Our Current Work

During the month of August, we published a series of Substack posts focusing on high school overcrowding, in preparation for Aug & Sept school board meetings. Check them out!

Our Oct 2025 meeting was held on Weds, Oct 15. Minutes and Substack coming soon.

Resources shared with Family Council Reps ahead of the meeting:

• Survey Comments 2025: Struggling Learners. Also see 2024 Comments.

• ACPS SOL Results Compared to State – Added 2 slides at end on how to find your school’s data & what the bar graphs show.

  • Optional: Sept 11 school board presentation (jumps to start of section) talking through SOL results by subject area. (Bellwether status starts here, followed by QnA.)

  • Optional: If you aren’t familiar with the Bellwether Audit conducted for ACPS, please review.

  • Optional: See Family Council Oct 2023 meeting on reading intervention & approved advocacy, which led to increase in reading specialist staff.

• Dramatic Gains in 3rd Grade Reading by Birmingham – article shared by Dr. Haas via his weekly update to staff.

  • Optional: District Leadership for Racial Equity: Lessons from School Systems that are Closing the Gap – New book from Linda Darling Hammond, including chapters on 4 districts. If you want a deeper dive without reading the whole book, see the Conclusion.

  • Optional: ACPS leader Dr. McLaughlin explained in the Sept 11 meeting that 97% of the actions recommended by Bellwether are complete. For reference, here’s the status document.

Family Council does not hold a meeting in December, but we do continue the work! Stay tuned for updates.

Our January 2026 meeting will be held on Weds, Jan 21.

Our February 2026 meeting will be held on Weds, Feb 18.

Our April 2026 meeting will be held on Weds, April 15.