Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly us - or DD isn't in school yet, but we live in the section of Del Ray this is mysteriously zoned for J-H, even though Maury is 1/4 mile away. Then there's a random section near the Braddock Road Metro (Parker Gray?) that is zone for Maury. This makes no sense.

What can Del Ray parents DO about this? I want my DD to go to a school with diversity, but I want her to go to a public school that is actually in her neighborhood.

Your chance to do anything about was last year when the school board had several community meetings on redistricting. Did you show up?

You took the words right out of my mouth! There were a number of community meetings and school board meetings on redistricting, not that any of it mattered. The school board will never invite the wrath of Maury and Lyles-Crouch parents by moving more low-income and minority students into those schools from Jefferson Houston. Maury and Lyles Crouch parents like the numbers just as they are--they can claim they send their kids to a "diverse" school, but it's not too "diverse" to be scary to them. Heaven forbid the majority of students are African-American!

I have no concerns about my own kid going to J-H. He'll be fine wherever he goes. My concern is for those 70% or more FARMS kids at J-H. A significant body of academic research shows that there is a tipping point (somewhere around 50%) where having such a high concentration of poverty in a school essentially outweighs all other well-intentioned efforts to improve academic performance. There are simply too many students with too many needs. This issue at J-H could have been addressed during redistricting by making J-H, Maury, and Lyles Crouch more equal demographically. But again, those Maury (especially) parents were not having any of that. I know--I went to many of those community meetings and school board meetings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So, for those families who bought a home in-bounds for JH, your choice is clear. Pay for private, move, or work with parents already at JH to improve the school.

JH has started offering some nice afterschool programs, which is a good thing. But the reason JH isn't performing well is not that it has bad teachers, guidance counselors, or a bad facility - it's because many of its students have a lack of support at home, and are facing huge obstacles outside of school. That's something that parents of other students can do some small amount to change (e.g., blessings in a backpack to send food home) but don't have that much control over.

Actually the reason kids aren't preforming well is poor teaching methods and lack of any consistency in teaching core subject.

for example, last year they had outside consultants from UVA review their reading program and the report was terrible. I mean really bad. It even said the school reading specialist didn't know exactly what their role was. And decent reading instruction depended entirely on the teacher a kid got.

I believe they also had an audit for math a few years back.

The good news is that the principal is leaving at the end of the year. Maybe, just maybe, ACPS can find an outstanding principal who the teachers don't despise, and who will stick around for the long term.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So, for those families who bought a home in-bounds for JH, your choice is clear. Pay for private, move, or work with parents already at JH to improve the school.

JH has started offering some nice afterschool programs, which is a good thing. But the reason JH isn't performing well is not that it has bad teachers, guidance counselors, or a bad facility - it's because many of its students have a lack of support at home, and are facing huge obstacles outside of school. That's something that parents of other students can do some small amount to change (e.g., blessings in a backpack to send food home) but don't have that much control over.

Actually the reason kids aren't preforming well is poor teaching methods and lack of any consistency in teaching core subject.

for example, last year they had outside consultants from UVA review their reading program and the report was terrible. I mean really bad. It even said the school reading specialist didn't know exactly what their role was. And decent reading instruction depended entirely on the teacher a kid got.

I believe they also had an audit for math a few years back.

Anonymous wrote:

So, for those families who bought a home in-bounds for JH, your choice is clear. Pay for private, move, or work with parents already at JH to improve the school.

JH has started offering some nice afterschool programs, which is a good thing. But the reason JH isn't performing well is not that it has bad teachers, guidance counselors, or a bad facility - it's because many of its students have a lack of support at home, and are facing huge obstacles outside of school. That's something that parents of other students can do some small amount to change (e.g., blessings in a backpack to send food home) but don't have that much control over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly us - or DD isn't in school yet, but we live in the section of Del Ray this is mysteriously zoned for J-H, even though Maury is 1/4 mile away. Then there's a random section near the Braddock Road Metro (Parker Gray?) that is zone for Maury. This makes no sense.

What can Del Ray parents DO about this? I want my DD to go to a school with diversity, but I want her to go to a public school that is actually in her neighborhood.

Your chance to do anything about was last year when the school board had several community meetings on redistricting. Did you show up?

You took the words right out of my mouth! There were a number of community meetings and school board meetings on redistricting, not that any of it mattered. The school board will never invite the wrath of Maury and Lyles-Crouch parents by moving more low-income and minority students into those schools from Jefferson Houston. Maury and Lyles Crouch parents like the numbers just as they are--they can claim they send their kids to a "diverse" school, but it's not too "diverse" to be scary to them. Heaven forbid the majority of students are African-American!

