

The redistricting was the biggest joke I've seen in this city in 25 years.

They're forcing kids out of Maury and into JH despite being living literally twice as close to Maury as to JH, all the while the Old Town kids literally across the street from the front doors of JH get to stay all the way across town at Lyles Crouch.

Maury transfers were tossed to the wolves.

I agree redistricting was an absolute joke. Accomplished almost nothing after spending a lot of time and money, too. They did not do nearly enough to change the JH boundary in a way that would’ve reduced the FARMs rate there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My biggest take-away from these 21 pages is that I'm becoming more concerned, not less, about who is minding the shop so to speak.

We have lived here a long time (since 1987). We spoke out on ACPS our first year here and have ever since. ACPS has gone through many Superintendents and many Boards, as well as crazy ideology changes and central staff turnover since 1987.

ACPS has not improved it's overall standing in Virginia by much such 1987. It's a sad fact for we taxpayers, given Arlington and Fairfax County success. I'm tired of the ACPS excuses. Are we not to speak up? If so, why not? And where is our City Council on these matters?

I'm the FP and I totally agree. We've been here about the same amount of time, maybe a little longer if you count my childhood. It is really disheartening that we've seen so much positive change in the city but the schools continue to be a major stumbling block. It is especially disturbing that there is little tolerance for discourse, discussions and questions. I am actually now taking a break from this forum because I am so dismayed by some of the bullying I am seeing by some posters. These 21 pages are a sad reflection on our community.

Anonymous wrote:My biggest take-away from these 21 pages is that I'm becoming more concerned, not less, about who is minding the shop so to speak.

We have lived here a long time (since 1987). We spoke out on ACPS our first year here and have ever since. ACPS has gone through many Superintendents and many Boards, as well as crazy ideology changes and central staff turnover since 1987.

ACPS has not improved it's overall standing in Virginia by much such 1987. It's a sad fact for we taxpayers, given Arlington and Fairfax County success. I'm tired of the ACPS excuses. Are we not to speak up? If so, why not? And where is our City Council on these matters?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Naive" ACPS teacher here trying to find solutions... what do neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics do better than we do? How can we emulate their successes? So far in this discussion, here are the proposals that make sense to me: more summer school opportunities; funding after-school tutoring at rec centers; more culturally/linguistically-sensitive and -informed teachers; distribution of SOL scores (and SUBSCORES ) to teachers at the beginning of the school year; and higher teacher salaries.

how about redistricting to balance out the FARMs rate among ACPS elementary schools?

This is a good suggestion, but I think it's easier said than done.

Over 20 plus years? That hard?