To the Editor:
ACPS facts ... no politics, nothing personal, no rhetoric:
- ACPS and the City of Alexandria use the same auditor for its operating and overall budgets. ACPS budgets have received national awards each of the past three years as the auditors have commended our financial reports and processes. The recent CIP procedural review was part of our additional ongoing reviews of each department.
- The National School Boards Association just recognized ACPS with a First Place Magna award for its strategic planning, one of 15 school communities in the country to receive this award.
- T.C. Williams had its highest scores ever in Writing, Reading, and Mathematics last year.
- Advanced Placement enrollment was at an all time-high last year while maintaining historically high scores ... enrollments in AP courses are even higher this year.
- More eighth graders took Algebra I or Geometry last year than ever before ... with a 99 percent pass rate ... enrollments are even higher this year in eighth-grade Algebra I.
- PreSchool enrollments have increased seven-fold in ACPS in the past three years.
- Elementary math and writing scores are up.
- Enrollment has increased from 10,600 in the spring of 2008 to 12,400 in 2012, about a 17 percent increase.
- Budget increases in the past four years have averaged 2 percent per year as per pupil costs have decreased.
- We have created an amazing new curriculum which replaced our "pacing guides" based on the SOLs.
- One of our many schools to receive recognition this year, Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy is Virginia's School of Character and is one of 22 public schools recognized nationally for their accomplishments.
The list of important facts and points of pride is very long. There are many more to come in the following weeks as we honor our students accepted to prestigious colleges, receive awards in music, and set standards of accomplishment which will challenge the next generation of students.
And we will not shy away from our emphasis on candid conversations as we focus on continual improvement in all departments.
We welcome our community to visit our schools. Please see first hand the exceptional work going on in ACPS as we serve the children of Alexandria.
Morton Sherman
ACPS Superintendent of Schools