HB Woodlawn provides unfair advantage to students for college since no intensified classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you a student or a parent? This seems like faulty logic a kid would latch on to.

Or a parent from a country where university admissions (and therefore career prospects) is very numbers driven, so little things like this take on outsize importance.

Because we don't have the Fairfax AAP system we don't usually see as much of this--parents openly fretting about their high-performing kids getting into the most competitive/prestigious classes. Usually in Arlington it's the other direction, parents worrying about how good the schools are at implementing IEPs or the social/safety aspects of schools.

[Anonymous]

Again it doesn't even matter. If OP's kid doesn't want to take intensified classes, they aren't getting into an elite college anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

also if the poster views it as has to take the AP classes and intensified classes, then they are not going to make it to an elite college. and even if they somehow do, they are not going to be very happy once they get there and have to compete with students who seek out and thrive on the challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

This is a huge unfair advantage in my book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

This is a huge unfair advantage in my book.

I should add, as is the fact that all courses move at an "intensified" pace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

This is a huge unfair advantage in my book.

Well, again you don't know what you're talking about. Look at it this way. The kids who take AP classes at HB have 1/5 less class time to learn all the material and prepare for the same exam. I guess you think that's somehow an advantage too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The time and energy that some of you have to devote to the absolute *minutiae* of your kids’ HS, and the minute theoretical impact that this thing or that may have on their college admissions process—and implicitly, their lives and worth as human beings?—is at once astounding, sad, and batsh&t insane.

Tell your kid you work hard, try new stuff, be kind. Eat dinner with them sometimes. The rest will take care of itself.

Yours is a white privilege argument. Not everyone has the accumulated generational wealth and extended family where a degree less of "success" or "wealth" can be mitigated. Not everyone can putz along in high school and college and gain easy entree in the professional fields that their parent, grandparent, or family friend are entrenched in. Not everyone has the comfort in knowing that they qualify for closer to 100% of the available seats at a given school/firm but other less desirables are gatekept by history or quotas and must fight with each other over a number of seats that is much fewer than 100%. White kids are allowed to mess up many times and call it growth through experience; others may not even get a second chance. How easy it is to gaslight others when you think you're punching down.

It’s not “white kids” it’s rich kids. So tired of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

This is a huge unfair advantage in my book.

Well, again you don't know what you're talking about. Look at it this way. The kids who take AP classes at HB have 1/5 less class time to learn all the material and prepare for the same exam. I guess you think that's somehow an advantage too?

One thing can be an advantage and a different thing be a disadvantage. Not a matter of not knowing what I'm talking about. Rather, knowing what is being talked about. Being able to take more electives is an advantage and has nothing to do with how much time there is to get ready for an AP exam. But you go ahead and keep clinging to the unfairness of the HB AP situation outweighing anything else or anyone else's opinions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

You are very fixated on a small number of students at one school and how, you perceive, they have a leg up on your student. And really, given that not all students at HBW are aiming to compete for top schools, it’s really even a small cohort you are obsessing about.

My guess is that you wanted your high achieving student to attend HBW but did not get a spot. If that is the case, I am very sorry about that. Personally, I wish that HBW would get rid of the middle school and expand the high school seats so that more students can see if HBW is the right school for them.

+1

I would be for HB as HS seats only, too. But I think “self governance” and “fostering independence” are ridiculous excuses for the fact that HB is just very, very small, and all the advantages (and some disadvantages) stem simply from that fact and not that the kids are allowed to run around Rosslyn on their lunch break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

This is a huge unfair advantage in my book.

Well, again you don't know what you're talking about. Look at it this way. The kids who take AP classes at HB have 1/5 less class time to learn all the material and prepare for the same exam. I guess you think that's somehow an advantage too?

One thing can be an advantage and a different thing be a disadvantage. Not a matter of not knowing what I'm talking about. Rather, knowing what is being talked about. Being able to take more electives is an advantage and has nothing to do with how much time there is to get ready for an AP exam. But you go ahead and keep clinging to the unfairness of the HB AP situation outweighing anything else or anyone else's opinions.

Ok let's refresh what's being talking about. I guess I have to remind you that you literally said a couple posts above that HB kids have an advantage because all courses move at an "intensified" pace.

I pointed out in response that this isn't actually the advantage that you think it is.

