On another note, however, I would like to weigh in on why we lose kids from the district to charters, private schools and homeschooling. While I have only anecdotal evidence, it’s quite a bit of anectdotal evidence, as I have many friends who have chosen thusly either from the beginning of their kids’ education, or after a few years in the AAPS. I’ve probably talked to two dozen families in this situation, and every one of them have included two big complaints which can be summarized into two issues — class sizes that are too big, and too much standardized testing.

These families were looking for more creative, hands-on, in-depth learning not defined by the tests. And such learning demands more hands-on time from the teachers as well, which smaller class sizes allows for.

I don’t think it’s so complicated. And I don’t think spending money on PR is going to fix it.