HB Woodlawn - I know nothing. Help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

No you didn’t. APS does not publish this data anywhere and, apparently, does not even track it. (Which is insane to me). Arlington Magazine publishes a list of acceptances by high school, which is absolutely different from matriculation days. For example, one kid who gets in to Harvard (and thus unsurprisingly gets into Dartmouth and Michigan and UVA) shows up four time: one acceptance at each school. This metric makes it incredible difficult to track actual college outcome results. I’m told that many students do not end up reporting to APS where they matriculate. The best you can do is scour insta posts but those are entirely self reported and highly inaccurate. And you have to be a total crazy person. Accordingly, you have no idea what the “colleges HB grads went to last year.”

You really seem sure (and angry) about this.

Sorry to disappoint you...
https://hbwoodlawn.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2022/10/2022-HBW-Profile.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

What people forget about HBW is that it’s a random lottery school and as such, it serves a general education population. I’m not sure which colleges would impress you, but if you want your child to gun for the top Ivy schools, your child will be better off going to the IB program or taking the most challenging courses at your home school as there are more opportunities to take advanced level coursework from grade 9.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

Are you comparing it to other Arlington high schools or to private schools? I have a kid at HB and it’s generally been a very good experience. I don’t think the quality of certain things rivals private schools (like writing, which is terrible throughout APS from what I can tell) but the classes are smaller and the administration is really engaged. And when it comes time for college recommendations they are written by teachers who know your kids well. I’m not sure that’s possible at the bigger schools.

That being said, it’s a pretty typical public school in this area in terms of instruction. Great teachers and mediocre ones, quirky kids and popular kids, studious kids and less studious kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

If you were not impressed with MIT, I don't know what to tell you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are trying to make the same decision.

Clearly HB has more resources and better facilities. Smaller class sizes. Better test scores.

Our impression is that it also gets, on balance, the more engaged and committed teachers—all of whom are dealing with fewer students and are more supported than at Y or WL.

But what about HB for a kid who isn’t all that “quirky”, doesn’t have an elaborate menu of pronouns, and is just a good student, highly social? It’s difficult to tell what % of the student population is fairly normal v those that are more in the (maybe stereotypical) “freaks and geeks” or ultra-woke mold that HB seems to cater to? (FTR it’s great those kids have a place they can thrive, and no issue with DC being in that kind of environment… just unclear whether *everyone* is like that or there’s more of a mix than is readily apparent.)

So your kid is "normal" and the HB kids are "freaks and geeks" or "ultra-woke"?!

HB is not for you. Please just keep your kid at his home school where he can have his "normal" experience with his bro's. Let "those kids" - your words - at HB live in peace without the toxicity your son would bring.

DP. Actually the history of HB was that it opened exactly to support kids who had those sorts of alternative learning styles for whom a large comprehensive high school wasn't a good fit. The so-called quirky kids. Over the decades it has become a haven for families wanting to get their kids out of the giant middle and and high schools and into an environment perceived as closer to a private school experience. It sounds like PP is trying to figure out exactly that, whether it's maintained its quirky vibe or if it now reflects an experience that a kid who would do just fine at Yorktown or W-L would also enjoy.

DP here. Correction: HB was founded for both the "quirky" kids with "issues" who need extra attention; BUT ALSO the naturally exceptional and brainy kids. The latter group is referring to those kids who needed challenging classes, well before GT/AAP/call it whatever existed, before the local testing center chains existed, and before certain parents sought daily tutoring for their kids to keep up with AP classes.

There was no in between (kind of student), historically. Please be sure to post accurate information. Thank you.

Let's just look at the actual source:
https://hbwoodlawn.apsva.us/all-about-h-b-woodlawn/history-of-hb/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

If you were not impressed with MIT, I don't know what to tell you.

Also, not every kid WANTS to go to and Ivy or Stanford or MIT and aren't going to apply. Sometimes kids LIKE another school and want to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC was just offered a spot at HB Woodlawn for 9th. I know very little about the school and would love some info bc there is not much online. DC is very young for his grade (September day and will start HS at 13). We have discussed having him repeat 8th bc he isn’t ready for HS. He does have some executive function and attention issues but is bright and very bored in middle school. Our home school Yorktown HS is so big we are afraid he will get eaten alive or lost in the shuffle bc he’s young, immature and small too.

Can anyone explain what exactly HB is, whether it’s a good alternative school option for a kid with DC’s profile?