As for being able to take more electives, I guess they can in theory. But the kids at HB are counseled not to fill up all 8 periods so the vast majority take 7 classes, same as the other schools. And HB has far fewer electives to choose from anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is my experience having one child HB, and one child at Washington and liberty. Washington and liberty is definitely more of a pressure cooker. My son picks up things quickly and is doing well at Washington and liberty but he definitely is stressed out and has a lot of homework. My daughter tries very hard but it’s not as academically gifted. She is at HB I can tell you she doesn’t have the level of homework that my son does. In addition, she has a free period every day that all HB students get and so she has an opportunity to do homework during that period. I’m not saying one is better than the other and I think for each of my kids are in the right school.

I wouldn’t generalize. My HB kid and her friends expressed way more college and academic pressure than my YHS kid and his friends did. It really is about the cohort.

Truthfully I found both to be academically very comparable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

You are very fixated on a small number of students at one school and how, you perceive, they have a leg up on your student. And really, given that not all students at HBW are aiming to compete for top schools, it’s really even a small cohort you are obsessing about.

My guess is that you wanted your high achieving student to attend HBW but did not get a spot. If that is the case, I am very sorry about that. Personally, I wish that HBW would get rid of the middle school and expand the high school seats so that more students can see if HBW is the right school for them.

+1

I would be for HB as HS seats only, too. But I think “self governance” and “fostering independence” are ridiculous excuses for the fact that HB is just very, very small, and all the advantages (and some disadvantages) stem simply from that fact and not that the kids are allowed to run around Rosslyn on their lunch break.

The independence has nothing to do with having an open campus, most of them don't go further than the 7-11 and CVS next door. The difference is that they aren't monitored constantly by a bunch of vice principals and hall monitors and don't have to account for every minute of their day to an adult--they are accountable for getting their work done, not for being in a certain place at a certain time except for scheduled classes. They have to learn to manage free periods and free time, which is preparation for college. So yes, it's an advantage, and it also wouldn't work at a school with 3,000 kids, and it also wouldn't work at a school with a lot of kids who aren't super interested in being at school all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

People keep repeating this, but it is not accurate. HB does offer intensified math options in every grade. I wish people that don't actually know would stop repeating things that are not true.

And it is also worth noting that at least in middle school, HB's courses all move at an "intensified" pace because they have to compress the curriculum into a shorter amount of total class hours than the other schools, to allow for their extra electives, weekly town hall, etc.

This is a huge unfair advantage in my book.

I should add, as is the fact that all courses move at an "intensified" pace.

I am sorry but this is completely untrue. Besides math, the other classes are not intensified at HB. I have a kid at HB and one at Washington and Liberty. There is a HUGE difference in the depth of the content between the intensified classes and the classes my daughter takes at HB. I am not sure how you think having a shorter period of time for the class amounts to an intensified class. This just means they have less time to start homework in the class etc. The curriculum mirrors the non-intensified classes at the other APS. You can ask any teacher at HB and they will confirm this. You clearly don’t know what an intensified class is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s not forget HB that there are no intensified classes offered. You keep talking about AP classes but fail to mention that your students are taking all basic classes with those. The students at Yorktown, Wakefield, and W&L are having to take these AP classes along with intensified classes to be competitive.

You are very fixated on a small number of students at one school and how, you perceive, they have a leg up on your student. And really, given that not all students at HBW are aiming to compete for top schools, it’s really even a small cohort you are obsessing about.

My guess is that you wanted your high achieving student to attend HBW but did not get a spot. If that is the case, I am very sorry about that. Personally, I wish that HBW would get rid of the middle school and expand the high school seats so that more students can see if HBW is the right school for them.

+1

I would be for HB as HS seats only, too. But I think “self governance” and “fostering independence” are ridiculous excuses for the fact that HB is just very, very small, and all the advantages (and some disadvantages) stem simply from that fact and not that the kids are allowed to run around Rosslyn on their lunch break.

The independence has nothing to do with having an open campus, most of them don't go further than the 7-11 and CVS next door. The difference is that they aren't monitored constantly by a bunch of vice principals and hall monitors and don't have to account for every minute of their day to an adult--they are accountable for getting their work done, not for being in a certain place at a certain time except for scheduled classes. They have to learn to manage free periods and free time, which is preparation for college. So yes, it's an advantage, and it also wouldn't work at a school with 3,000 kids, and it also wouldn't work at a school with a lot of kids who aren't super interested in being at school all day.

Open campus works with schools of all sizes, large and small. Montgomery County’s large high schools for example. When HB Woodlawn was created, all Arlington high schools had open campus for all grades.

Currently, open campus is limited to seniors at the comprehensive schools. With the shorter lunch periods though, and on-campus parking which is now hard to find, I doubt many leave at lunch. Perhaps a handful of seniors walk to Ballston, the Rt 7 fast food joints, or Langston Harrison, but that’s probably it.