Arlington schools- a lot of the BS sounds familiar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ Thank you for this. I'm off to the APS site now. We have a reasonable housing budget, so I don't want to waste my time freaking out about where to go for school if that can be avoided. I just don't want my kids in a trailer at a school, or zoned somewhere which may as well be back in DCPS with all of that drama. Sorry, if I sound obnoxious. I've just been through a terrible family situation and having to rethink moving amid the school schuffle mumbo has made me a certified whack job. I'd never admit that in person, though!

Not to discourage you but you likely will have to accommodate yourself to trailers. The N Arlington schools and most of the choice schools have them at this point. There's been a real boom in the number of kids in most of the schools and the county is trying to adapt.

really?

trailers aren't the end of the world, but there are plenty of NA schools without them. Yes, you probably can't go to Williamsburg for middle without a trailer in elementary, but so what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HB should be moved to south Arlington.

Why? IT's a county-wide school so it doesn't matter where it is located physically.

[Anonymous]

regarding where H-B Woodlawn is located:

I think your opinion on this depends in part on whether you place a high value on having a diverse student body and how you think about "fairness." Right now, the location of the school in the wealthier part of the county means that it is more accessible to wealthy families than to poor ones, with kids in the poorer part of the county required to make a greater effort to get to school than kids in the wealthier part of the county. Kids who live in South Arlington expend more effort to get to HB--they travel further so they have to get up earlier in the morning to get there and it takes them longer to get home in the afternoon. It is a greater burden on them especially if they want to participate in sports in their home schools. And the families in S. Arlington who take on this burden are likely to be ones with greater resources. Just look at the stats on kids receiving free or reduced lunch at H-B compared with the other high/middle schools:

Gunston--39%
Jefferson--46%
Kenmore--53%
Swanson--15%
Williamsburg--13%
Wakefield--48%
W-L--30%
Yorktown--13%

H-B--16%

That rate is ridiculously off for a school that is supposedly representative of all the elementary schools in the county (since that it the way slots are allocated, by elementary school enrollment. The overall rate for the county is 30%.). H-B is, essentially, a bastion of white privilege, which flies in the face of its very ethos. (Ask yourself why parents who clamor to get their kids into ATS turn around 5 years later and start agitating for H-B--the very opposite in pedagogic philosophy.) And I say this as a strong supporter of the school and its pedagogy. (My own children do not go there.)

Moving the school to S. Arlington, IMO, would level the playing field somewhat. For a number of reasons, the school may always appeal more to a certain demographic, but there is no reason why the deck should be stacked so strongly in that direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:regarding where H-B Woodlawn is located:

I think your opinion on this depends in part on whether you place a high value on having a diverse student body and how you think about "fairness." Right now, the location of the school in the wealthier part of the county means that it is more accessible to wealthy families than to poor ones, with kids in the poorer part of the county required to make a greater effort to get to school than kids in the wealthier part of the county. Kids who live in South Arlington expend more effort to get to HB--they travel further so they have to get up earlier in the morning to get there and it takes them longer to get home in the afternoon. It is a greater burden on them especially if they want to participate in sports in their home schools. And the families in S. Arlington who take on this burden are likely to be ones with greater resources. Just look at the stats on kids receiving free or reduced lunch at H-B compared with the other high/middle schools:

Gunston--39%
Jefferson--46%
Kenmore--53%
Swanson--15%
Williamsburg--13%
Wakefield--48%
W-L--30%
Yorktown--13%

H-B--16%

That rate is ridiculously off for a school that is supposedly representative of all the elementary schools in the county (since that it the way slots are allocated, by elementary school enrollment. The overall rate for the county is 30%.). H-B is, essentially, a bastion of white privilege, which flies in the face of its very ethos. (Ask yourself why parents who clamor to get their kids into ATS turn around 5 years later and start agitating for H-B--the very opposite in pedagogic philosophy.) And I say this as a strong supporter of the school and its pedagogy. (My own children do not go there.)

Moving the school to S. Arlington, IMO, would level the playing field somewhat. For a number of reasons, the school may always appeal more to a certain demographic, but there is no reason why the deck should be stacked so strongly in that direction.

If you follow your logic and implication that if H-B were moved to South Arlington to attract more brown people, the test scores and quality would drop since presumably that would probably drop accordingly.

Your "bastion of white privilege" comment is stunningly offensive.

[Anonymous]

Is the statement offensive because it implies parents are seeking out a certain color environment? I don't think that's always true but I think maybe it is sometimes. Perhaps "privileged bastion" would be more accurate. Regardless, the outcome is that it is a student body that is much more white and wealthy than the rest of the county. And as a county-wide school, it should be more representative IMO.

I do think that the choice schools in general are often avenues by which parents seeking "bastions" (from whatever) can separate themselves from the unwashed masses, so to speak. (I have two kids in regular APS, so I'll include them among the unwashed, LOL, and one kid at H-B.)

The merits of HB don't have anything to do with test scores. But that's a misconception many wealthy parents have. To the extent that test scores have anything to do with family income (answer: everything, LOL), test scores would drop if more low income families chose the school. But I don't think the staff at HB think those scores have anything whatsoever to do with the quality of education they provide. The test scores might drop, but the educational experience could be enriched in other, more important, ways. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Funny: A person saying that brown people bring low test scores is criticizing a poster for using the an offensive phrase like "white bastion."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny: A person saying that brown people bring low test scores is criticizing a poster for using the an offensive phrase like "white bastion."

+1

[Anonymous]

Thank you, 13:46.

A fellow North Arlingtonian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, 13:46.

A fellow North Arlingtonian

+1. Our DC is still in elementary school but we know a family with a child at ATS that is hoping to send their DC to H-B -- it certainly surprised me because the whole educational philosophy of H-B seems to me to be the opposite of ATS.

