Anonymous
05/04/2016 15:19
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
Actually the Washington Post published the stats a year or so ago and the reason is that 60% of all Alexandrians are poor.
It is a myth that Alexandria City is full of wealthy people. It is full of some <b>very</b> wealthy people, a lot of upper middle class people who are tapped out paying high mortgages, a sprinkling of middle class people living in condos, a large amount of poor people living in public housing, Section 8, or too many people living in an older, lower cost market rate apartment.
Your tax dollars are going to supporting those poor people in the form of guaranteed public housing, Section 8 housing, food, clothing, hair cuts, tutoring, after school care, summer camp, school programs, rec and park programs, etc and so on. You haven't ever noticed the immense amount of free stuff that the city provides residents?
Fixed that. DH and I often ponder what the schools would be like if all of our VERY wealthy Seminary Hill neighbors sent their children to our local publics instead of the many expensive privates in Alexandria and elsewhere.
Why in heavens name should they?
I don't know... Because most of their very high property taxes go to pay for a service they never use or care about?
Anonymous
05/04/2016 15:03
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:
Actually the Washington Post published the stats a year or so ago and the reason is that 60% of all Alexandrians are poor.
It is a myth that Alexandria City is full of wealthy people. It is full of some <b>very</b> wealthy people, a lot of upper middle class people who are tapped out paying high mortgages, a sprinkling of middle class people living in condos, a large amount of poor people living in public housing, Section 8, or too many people living in an older, lower cost market rate apartment.
Your tax dollars are going to supporting those poor people in the form of guaranteed public housing, Section 8 housing, food, clothing, hair cuts, tutoring, after school care, summer camp, school programs, rec and park programs, etc and so on. You haven't ever noticed the immense amount of free stuff that the city provides residents?
Fixed that. DH and I often ponder what the schools would be like if all of our VERY wealthy Seminary Hill neighbors sent their children to our local publics instead of the many expensive privates in Alexandria and elsewhere.
Why in heavens name should they?
Anonymous
05/04/2016 14:49
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
If that's not a way to foster racism and give children a skewed view in life, I don't know what is. If your whte, high SES child does well in an ES, surrounded by poor performing non-white lower SES children, then that child will draw conclusions from that.
I'm not the OP, but this is what worries me most about the ACPS elementary within our zone (Mt Vernon). Dh and I are high SES minorities, with a 3 year old daughter. When I tell people that I'm worried about sending DD to a school where the minority students are not performing well, they say 'well that's a low SES issue and your daughter won't have that issue.' If I mention low expectations and stereotypes formed by the impression that minority students are poor performers (and statistically they are not doing well at this and several other ACPS schools), friends say 'oh, once the teachers meet you they will see that you are different ...' I plan to tour the schools and go to open houses, but there's a very good chance that we will choose private schools.
Mt. Vernon parent here: First, I cannot imagine that Mt Vernon parents are telling you that there are lower expectations re "minority" students (I put that in quotes because ethnic/racial minority students are the majority at our school). By way of example the recent spelling bees (one in Spanish, one in English) three of the top four were not white and that was not seen as unusual. There are high achieving, middle of the pack, and low achieving kids of every race/ethnicity at the school. Despite what people continually seem to say as a general proposition on this board, there is not a belief that minority = low performing at our school. Second, the blanket statement that "minority students are not performing well" is not necessarily accurate. If you are talking about SOL scores, I encourage you to look at the score breakdowns and compare them across schools. At least in the past (I haven't looked in a couple of years), on average minority students at Mt Vernon tended to score the same or higher than similar students at other schools. There are other issues that might give you pause: the school is really big (at more than 850 students); there is a sometimes significant transitory population (e.g., kids with no English transferring in the middle of the year) that can cause some disruption; the facility is old. We love the school, the teachers, the admin, the community, and the fact that our kids are bilingual - but we recognize that it might not be for everyone, and happily support friends who have chosen other ACPS schools or privates. But please don't think that the school community buys in to the stereotype of which you are afraid.