I have no concerns about my own kid going to J-H. He'll be fine wherever he goes. My concern is for those 70% or more FARMS kids at J-H. A significant body of academic research shows that there is a tipping point (somewhere around 50%) where having such a high concentration of poverty in a school essentially outweighs all other well-intentioned efforts to improve academic performance. There are simply too many students with too many needs. This issue at J-H could have been addressed during redistricting by making J-H, Maury, and Lyles Crouch more equal demographically. But again, those Maury (especially) parents were not having any of that. I know--I went to many of those community meetings and school board meetings.

Anonymous wrote:

ACPS elementary does differentiation well enough in the regular classroom that my DS is getting instruction above his grade level anyway.


It really depends on the teacher. My son has had some years that he got differentiation and some that he was really bored. You can't count on it.

This is true anywhere in the world, isn't it? Not just ACPS.

I disagree. It's not true in schools that offer actual advanced classes in various subjects prior to fourth grade. In those classes, it doesn't "depend on the teacher" offering differentiation, because the whole class is advanced/accelerated. I'm not familiar with what other VA school districts offer, but in the state that we moved here from, such classes were certainly offered.

ACPS elementary does differentiation well enough in the regular classroom that my DS is getting instruction above his grade level anyway.


It really depends on the teacher. My son has had some years that he got differentiation and some that he was really bored. You can't count on it.

This is true anywhere in the world, isn't it? Not just ACPS.

Anonymous wrote:

ACPS elementary does differentiation well enough in the regular classroom that my DS is getting instruction above his grade level anyway.

It really depends on the teacher. My son has had some years that he got differentiation and some that he was really bored. You can't count on it.

ACPS elementary does differentiation well enough in the regular classroom that my DS is getting instruction above his grade level anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

There's a TAG program for high-achieving kids.

Right, but that program doesn't do much until 4th grade. The general GIA pullout sessions for 1st through 3rd grade are fun for the kids, but don't occur that often or teach much. 4th grade is when TAG is specific to subjects and offers a truly different curriculum.

There's a TAG program for high-achieving kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly us - or DD isn't in school yet, but we live in the section of Del Ray this is mysteriously zoned for J-H, even though Maury is 1/4 mile away. Then there's a random section near the Braddock Road Metro (Parker Gray?) that is zone for Maury. This makes no sense.

What can Del Ray parents DO about this? I want my DD to go to a school with diversity, but I want her to go to a public school that is actually in her neighborhood.

Your chance to do anything about was last year when the school board had several community meetings on redistricting. Did you show up?

You took the words right out of my mouth! There were a number of community meetings and school board meetings on redistricting, not that any of it mattered. The school board will never invite the wrath of Maury and Lyles-Crouch parents by moving more low-income and minority students into those schools from Jefferson Houston. Maury and Lyles Crouch parents like the numbers just as they are--they can claim they send their kids to a "diverse" school, but it's not too "diverse" to be scary to them. Heaven forbid the majority of students are African-American!

I have no concerns about my own kid going to J-H. He'll be fine wherever he goes. My concern is for those 70% or more FARMS kids at J-H. A significant body of academic research shows that there is a tipping point (somewhere around 50%) where having such a high concentration of poverty in a school essentially outweighs all other well-intentioned efforts to improve academic performance. There are simply too many students with too many needs. This issue at J-H could have been addressed during redistricting by making J-H, Maury, and Lyles Crouch more equal demographically. But again, those Maury (especially) parents were not having any of that. I know--I went to many of those community meetings and school board meetings.

Any chance they would consider a School-Within-a-School at J-H for high achieving kids? I come from a high/low income district (in another state), and I just went to the SWS for elementary, middle and high school.

So, for those families who bought a home in-bounds for JH, your choice is clear. Pay for private, move, or work with parents already at JH to improve the school.

That JH's boundaries didn't move does not mean the above statement is incorrect. There is a large chunk of Del Ray that is literally 50% closer to Maury than it is to JH. These kids have been historically (like for 20 years) been granted transfers to Maury. The detractors will tell you it's rich white people scared of poor black kids. Those who actually live here will tell you its about sending your kid to the neighborhood school. There is no arguing that Maury makes more sense fr Del Ray than JH does.

Those transfers have now ended. The reason the board took this direction is to force those 'Maury ' kids to attend JH. That's the skewing the numbers point the PP made, I'd bet.

People can scream "but JH is your school and has been all along!!" but that means what? That parents shouldn't do all they can to get their kids the better education?