On behalf of the Arlington County Civic Federation Schools Committee, I'd like to pass on to you five questions that the Committee would like you to address during your December 6, 2005 program for the Civic Federation.

The Federation's Executive Committee has not yet set the agenda for the December, so I cannot say yet what time your program will begin that evening. However, we would like to plan that the Chairman and other Board members will take no more than 30 minutes at the beginning of the program to address the questions below, and thereafter there will be 45 minutes allotted for questions from the floor.

Here are the Committee's questions, in order of importance:

1. Below are 7 elementary schools, grouped by similar Free/Reduced Lunch demographics, 3 of which made Adequate Yearly Progress ("AYP") under the No Child Left Behind Act and 4 of which did not. Why are the same schools not making AYP for three consecutive years? Are schools with Free/Reduced Lunch percentages in excess of 50% able to make AYP? If not, what are we doing about it? If they are, what is being done to identify the successful strategies of the schools that made AYP and emulate them in those that did not?

Oakridge   63.32%       made AYP

Abingdon   67.4%        made AYP

Barcroft   61.54%       did not make AYP (missed one target)

Barrett   75.3%         made AYP

Hoffman-Boston  70.65%  did not make AYP (missed two targets)

Campbell   74.37%       did not make AYP (missed two targets)

Randolph  76.3%         did not make AYP (missed four targets)

2. What are the most significant factors that inhibited the achievement of our strategic goal to eliminate the minority achievement gap during the last five-year strategic plan?

3. Departments and programs have been evaluated via the Planning and Evaluation Department and the Accountability and Evaluation Committee since approximately 2001. What significant changes have been made as a result of these evaluations? Are there any changes you would like to see made to the evaluation process?

4. Do you anticipate any delays or changes to the 2005 Capital Improvement Plan projects (or scheduled future projects) due to rising construction costs or other factors? If so, what are they?

5. African-American students seem to consistently receive a disproportionate share of the disciplinary suspensions that are issued each year. The superintendent and the School Board hear appeals of suspensions. In your experience of dealing with appeals, what factors contribute to this disproportion?

Best regards,

Beth Wolffe
Chairman, Civic Federation Schools Committee
3204 North Tacoma St.
Arlington, VA 22213
703-536-1654 (direct dial)
703-536-8360 (fax)
WolffeLaw@verizon.net (e-mail)

This page was last revised on: November 1, 2005.