Anonymous
05/04/2016 13:10
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Actually the Washington Post published the stats a year or so ago and the reason is that 60% of all Alexandrians are poor.
It is a myth that Alexandria City is full of wealthy people. It is full of some <b>very</b> wealthy people, a lot of upper middle class people who are tapped out paying high mortgages, a sprinkling of middle class people living in condos, a large amount of poor people living in public housing, Section 8, or too many people living in an older, lower cost market rate apartment.
Your tax dollars are going to supporting those poor people in the form of guaranteed public housing, Section 8 housing, food, clothing, hair cuts, tutoring, after school care, summer camp, school programs, rec and park programs, etc and so on. You haven't ever noticed the immense amount of free stuff that the city provides residents?
Fixed that. DH and I often ponder what the schools would be like if all of our VERY wealthy Seminary Hill neighbors sent their children to our local publics instead of the many expensive privates in Alexandria and elsewhere.
Anonymous
05/04/2016 13:00
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
If that's not a way to foster racism and give children a skewed view in life, I don't know what is. If your whte, high SES child does well in an ES, surrounded by poor performing non-white lower SES children, then that child will draw conclusions from that.
I'm not the OP, but this is what worries me most about the ACPS elementary within our zone (Mt Vernon). Dh and I are high SES minorities, with a 3 year old daughter. When I tell people that I'm worried about sending DD to a school where the minority students are not performing well, they say 'well that's a low SES issue and your daughter won't have that issue.' If I mention low expectations and stereotypes formed by the impression that minority students are poor performers (and statistically they are not doing well at this and several other ACPS schools), friends say 'oh, once the teachers meet you they will see that you are different ...' I plan to tour the schools and go to open houses, but there's a very good chance that we will choose private schools.
Anonymous
05/04/2016 12:44
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:I live in Alexandria City and kids went through ACPS. My question is, why is the percentage of FARMS students up at TC 2015 >2014 if all these white parents have entered the system? As I recall it's ~64% FARMS 2015 to ~56% FARM 2014 at TCW. This increase will not help ACPS improve it's academic results and that is a historical data driven fact.
To blame Alexandria posters on DCUM that if more support was lent to ACPS PTA, which I fully supported, and encourage more upper middle class families to enroll, while concomitantly overlooking or not digging data to determine why the FARM population is actively rising doesn't seem smart to me.
Why doesn't ACPS transparently tell the Alexandria community what the deal is here? Is Alexandria City a beneficiary of recent federal immigration and we just don't know it? I am aware this is happening throughout Northern Virginia but unaware where to get the statistics.
My concern is that even as we embark on the largest ACPS infrastructure Capitol Improvement Budget over the next ten years in Alexandria City history, we don't concomitantly come out of the bottom of academic ranking further prohibiting Alexandria City viability to Class A businesses which is what the City truly needs to lessen tax burden on struggling residents by spreading it to commercial.
I don't know about you, but we're not seeing annual personal income growth, just 2% or so. These new taxes (a full 3 cents per $100 real estate assessed is what Mr. Wilson is set on) are a real punch in the gut for us but apparently be done due to decades of prior ACPS Board neglect to school buildings and growing capacity needs of the schools.
Is there an end point in view? Is there active Board and City Council discussion of quid pro quo to raise ACPS academic standing? Or is it growth of ACPS without concern to resident tax payers whose focus remains on improved academic standing for our City so real estate value grows rather than falls behind other local school jurisdiction.
I'm tired of decades of tax payments to Alexandria City without ACPS earning by now a much better and data proven academic standing comparable to Arlington, Fairfax and Falls Church. We have only 14,500 students in ACPS for goodness sake, not tens of thousands more as Arlington and Fairfax.
Actually the Washington Post published the stats a year or so ago and the reason is that 60% of all Alexandrians are poor.
