Arlington County Schools Superintendent Robert Smith said he was pleased with the progress schools were making toward achieving strategic goals, but more work remains to bridge minority achievement gaps.
“I’m not satisfied and we have a ways to go,” Smith said in an interview with The Examiner. “As long as I can walk into a classroom and look at a Latino boy and predict that he’s going to have less success that a white, middle-class kid, then we still have a major achievement gap.
“I want to get rid of the predictability,” he added. “Social factors should not enter into the equation.”
School demographics statistics show that more than 27 percent of Arlington County’s 18,451 students are Latino. Smith, who has been with the county since 1997, said he sees “demonstrable progress” in closing this gap. According to school district statistics, the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams has tripled since Smith’s arrival. Smith said he was especially pleased that the number of minority students taking these exams has increased.
“We see more Latino, more African students” taking the classes, Smith said. “Across the board it’s going up. Even if the kids don’t get a qualifying score [making them eligible for college credit], they still do better in college than if they haven’t taken the tests.”
Smith said he was not sure what to make of a recent rise in the number of students enrolled in public schools. Enrollment has been declining consistently in recent years, and county projections saw the number of students continuing to drop.
The superintendent also defended the approximately $18,000 the school district spends annually on each student.
In comparison, neighboring Alexandria spends nearly $5,000 less per student.
“I think the community is willing to invest in education,” he said.
“I think the community understands what the schools represent to the well-being of the community.”
Smith said improvements to Yorktown and Washington and Lee High Schools are needed.
Some community leaders have questioned the amount of money the schools were spending on renovations to these schools, including an expected $24 million for Phase One renovations of Yorktown.
“These high school projects are very expensive,” he said. “Rising costs have made it more difficult, and we’re going to have to extend our time lines.”
