Best middle school in arlington
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Anonymous
Kenmore was a terrible school for our son with two learning disabilities. Terrible bullying and a non responsive principal who sweeps real problems under the carpet. Do not attend Kenmore if you can avoid it. |
Anonymous
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Every middle school has families that love it and families that hate it. Every middle school has been great for gifted kids and horrible for them. Every middle school has been great for kids with special needs and horrible for them. All depends on the kids, the teacher, the day of the week the way the wind blows.
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Anonymous
| We actually liked kenmore - hate W&L. |
Anonymous
why do you hate W&L? |
Anonymous
This here, especially for those looking to move to APS. FYI when people comment about the various schools, ask or gauge *when* this experience was. Multiple kids in APS and we feel many schools have changed a lot (class composition and sizes, EL cohort, SES status, teachers, admin, and more) over the course of just the last 5-10 years. |
Anonymous
| Definitely Williamsburg. However, that school is terrible. |
Anonymous
??? |
Anonymous
DP. Williamsburg used to have a diversity attendance island that was eliminated. |
Anonymous
so it's both the best and terrible? please explain! |
Anonymous
Probably referring to the fact that the kids are the most well off, so will have the highest scores, but also the brattiest? |
Anonymous
What is a diversity attendance island? How was it eliminated? |
Anonymous
Maybe they were moved to Hamm? My kids go to Williamsburg, and there is basically no diversity. Everyone is well off. Many are wealthy. |
Anonymous
It was an island of socio-economic and ethnic diversity (including both high end and low income areas) that sent the region of Arlington east of the Clarendon Metro to Yorktown and Williamsburg. To remove the "diversity island" as it was called, the new high school boundaries in 2018 sent the W-L neighborhoods north Lorcom Lane to Yorktown and the new Dorothy Hamm Middle School absorbed the diversity island at the middle school level. The exception is that low income apartment communities south and west of Courthouse (a core part of the former diversity island) were rezoned from Williamsburg to TJ, but they are still strangely bussed to Yorktown, as the comprehensive high school boundary changes proposed for 2021 never happened due to the pandemic. Interestingly the Yorktown zone covers five middle schools: TJ, Kenmore, Hamm, Swanson, Williamsburg. APS boundaries now prioritize contiguity in drawing boundaries over balancing diversity. So no more diversity islands going forward. |