Working in Crystal City - where to live with family with elementary school children?

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

Why should parents want to send their kids there -- and risk having their not at-risk kids get ignored by the administration, who're probably too busy performing Herculean tasks with the at-risk kids?

That's an interesting question...I went to a pretty good suburban high school without a huge poverty problem, but I definitely never had any attention from administration. What sort of things are you expecting from principals and their staff? Actually, if anything, the administration at the middle school I worked at with zillions of impoverished students had waaaaaaaay more attention for all the children, regardless of "risk" status. The principal and assistant principals knew every student by name and made a huuuge effort to get to know each child on an individual basis. Maybe that was to try to hedge against some of the "at risk" factors, but all the children benefited from it.

[stpickrell]

Why are we going to kid ourselves about Alex. City Public Schools? Is TC Williams still under threat of getting taken over? Is the state biased against TC?

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

That's an interesting question...I went to a pretty good suburban high school without a huge poverty problem, but I definitely never had any attention from administration. What sort of things are you expecting from principals and their staff? Actually, if anything, the administration at the middle school I worked at with zillions of impoverished students had waaaaaaaay more attention for all the children, regardless of "risk" status. The principal and assistant principals knew every student by name and made a huuuge effort to get to know each child on an individual basis. Maybe that was to try to hedge against some of the "at risk" factors, but all the children benefited from it.

In that case, the administration of your MS did a good job.

As you're a teacher, I'm sure you're aware of the various programs designed to help at-risk students stay in school, etc. One could also argue that the family life of these at-risk students is less than healthy, but that's a whole another can of worms.

The staff energy and time devoted to these programs is energy and time that cannot be devoted to the (admittedly less mundane) concerns of your kids.

Or, put another way, what benefits are there to sending a non-FRL student to a school with over 50% free/reduced lunch?

My wife went to an ES in FCPS (granted in the mid 1980s) with lots of ESOL kids. When she moved to a ES without as many ESOL kids, she found she was a grade level behind the kids at her new school. Of course, they may have figured out how to mainstream ESOL kids better since then ... and a good administration could have figured out how to keep ALL the kids challenged.

Also, not all ESOL kids are equal. One ESOL kid may be going to TJ by high school, and another may take month-long breaks to go back home for Christmas (some of the cab drivers my wife deals with now do this).

I'm not talking moderate amounts of poverty here, like at Cunningham Park ES (~20-25% FRL). I'm talking about a school like Jefferson Houston, which ACPS seems to have made the red-headed stepchild in its efforts to save Maury, Macarthur, etc., with nearly three-quarters of the students on free/reduced price lunches.

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

Or, put another way, what benefits are there to sending a non-FRL student to a school with over 50% free/reduced lunch?

I don't have any children, so admittedly I don't really have a horse in this race. At the same time though, I can honestly say that the students at these low income, title 1 schools are often the sweetest, most giving, polite kids you've ever met. Most teachers at my school had taught at multiple schools, but they all commented the same--they'd never found nicer students or more dedicated teachers than at that current school.

It's anecdata--I'm not sure there's really a way to measure "niceness" of students or "dedication" of teachers anyway.

The other thing is children with strong academic skills will often be big fish in little ponds at these schools. We had honors classes at the middle school that were much smaller than the ones at the school a few miles away. More individualized attention that way. More chances to customize programs and projects to individual interests. We had a robotics club on campus that only drew 6-8 students each week that was mentored by TJ students. Those middle school kids got 2:1 ratio of help and attention building their robots.

Of course, this is all based on the idea that administration knows what it's doing. If higher performing kids are just used as tutors for the struggling students, they'll suffer. But if teachers differentiate, administration is involved, and students take advantage of programs that are offered (despite there being "at risk boys club", there was also cooking club, sports club, technology club, zillions of electives, etc), then being exposed to such a diverse student body from all economic backgrounds doesn't have to be a negative.

It's not all sunshine and puppy dogs, but it's not all "omg your child will join a gang and die and never learn their times tables because their teacher won't ever have time to talk to them" if they go there either.

[CaliTerp07]

The other thing is that oftentimes attending a school with these less-than-desirable statistics allows for a decent house with a decent commute and a realistic price. Mom or dad could come home at lunch to see the kiddos, or make it in time to coach a soccer practice at 4:00 if working in Crystal City and living in Alexandria.

BUT...everyone has different comfort levels and criteria, and that's okay.

[Kelly Dresen]

Good luck with your search and welcome to the Washington area. I agree with the recommendation to try Alexandria or Arlington. I live in the Del Ray neighborhood, which I love. Vibrant, diverse, artistic community. Two of my kids attend Jefferson-Houston. Fabulous teachers, small classes, committed staff. Test scores are improving, though we struggle with the constantly moving bar of NCLB, just as every school does.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by Kelly Dresen

Good luck with your search and welcome to the Washington area. I agree with the recommendation to try Alexandria or Arlington. I live in the Del Ray neighborhood, which I love. Vibrant, diverse, artistic community. Two of my kids attend Jefferson-Houston. Fabulous teachers, small classes, committed staff. Test scores are improving, though we struggle with the constantly moving bar of NCLB, just as every school does.

OK, why would you pick J-H over Maury, Macarthur, Barrett, etc.?