The Del Ray
Education Committee will hold its annual State of the Schools meeting
on Monday, February 13. It will offer prospective and current Del Ray
parents to meet the local prinicipals and PTAs, and will feature
comments from Assistant Superintendant Cathy David.
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Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Some jots from an education/journalism panel today in Washington DC
Hello listservers --
I've been attending a series of seminars on early childhood education (as
part of a journalism fellowship I'm participating in) and it just struck me
that several people on these listservs might be interested in a couple of
insights that have emerged. I'm biased, of course, but I can't help but
think that these points reflect well on our public schools:
1) Student/teacher ratios: An elementary principal from Seattle, the New
School of South Shore, was part of a panel of exemplary public schools. His
school, which is new and funded partly with foundation money, has ratios of
17 children per classroom teacher. And in kindergarten classrooms, he touted
that he has two adults for that many children. These are ratios that many
envy and that seem impossible to achieve in many schools. But here in
Alexandria, some schools have similar ratios and all kindergarten classrooms
have two adults. At Jefferson-Houston last year, some regular classes were
made up of 14 students each -- giving children an enormous amount of
individualized attention.
2) Social workers: An elementary principal at a charter school in Boston
talked about having a part-time social worker dedicated to his school -- and
how that was an anomaly because so many schools have to share social workers
among several schools. But here in Alexandria, I know of several schools
(like JHAA, and I believe Maury too, and in fact maybe this is the case for
all of them?) that have full-time social workers that work closely with
teachers and principals every week.
3) Preschool and/or pre-K outreach: This is the big topic that is being
discussed at this seminar, and several schools were on display to talk about
how they integrate pre-K with their programs, often with pre-K classrooms
being part of their school facilities. At Jefferson-Houston, pre-K has been
part of the picture for a while. There is a preK program in the building,
though it serves mostly special ed kids at the moment. Mrs. Shupe, the new
JHAA principal, and ACPS superintendent Becky Perry have talked about
expanding and deepening the pre-K commitment at JHAA -- a concept that makes
a lot of sense to parents and community members involved there.
Anyway, I just thought I'd throw this out there as fodder for thought, and
perhaps as a way to keep up and continue discussion about how best to spread
the word about the strengths of ACPS while still acknowledging its needs.
Thanks,
Lisa Krupicka
P.S. If anyone's interested, the seminar series is part of the University of
Maryland's journalism fellowship program in child and family policy.
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The
Del Ray Education Committee offers information about the fine public schools that serve Del Ray. For more information, or to join
the committee, please e-mail Brian Reid at breid@nasw.org.
"Our
Schools," frequently asked questions about Del Ray Schools
(PDF)
"Our Schools," in Spanish (coming soon)
"Why Go Public": The top reasons to consider Alexandria public schools
(coming soon)
The
public schools that serve our neighborhood:
* Mount Vernon Community School
*
Jefferson-Houston Elementary
* Cora Kelly
Elementary
* Lyles-Crouch
Elementary
* Minnie Howard
9th Grade Center
* George
Washington Middle School
* T. C. Williams
High School
Details
on attendance areas |