OP, so did you accept or decline the spot? And how did you come to your decision?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

If you were not impressed with MIT, I don't know what to tell you.

Also, not every kid WANTS to go to and Ivy or Stanford or MIT and aren't going to apply. Sometimes kids LIKE another school and want to go there.

Excellent point. My kid applied ED to a great (but not top) LAC. By choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

I would like to see this and other HB stats. The one thing HB has is its very tiny size. Other than that it's a bit frustrating that on information nights etc. parents are always told that the actual statistics are mixed in with the "origin" high schools of each student. Or has this changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

I would like to see this and other HB stats. The one thing HB has is its very tiny size. Other than that it's a bit frustrating that on information nights etc. parents are always told that the actual statistics are mixed in with the "origin" high schools of each student. Or has this changed?

All HB stats have always been mixed with the home schools, because HB is technically not a school. I’ve never seen the data separated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

I would like to see this and other HB stats. The one thing HB has is its very tiny size. Other than that it's a bit frustrating that on information nights etc. parents are always told that the actual statistics are mixed in with the "origin" high schools of each student. Or has this changed?

All HB stats have always been mixed with the home schools, because HB is technically not a school. I’ve never seen the data separated.

The data should be pulled out for evaluation purposes, even if not for official school stats or reporting. If we're going to pay to operate a special/option program, the results of that program should be made clear so that its value and justification can be evaluated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

I would like to see this and other HB stats. The one thing HB has is its very tiny size. Other than that it's a bit frustrating that on information nights etc. parents are always told that the actual statistics are mixed in with the "origin" high schools of each student. Or has this changed?

All HB stats have always been mixed with the home schools, because HB is technically not a school. I’ve never seen the data separated.

The data should be pulled out for evaluation purposes, even if not for official school stats or reporting. If we're going to pay to operate a special/option program, the results of that program should be made clear so that its value and justification can be evaluated.

Adding: if APS isn't willing to do this, then I suspect it's because the outcomes are not anything special relative to the other comprehensive schools. APS will cite an inability to do this due to current reporting systems and/or limited staff resources. But I cannot believe it does not have basic information like classes taken, GPAs, and test scores of its students.

[Anonymous]

Except for the SOLs, APS puts achievement data for the HS programs on its dashboard:

https://www.apsva.us/departments/superintendents-office/student-progress-dashboard/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the colleges the grads of HB went to last year and I wasn't super impressed. Are we sure it is a good school?

I would like to see this and other HB stats. The one thing HB has is its very tiny size. Other than that it's a bit frustrating that on information nights etc. parents are always told that the actual statistics are mixed in with the "origin" high schools of each student. Or has this changed?

All HB stats have always been mixed with the home schools, because HB is technically not a school. I’ve never seen the data separated.

The data should be pulled out for evaluation purposes, even if not for official school stats or reporting. If we're going to pay to operate a special/option program, the results of that program should be made clear so that its value and justification can be evaluated.

Adding: if APS isn't willing to do this, then I suspect it's because the outcomes are not anything special relative to the other comprehensive schools. APS will cite an inability to do this due to current reporting systems and/or limited staff resources. But I cannot believe it does not have basic information like classes taken, GPAs, and test scores of its students.

Or it could the outcomes are so much better they don’t want to fan the inequity between the programs even hotter.

They could have expanded Hb to 1000 students, on a site that had been planned for 1500 neighborhoods middle school, and still been tiny compared to neighborhood high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC was just offered a spot at HB Woodlawn for 9th. I know very little about the school and would love some info bc there is not much online. DC is very young for his grade (September day and will start HS at 13). We have discussed having him repeat 8th bc he isn’t ready for HS. He does have some executive function and attention issues but is bright and very bored in middle school. Our home school Yorktown HS is so big we are afraid he will get eaten alive or lost in the shuffle bc he’s young, immature and small too.

Can anyone explain what exactly HB is, whether it’s a good alternative school option for a kid with DC’s profile?

Genuine question: Why on EARTH would you enter the lottery if you didn't know anything about the school?

We entered because we've heard good things, but didn't spend much time investigating the school given our 3% chance of getting a spot. We figured we could do our research and make a choice if it becomes a real option for us. No need to become attached or waste time doing research given the miniscule chances that it's even an option for us. Totally rational.

Exactly. The schools reputation precedes itself. That’s why most all parents apply.