STUDENTS NEED MORE SUPPORT

Our students deserve the best! Right now, thousands of APS students need intensive support in reading. The academic progress dashboard shows that, last year, over one in five APS fifth graders needed intensive reading support at the end of the year, as they moved on to middle school. There is no reading screener or other measure being reported for our middle school students to track their progress.

In math, more than half of APS middle schoolers are below “proficient” on the Math Inventory assessment. There are significant disparities between South and North Arlington schools, and for Black and Hispanic students and SWDs and ELs. The percentages below the “proficient” level for these demographic groups is over 80% (over 90% for English learners).

These numbers speak to the urgent need for intervention, tutoring, robust summer school with county support, and a community-wide “all hands on deck” response.