I expect smart, thinking people to know their history about how Alexandria was a regional center with a significant population of freed slaves after the Civil War, and thus developed in a very different way from the surrounding jurisdictions. As a port city with an urban core it developed way before other places. The population was "ghettoized" by the local government. It became a logical landing place for many AAs and many of those families have remained. Being a repressed population, obviously poverty followed for many of them. That doesn't just magically go away.

You equate a decent school system to a "suburban hideaway"?

Again, Alexandria is an urban city, much different for a host of reasons from many of the surrounding jurisdictions. If you don't want to live there, don't, but stop expecting it to be the little suburban hideaway that so many of you seemingly want to live in.

"BTW, in many NE states, even little burgs operate their own school system"

Little 'burgs in NE states probably don't have a student population where 60-85% qualify for free lunches. Alexandria is far from a model of efficiency; more like a model of life in public housing.

City of Fairfax has a population of about 30K. Alexandria has a pop of about 140K, making it one of the top 10 cities in the state by size. Don't think it is happening.

BTW, in many NE states, even little burgs operate their own school system, so Alexandria is the model of efficiency comparatively.

If the liberals in Alexandria really cared about excess overhead, they'd vote to do away with ACPS, and contract with FCPS to run our schools, like the City of Fairfax does. Instead, we operate our own unique, one high school district, with administrative costs that are absolutely out of control.

Generally, liberals (of which I am one) don't want to expand the amount of schools that would be sharing the same amount of public funds because it makes less resources available. It creates more overhead that must be paid for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lyles-Crouch is not a charter school. The City does not have charter schools - but they should.

Also, Lyles-Crouch doesn't guarantee you a slot for your child even when you fall within the boundary for attendance.

Agree with you but it will never happen in Democrat-controlled Alexandria (and I'm a Democrat).

Alexandria needs to innovate, not follow.

I am the poster you are quoting but I fully admit to be ignorant of politics and charter schools. Can you explain why they would oppose charter schools?

Anonymous wrote:I've been toying with the idea of starting a small charter school for 6-9th graders in Alexandria (approx. 200 kids total) that would be academically rigorous, highly disciplined, and focus on traditional learning methods/approaches. I suspect that a lot of Alexandria parents would wlecome this, but I fear the idea would it be dead on arrival at the school board. I don't know the politics of our board members, but wouldn't they have to admit that too many parents abandon ACPS b/c of dissatisfaction with the middle school situation, and that giving folks another public option would be a good thing?

I broached this with members of council a couple of years ago. Exactly what you're talking about. Dead on arrival. No one on the board is going to allow resources to be siphoned off from ACPS for this sort of venture...

There are only like four charter schools in the state of Virginia. All are in like Newport News or Richmond, and they're all for black girls (or at least there were).

There was the Alexandria Academy that opened up that sort of followed this model, but T.R. Ahlstrom is a huckster and it went belly up before the end of the year in 2011.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a small charter school for 6-9th graders in Alexandria (approx. 200 kids total) that would be academically rigorous, highly disciplined, and focus on traditional learning methods/approaches. I suspect that a lot of Alexandria parents would wlecome this, but I fear the idea would it be dead on arrival at the school board. I don't know the politics of our board members, but wouldn't they have to admit that too many parents abandon ACPS b/c of dissatisfaction with the middle school situation, and that giving folks another public option would be a good thing?

Anonymous wrote:Lyles-Crouch is not a charter school. The City does not have charter schools - but they should.

Also, Lyles-Crouch doesn't guarantee you a slot for your child even when you fall within the boundary for attendance.

Agree with you but it will never happen in Democrat-controlled Alexandria (and I'm a Democrat).

Alexandria needs to innovate, not follow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a "GS rating"?

Great Schools.

I've been critical of J-H here, but even I know that Web site is worthless.

(I'm sure 10:46 was just pretending to be ignorant.)

The stars rating is worthless, as are the subjective reviews.

But the number ratings? Those are, as I'm sure you know, based on that school's average SOL test scores. You can argue the importance of SOL test scores, but to dismiss them as "worthless" is exaggerating -- I mean, 80% of the posts here are about AAC and other test scores.

I am 10:46 and why would I pretend to be ignorant about the abbreviation?

00:29 - very interesting feedback. Thanks. I also agree that without redrawing the boundary nothing will likely change.

Lyles-Crouch is not a charter school. The City does not have charter schools - but they should.

Also, Lyles-Crouch doesn't guarantee you a slot for your child even when you fall within the boundary for attendance.

Only one ACPS school (Charles Barrett) made AYP last year. It's not that all of the schools that had been making AYP suddenly got bad, it's that the as part of No Child Left Behind, the percentage of students who had to pass each subject area increased significantly, so even schools with high passing rates didn't have passing rates that were high enough, and therefore they "failed" to make AYP. Across the state of Virginia there was a huge drop in the number of schools making AYP. It's one of the reasons many people are clamoring for a revision to NCLB, and Virginia is one of many states that is asking for a waiver from NCLB. Bottom line, if you researched Lyles-Crouch and were happy with the school, there's no reason why you won't still be happy with the school.

Why didn't Lyles Crouch make AYP last year? I thought it was one of the better elementary schools. A charter school. Is it headed in the wrong direction too or was that just a fluke? One reason we bought in the lyles crouch district is because we thought we could send our kids to public school but now I am worried that even one of the best is moving in the wrong direction.