It is a myth that Alexandria City is full of wealthy people. It is full of some wealthy people, a lot of upper middle class people who are tapped out paying high mortgages, a sprinkling of middle class people living in condos, a large amount of poor people living in public housing, Section 8, or too many people living in an older, lower cost market rate apartment.
Your tax dollars are going to supporting those poor people in the form of guaranteed public housing, Section 8 housing, food, clothing, hair cuts, tutoring, after school care, summer camp, school programs, rec and park programs, etc and so on. You haven't ever noticed the immense amount of free stuff that the city provides residents?
Anonymous
05/04/2016 11:53
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
I had my son in an ACPS public school, and I did not think it was bad. It wasn't. Some of his teachers were quite good, and the other kids were generally nice. We moved because we needed a bigger place, and DS now attends Mantua. While I don't think my son's ACPS school was a bad school, I do think Mantua has more to offer him from an academic standpoint.
Anonymous
05/04/2016 11:48
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
I live in Alexandria City and kids went through ACPS. My question is, why is the percentage of FARMS students up at TC 2015 >2014 if all these white parents have entered the system? As I recall it's ~64% FARMS 2015 to ~56% FARM 2014 at TCW. This increase will not help ACPS improve it's academic results and that is a historical data driven fact.
To blame Alexandria posters on DCUM that if more support was lent to ACPS PTA, which I fully supported, and encourage more upper middle class families to enroll, while concomitantly overlooking or not digging data to determine why the FARM population is actively rising doesn't seem smart to me.
Why doesn't ACPS transparently tell the Alexandria community what the deal is here? Is Alexandria City a beneficiary of recent federal immigration and we just don't know it? I am aware this is happening throughout Northern Virginia but unaware where to get the statistics.
My concern is that even as we embark on the largest ACPS infrastructure Capitol Improvement Budget over the next ten years in Alexandria City history, we don't concomitantly come out of the bottom of academic ranking further prohibiting Alexandria City viability to Class A businesses which is what the City truly needs to lessen tax burden on struggling residents by spreading it to commercial.
I don't know about you, but we're not seeing annual personal income growth, just 2% or so. These new taxes (a full 3 cents per $100 real estate assessed is what Mr. Wilson is set on) are a real punch in the gut for us but apparently be done due to decades of prior ACPS Board neglect to school buildings and growing capacity needs of the schools.
Is there an end point in view? Is there active Board and City Council discussion of quid pro quo to raise ACPS academic standing? Or is it growth of ACPS without concern to resident tax payers whose focus remains on improved academic standing for our City so real estate value grows rather than falls behind other local school jurisdiction.
I'm tired of decades of tax payments to Alexandria City without ACPS earning by now a much better and data proven academic standing comparable to Arlington, Fairfax and Falls Church. We have only 14,500 students in ACPS for goodness sake, not tens of thousands more as Arlington and Fairfax.
To blame Alexandria posters on DCUM that if more support was lent to ACPS PTA, which I fully supported, and encourage more upper middle class families to enroll, while concomitantly overlooking or not digging data to determine why the FARM population is actively rising doesn't seem smart to me.
Why doesn't ACPS transparently tell the Alexandria community what the deal is here? Is Alexandria City a beneficiary of recent federal immigration and we just don't know it? I am aware this is happening throughout Northern Virginia but unaware where to get the statistics.
My concern is that even as we embark on the largest ACPS infrastructure Capitol Improvement Budget over the next ten years in Alexandria City history, we don't concomitantly come out of the bottom of academic ranking further prohibiting Alexandria City viability to Class A businesses which is what the City truly needs to lessen tax burden on struggling residents by spreading it to commercial.
I don't know about you, but we're not seeing annual personal income growth, just 2% or so. These new taxes (a full 3 cents per $100 real estate assessed is what Mr. Wilson is set on) are a real punch in the gut for us but apparently be done due to decades of prior ACPS Board neglect to school buildings and growing capacity needs of the schools.
