Arlington Public Schools says it is closing a math achievement gap worsened by Covid.
But a School Board watchdog group says the school system’s new progress report is missing pre-Covid data and paints a misleading picture of how far APS still has to go.
Nottingham Elementary School will not become a swing space for other schools slated for renovations, according to Arlington Public Schools.
The administration came to this conclusion last night in a “Committee of the Whole” meeting during a preview of a forthcoming report outlining the schools in need of extensive renovations.
Graffiti resembling a swastika was found Monday at Key Elementary School, according to the school’s principal.
A staff member noticed the swastika-like drawing inside a bathroom stall in the second-grade trailer, Principal Marleny Perdomo said in an email to families last night, shared with ARLnow.
Next month, Arlington Public Schools is set to roll out a new, electronic campus management platform at a number of middle and high schools.
The goal is to improve building security and provide better oversight of students as they come and go from classrooms.
Over the course of an hour last night, Arlington Public Schools teachers excoriated the School Board and central administration for how they are handling what some call a healthcare catastrophe.
On Dec. 31, APS staff will lose the healthcare they receive from Kaiser Permanente and Cigna through APS, to be replaced in January by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.
Arlington Public Schools has a new internal social media platform for families but its anonymous commenting policy prompted a tense discussion among some School Board members.
This year, the school system launched ThoughtExchange, which allows people to comment on topics or proposals administrators bring to the community for public comment. Users can also rank the comments others make 1-5 stars.
For the last decade, Arlington Public Schools has tried to increase the time students with disabilities spend with their typically abled peers.
Creating a more inclusive environment can benefit students with disabilities and their peers, according to some studies — though not all — as well as new APS academic data. But it is easier said than done.
Arlington Public Schools is pausing an impending middle school boundary process, citing stable enrollment this fall.
Earlier this year, APS was bracing for overcrowding at a few middle schools. It proposed busing some students from Dorothy Hamm and Swanson to under-capacity Williamsburg Middle School. It also floated moving the Spanish language immersion program from overcrowded Gunston to Kenmore Middle School.
(Updated at 6:35 p.m.) Black and Hispanic students remain more likely to be suspended from Arlington Public Schools than their peers, according to new data.
Specifically, Black students make up 11% of students yet 30% of suspensions, while Hispanic students make up 30% of the population and 45% of suspensions, per a presentation to the Arlington School Board yesterday (Tuesday).
High school-based behavioral health services could be in place by November or December of this year, according to the county.
In the wake of a mini-rash of student deaths earlier this year that included the fatal overdose of a 14-year-old Wakefield High School student, Arlington Public Schools and the county government began devising a joint response to the twin epidemics of substance use and mental health issues.
Williamsburg Middle School has been named a National Blue Ribbon School for 2023.
The prestigious honor from the U.S. Dept. of Education has been presented to fewer than 10,000 schools since its founding in 1982. It honors “high-performing schools and schools that are making great strides in closing any achievement gaps between students.”
