Statements & Press Releases
January 30, 2023
More Transparency, Not Less
(Arlington, VA) - We have serious concerns that the guidance provided to School Board members during their January 21, 2023 retreat reflects a keen reluctance to engage in clear, honest and frank discussion with the APS community, including parents, teachers and administrators.
As we have previously outlined, best practice school boards “are expected to be as open as possible concerning board discussions,” and focus on being transparent in decision-making and engaging effectively with their communities. The January 21 guidance directly conflicts with the pillars of good stewardship and transparency that we expect our school board to uphold.
The guidance:
Advises Board members to “Err on the side of vague” when talking to community members
Directs the Board to “send comments on presentation drafts in advance,” so there are “no surprises.”
Advises the Board members not to email opinions, but to discuss over the phone
Instructs Board members: “Don’t talk – or even listen – to staff members about working condition issues.”
While the author of the guidance is not clear, we urge the Board to commit itself to a greater level of candor in its dealings with all stakeholders, and to publicly disavow the guidance and the sentiment behind it, which implies that community members are problems to be managed and not stakeholders who the Board is elected to represent.
Rather than "being vague," avoiding "surprises," and avoiding expressions of opinion, transparent school boards should ask probing questions and engage in constructive public debate, particularly where opinions may differ. Doing so would enhance public trust in the stewardship of Board members.
January 25, 2023
VIRTUAL SCHOOL IS NO SUBSTITUTE
(Arlington,VA) - We hope APS finds a solution, and quickly, to get Taylor students back in their school building and develops a plan to recover lost instruction, including time spent as virtual. Virtual is not a viable substitute for elementary instruction and should never be used to satisfy state-required instruction time. APS assessment data show DIBELS reading scores declined for ALL grades at Taylor last year and the math achievement gap for students of color and students with special needs persists. Every minute of in-person instruction is critical to addressing learning loss and gaps. Taylor students deserve better.
August 2, 2022
Latest Data Shows Learning Loss Not Being Addressed by APS
(Arlington, VA) - New, end-of-year data released by Arlington Public Schools (APS) confirms that APS has been slow and ineffective at addressing learning loss. The DIBELS data just updated to include End of Year (EOY) screening reflect that while younger grades showed progress over the course of the year, as one would expect, more students in 4th and 5th grade needed intensive support in reading at the end of the year than at the beginning.
In other words, for the students needing the most support, current efforts have, in fact, resulted in progress to decline during the 2021-2022 school year. The result is that one in five APS students entering middle school are in need of intensive reading support. Not only is this unacceptable, but we believe it was avoidable if APS had utilized proven strategies to address learning loss such as increasing instructional time, tutoring services, and implementation of a strong summer program.
While the data dashboard was a step in the right direction for transparency, we urge APS to use this data by adopting a more nimble and responsive approach that targets the student populations and grade levels that show the most need, obtaining community buy-in for allocation of resources to
address learning loss and serving as a model to take on persistent achievement gaps that predate the pandemic and continue to widen.
Parents should have confidence that their students’ academic proficiencies are improving while in school and students across the board deserve better.
For more background, please see our March 2022 Learning Loss Think Tank Piece https://www.arlingtonparentsforeducation.org/learningloss-report-march-2022
*Source Data: https://analytics.apsva.us/public/progress/aps_dibels.html
January 18, 2022
(Arlington, VA) While we understand that much of the focus of our community, elected officials, media, and school administrators over the last few days has been on a single topic that has inflamed public commentary, as a group of parents and teachers, our organization’s focus remains on keeping students in school five days a week and ensuring excellent education. We would hope all stakeholders are willing to make that goal their stated and public priority as well. APE is a bipartisan organization of parents, teachers, and students in Arlington, and we strongly support keeping students in school because we know how harmful it is to keep them out. We also have always supported both parental input into the decisions that affect their children and evidence-based protocols that are known to be effective. For more than a year and a half, APE has urged APS to engage in meaningful discussion with the community on pandemic instruction and mitigation and for the School Board to vote on significant issues that affect all students. The issue of masking is one that has divided many communities, but we are hopeful that through a good governance approach – a transparent process that examines the evidence and engages with families, teachers, and the community, leading to development of a clear policy and a public vote by our elected officials – that Arlington might avoid such division.
January 12, 2022
(Arlington,VA) - While we are encouraged that Arlington Public Schools is updating their guidance to five days for isolation and quarantine for staff, we are disappointed they are excluding students from their new isolation guidance. Even after the new policy is implemented, students who test positive will still be excluded from their classrooms for ten days, while adults are able to return five days earlier. We also question why this policy isn’t being implemented until January 17th. With this new policy, children who are close contacts today would be able to return to the classroom by early next week but for APS’ arbitrary timeline. We urge full and immediate adoption of the CDC guidance.
We also applaud restarting athletics and extracurriculars. In-person school, sports, and extracurricular activities can be done safely. Canceling children’s activities will not help end the pandemic any faster and harms children in the process.
January 10, 2022
(Arlington,VA) - Arlington Parents for Education urges Arlington Public Schools and Arlington Public Health to immediately adopt the most up-to-date CDC guidance reducing quarantine and isolation time to five days (from 10 days), as Fairfax County Public Schools have now announced they are doing.
The CDC has explicitly said that its guidance applies to schools and the Virginia Department of Health incorporated the five-day standard in its interim guidance for schools. APS’s decision to nevertheless ignore the CDC will cost students days in school, and may lead to school closures because of staffing shortages.
At the School Board meeting on January 6, Dr. Durán said neighboring school divisions are also pausing implementation of the CDC’s new guidance, but FCPS announced on January 8 that it will follow the CDC with respect to five days of quarantine for students and staff and isolation for staff. APS should immediately follow, as it is already well out of step with other school systems by being the only one of 133 Virginia divisions to “pause” athletics and extracurricular activities. As a result, healthy students are being kept out of sports and activities, while adult and private activities continue unabated. Healthy children will be excluded from school while county economic activity surges forward, with Arlington not advising its residents to do anything other than follow the CDC.
APS should follow the CDC-recommended five days for isolations and quarantines instead of ten in order to significantly increase APS’ ability to staff schools and to reduce students' days out of school. APS' decision not to follow CDC guidance disregards the impact that closing classrooms and schools will have on teachers and children’s academic, emotional, and physical well-being. APS alone owns this decision, and Arlington Parents for Education calls for an immediate reversal of it and adoption of the new CDC guidance.