Is there an end point in view? Is there active Board and City Council discussion of quid pro quo to raise ACPS academic standing? Or is it growth of ACPS without concern to resident tax payers whose focus remains on improved academic standing for our City so real estate value grows rather than falls behind other local school jurisdiction.
I'm tired of decades of tax payments to Alexandria City without ACPS earning by now a much better and data proven academic standing comparable to Arlington, Fairfax and Falls Church. We have only 14,500 students in ACPS for goodness sake, not tens of thousands more as Arlington and Fairfax.
Anonymous
05/04/2016 09:20
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I love Alexandria, but I would have to do private school to live there. No way I am sending my kids to those public schools. I would rather spend the extra money on a house in Falls Church City, McLean or Vienna in order to get into one of those school pyramids.
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
The problem is when you go to Arlington and Falls Church you encounter *lots* of people who did have children in ACPS, experienced it pretty fully, and elected to leave. This is a reality.
BTW, this line of argument that "your kids will be fine in ACPS because they're white and not one of the poors" is really an offensive take on things. It's like people who cynically believe a child will have a better shot at college admission having survive TC Williams.
You know, as a parent of children who are at TC, that is such a bullshit line I can't stand it. The only place I hear this kind of crap is from people who do not send their children to ACPS. There is not a single parent I know, and my kids are super involved, so I know quite a few, who believe that stuff. The disparity of what I see and experience in real life is so vastly different from what I read here, that it is mind boggling. TC does not have a good Great School rating. Big deal. The things that I care about: interesting and challenging curriculum, safe environment to learn, variety of activities available, that my children are prepared for the next step, and are happy, are all there. To make this bizarre assumption that my family, my neighbors, and my children's friends parents are all sending their children to TC as some kind of "better shot at college admission" is just absurd and frankly, just a really weird assertion.
I am City resident and yeah, I have had friends and neighbors tell me just that. In fact, just last week.
If someone says this - in this case, an urban legend - in passing, there is no harm, and it relates to something that is virtually impossible to confirm or disprove.
If someone claims they or others are sending their kids to TC for the specific purpose of arbitraging the college admissions process, then of course it is, as PP said, a "really weird assertion." But to use it as the basis for nailing white parents for sending their kids to TC is even weirder still. It would be just as weird as someone claiming they sent their white kids to Langley because they thought it was really important for them to interact with high-achieving black and Hispanic students - even if there were a handful at the school.
Perhaps it's time to start cutting each other just a little bit more slack here?
Anonymous
05/04/2016 08:34
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I love Alexandria, but I would have to do private school to live there. No way I am sending my kids to those public schools. I would rather spend the extra money on a house in Falls Church City, McLean or Vienna in order to get into one of those school pyramids.
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
The problem is when you go to Arlington and Falls Church you encounter *lots* of people who did have children in ACPS, experienced it pretty fully, and elected to leave. This is a reality.
BTW, this line of argument that "your kids will be fine in ACPS because they're white and not one of the poors" is really an offensive take on things. It's like people who cynically believe a child will have a better shot at college admission having survive TC Williams.
You know, as a parent of children who are at TC, that is such a bullshit line I can't stand it. The only place I hear this kind of crap is from people who do not send their children to ACPS. There is not a single parent I know, and my kids are super involved, so I know quite a few, who believe that stuff. The disparity of what I see and experience in real life is so vastly different from what I read here, that it is mind boggling. TC does not have a good Great School rating. Big deal. The things that I care about: interesting and challenging curriculum, safe environment to learn, variety of activities available, that my children are prepared for the next step, and are happy, are all there. To make this bizarre assumption that my family, my neighbors, and my children's friends parents are all sending their children to TC as some kind of "better shot at college admission" is just absurd and frankly, just a really weird assertion.
I am City resident and yeah, I have had friends and neighbors tell me just that. In fact, just last week.