We do have a high degree of segregation in the Arlington schools - the elementary schools in N Arlington (except for Glebe, Barrett, and McKinley) are 85+% white. Accompanying that is a decent amount of unacknowledged racism -- you read the comments of N Arlington parents here on DCUM and you realize behind the smiling facade of diversity in Arlington is a lot of raw prejudice and racism.

I don't think the demographics of N Arlington are in fact 85+% white but my guess is that many non-white families (or adoptive families with non-white kids) up here opt for the countywide schools to avoid their kids being "the only one" (or pretty close to it) in their grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:regarding where H-B Woodlawn is located:

I think your opinion on this depends in part on whether you place a high value on having a diverse student body and how you think about "fairness." Right now, the location of the school in the wealthier part of the county means that it is more accessible to wealthy families than to poor ones, with kids in the poorer part of the county required to make a greater effort to get to school than kids in the wealthier part of the county. Kids who live in South Arlington expend more effort to get to HB--they travel further so they have to get up earlier in the morning to get there and it takes them longer to get home in the afternoon. It is a greater burden on them especially if they want to participate in sports in their home schools. And the families in S. Arlington who take on this burden are likely to be ones with greater resources. Just look at the stats on kids receiving free or reduced lunch at H-B compared with the other high/middle schools:

Gunston--39%
Jefferson--46%
Kenmore--53%
Swanson--15%
Williamsburg--13%
Wakefield--48%
W-L--30%
Yorktown--13%

H-B--16%

That rate is ridiculously off for a school that is supposedly representative of all the elementary schools in the county (since that it the way slots are allocated, by elementary school enrollment. The overall rate for the county is 30%.). H-B is, essentially, a bastion of white privilege, which flies in the face of its very ethos. (Ask yourself why parents who clamor to get their kids into ATS turn around 5 years later and start agitating for H-B--the very opposite in pedagogic philosophy.) And I say this as a strong supporter of the school and its pedagogy. (My own children do not go there.)

Moving the school to S. Arlington, IMO, would level the playing field somewhat. For a number of reasons, the school may always appeal more to a certain demographic, but there is no reason why the deck should be stacked so strongly in that direction.

People don't "clamor" to get into ATS, nor do they "agitate" to get into HB. They just fill out a single piece of paper to enter the double-blind lottery. Just like anyone else who wants to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People don't "clamor" to get into ATS, nor do they "agitate" to get into HB. They just fill out a single piece of paper to enter the double-blind lottery. Just like anyone else who wants to.

They fill out the piece of paper and then they wind themselves in knots about whether they'll get in and post here to say "We're 312th on the waiting list, what are our chances."

And honestly, if you sent your kid to ATS and can't stop talking about how it was the greatest thing ever and then applied to HB, you are fixated on something other than educational philosophy when picking schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People don't "clamor" to get into ATS, nor do they "agitate" to get into HB. They just fill out a single piece of paper to enter the double-blind lottery. Just like anyone else who wants to.

They fill out the piece of paper and then they wind themselves in knots about whether they'll get in and post here to say "We're 312th on the waiting list, what are our chances."

And honestly, if you sent your kid to ATS and can't stop talking about how it was the greatest thing ever and then applied to HB, you are fixated on something other than educational philosophy when picking schools.

The philosophies of the two schools are polar opposites. I always wondered about ATS families that then embrace the culture at HB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People don't "clamor" to get into ATS, nor do they "agitate" to get into HB. They just fill out a single piece of paper to enter the double-blind lottery. Just like anyone else who wants to.

They fill out the piece of paper and then they wind themselves in knots about whether they'll get in and post here to say "We're 312th on the waiting list, what are our chances."

And honestly, if you sent your kid to ATS and can't stop talking about how it was the greatest thing ever and then applied to HB, you are fixated on something other than educational philosophy when picking schools.

It makes perfect sense to me and from what I hear from ppl who have done both, it works well. ATS for the solid academic foundation and STRONG emphasis on character development and "doing the right thing." Then HB where you can have confidence in them and trust in them knowing what the right thing is and letting go enough for them to put it in action.

Also, anytime someone feels the need to start a sentence with "[i]Honestly..." it just shouts out either "Normally I'm not honest, but just this once i'm going to be." OR "I'm now about to lie."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, 13:46.

A fellow North Arlingtonian

+1. Our DC is still in elementary school but we know a family with a child at ATS that is hoping to send their DC to H-B -- it certainly surprised me because the whole educational philosophy of H-B seems to me to be the opposite of ATS.

We do have a high degree of segregation in the Arlington schools - the elementary schools in N Arlington (except for Glebe, Barrett, and McKinley) are 85+% white. Accompanying that is a decent amount of unacknowledged racism -- you read the comments of N Arlington parents here on DCUM and you realize behind the smiling facade of diversity in Arlington is a lot of raw prejudice and racism.

I don't think the demographics of N Arlington are in fact 85+% white but my guess is that many non-white families (or adoptive families with non-white kids) up here opt for the countywide schools to avoid their kids being "the only one" (or pretty close to it) in their grade

Since you want to talk about racial demographics, understand that Arlington itself is 62% white and only 8.2% black. It is 15% Hispanic/Latino, and that community has off-the-charts drop-out rate for school.

Been looking for H-B racial makeup. But I bet it tracks the county more generally. White privilege bastion and all that.

(Here's a tip: When you start throwing around phrases like "white privilege" in an otherwise serious conversation, you immediately disqualify yourself as a thoughtful and credible participant).

[Anonymous]

Arlington demographics:

http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/CPHD/planning/data_maps/profile/file87509.pdf