Anonymous
05/03/2016 17:40
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I love Alexandria, but I would have to do private school to live there. No way I am sending my kids to those public schools. I would rather spend the extra money on a house in Falls Church City, McLean or Vienna in order to get into one of those school pyramids.
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
The problem is when you go to Arlington and Falls Church you encounter *lots* of people who did have children in ACPS, experienced it pretty fully, and elected to leave. This is a reality.
BTW, this line of argument that "your kids will be fine in ACPS because they're white and not one of the poors" is really an offensive take on things. It's like people who cynically believe a child will have a better shot at college admission having survive TC Williams.
You know, as a parent of children who are at TC, that is such a bullshit line I can't stand it. The only place I hear this kind of crap is from people who do not send their children to ACPS. There is not a single parent I know, and my kids are super involved, so I know quite a few, who believe that stuff. The disparity of what I see and experience in real life is so vastly different from what I read here, that it is mind boggling. TC does not have a good Great School rating. Big deal. The things that I care about: interesting and challenging curriculum, safe environment to learn, variety of activities available, that my children are prepared for the next step, and are happy, are all there. To make this bizarre assumption that my family, my neighbors, and my children's friends parents are all sending their children to TC as some kind of "better shot at college admission" is just absurd and frankly, just a really weird assertion.
Anonymous
05/03/2016 16:35
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
If that's not a way to foster racism and give children a skewed view in life, I don't know what is. If your whte, high SES child does well in an ES, surrounded by poor performing non-white lower SES children, then that child will draw conclusions from that.
Anonymous
05/03/2016 16:18
Subject: Re:I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
You know what else could be called offensive, ensuring that every middle class kid continues to leave these schools by fear-mongering comments, thus ensuring more segregation and fewer resources for the school. How differently would these schools perform if people didn't flee, but stayed, involved their families in the schools, contributed to the PTAs and helped to slowly change the dynamics, demographic make-up etc. from within?
I have to say, I agree with this
Anonymous
05/03/2016 16:06
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I love Alexandria, but I would have to do private school to live there. No way I am sending my kids to those public schools. I would rather spend the extra money on a house in Falls Church City, McLean or Vienna in order to get into one of those school pyramids.
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
The problem is when you go to Arlington and Falls Church you encounter *lots* of people who did have children in ACPS, experienced it pretty fully, and elected to leave. This is a reality.
BTW, this line of argument that "your kids will be fine in ACPS because they're white and not one of the poors" is really an offensive take on things. It's like people who cynically believe a child will have a better shot at college admission having survive TC Williams.[/quold te]
You know what else could be called offensive, ensuring that every middle class kid continues to leave these schools by fear-mongering comments, thus ensuring more segregation and fewer resources for the school. How differently would these schools perform if people didn't flee, but stayed, involved their families in the schools, contributed to the PTAs and helped to slowly change the dynamics, demographic make-up etc. from within?
Anonymous
05/03/2016 15:59
Subject: I regret buying in ACPS...should we try to move before ES or wait until DC is older?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I love Alexandria, but I would have to do private school to live there. No way I am sending my kids to those public schools. I would rather spend the extra money on a house in Falls Church City, McLean or Vienna in order to get into one of those school pyramids.
Again, someone who does not have their kids in ACPS. I am the person who wrote earlier about staying. OP, again, talk to people with kids in the school. Look up test scores on the VA and isolate out variables that do not apply to your kids such as being economically disadvantaged. How are kids of your child's demographic doing? I bet you will be surprised.
http://bi.virginia.gov/BuildATab/rdPage.aspx
The problem is when you go to Arlington and Falls Church you encounter *lots* of people who did have children in ACPS, experienced it pretty fully, and elected to leave. This is a reality.
BTW, this line of argument that "your kids will be fine in ACPS because they're white and not one of the poors" is really an offensive take on things. It's like people who cynically believe a child will have a better shot at college admission having survive TC Williams.