Jefferson middle school Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math options situation is the same at TJMS as Arlington wide. What's unique about Jefferson?

*School uses the indoor track they share with the city rec center in the same building for PE.
*School has an unusually nice auditorium/stage, again shared with city.
*School offers more languages than the other APS middle schools, and from 6th grade Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, ASL, Russian and German on demand on-line. Unusually advanced students can have their own on-line classes in 8th grade in any of these languages.
*8th grade geography for all in 8th grade due to IB Middle Years curriculum, students can take advanced geog for HS credit.
*Particularly good band, chorus and orchestra due to strong music director, "Ms. T."

Yes, more poor kids than several of the AP neighborhood middle schools but good discipline and stable teaching force manage the poor kids well enough for us. Only around 1/4 of the student at Jefferson are zoned for Washington-Liberty, but the group includes many high performers academically. Moreover, other strong students often try to lottery/test into IB studies at W-L. In a nutshell, the IBD program at W-L keeps a good cohort of strong TJMS students together for HS.

Seems like many would prefer Wakefield now given how large W-L is getting. Nicer building, too.

Wakefield has a nice building, but the W-L students seem to enjoy the brand new building which opened last year. On the whole the W-L facilities are on par with Wakefield and Yorktown. They’re just larger in terms of sq footage and capacity (larger gym, cafeteria, auditorium, other common spaces).

[Anonymous]

Hamm no question.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure there is a bright cadre of kids at Jefferson but there are way more kids on balance who are going to have needs just due to demographics. Hamm is going to have — again on balance — a much larger group of very bright, very motivated kids. It’s my belief that kids are some of the strongest influences on each other and while you could find your way into that group at Jefferson for sure you are much more likely to have that opportunity at Hamm plus the overall dynamic is going to be less needs driven.

[Anonymous]

Every 8th grader in APS takes world geography, and it counts for high school credit for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 6th grader and an 8th grader at TJMS and like it just fine. My kids both play wind instruments seriously and think that the band director is terrific. She organizes a band members' field trip to an amusement park in the spring. We like the diversity - my kids have sweet friends whose families immigrated from Asia, the Middle East, Central America. These kids are good student and study buddies. We don't hear about discipline problems. The 8th grader takes intensified core classes across the board, for science, English, geography for HS credit, algebra II. When my older child was admitted to a competitive STEM summer sleep-away camp the spring that ran during the last week of school, she was excused from school that week by admins not only with zero fuss, but with encouragement to go enjoy the camp. Friendly, well-run school.

That is really interesting about Algebra II. I did not realize that APS offered Algebra II in middle school.

Algebra II is not on the middle school pathway for math. They might offer it to kids under special circumstances, but it’s definitely not the norm.

This was a number of years ago, but my kid (who is now a senior in college double majoring in math and computer science) took Algebra II via an on-line course while at Gunston (this was, of course, pre-COVID). He got an A, but really didn't learn much, and really struggled in math the following year when he went to TJHSST. Eventually he got his feet under him and has done well, but that level of acceleration (which was initiated by the school when he was in 6th grade and did extremely well on the beginning of year assessment) didn't really do him any favors, though he did well in Algebra I and Geometry in 6th and 7th grade, respectively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure there is a bright cadre of kids at Jefferson but there are way more kids on balance who are going to have needs just due to demographics. Hamm is going to have — again on balance — a much larger group of very bright, very motivated kids. It’s my belief that kids are some of the strongest influences on each other and while you could find your way into that group at Jefferson for sure you are much more likely to have that opportunity at Hamm plus the overall dynamic is going to be less needs driven.

It's my belief that Hamm exceptionalism is tiresome. Some of us don't want to buy or live in N Arlington. We have work commutes to manage, family budgets to live within and neighborhood connections we value too much to give them up by moving north. My TJMS students have a large enough peer group of "very bright, very motivated" kids to rub shoulders with at school. Believe it or not, some of these kids aren't from well-off families. Heaven help us, they're from hardscrabble recent immigrant families where academic success is paramount. Their parents may have been professionals in Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela or Mongolia, but some of them are janitors or Lyft drivers in VA for now. Needs-driven peers who put nose to the grindstone and don't compete to have the snazziest stuff seem like good influences on my spoiled UMC children.

[Anonymous]

Agree 100%. Uptight parents who boost for Hamm are a drag. TJMS remains a solid choice for the mildly adventurous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math options situation is the same at TJMS as Arlington wide. What's unique about Jefferson?

*School uses the indoor track they share with the city rec center in the same building for PE.
*School has an unusually nice auditorium/stage, again shared with city.
*School offers more languages than the other APS middle schools, and from 6th grade Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, ASL, Russian and German on demand on-line. Unusually advanced students can have their own on-line classes in 8th grade in any of these languages.
*8th grade geography for all in 8th grade due to IB Middle Years curriculum, students can take advanced geog for HS credit.
*Particularly good band, chorus and orchestra due to strong music director, "Ms. T."

Yes, more poor kids than several of the AP neighborhood middle schools but good discipline and stable teaching force manage the poor kids well enough for us. Only around 1/4 of the student at Jefferson are zoned for Washington-Liberty, but the group includes many high performers academically. Moreover, other strong students often try to lottery/test into IB studies at W-L. In a nutshell, the IBD program at W-L keeps a good cohort of strong TJMS students together for HS.

Seems like many would prefer Wakefield now given how large W-L is getting. Nicer building, too.

Yeah, right. 'cause the building is why people steer away from Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure there is a bright cadre of kids at Jefferson but there are way more kids on balance who are going to have needs just due to demographics. Hamm is going to have — again on balance — a much larger group of very bright, very motivated kids. It’s my belief that kids are some of the strongest influences on each other and while you could find your way into that group at Jefferson for sure you are much more likely to have that opportunity at Hamm plus the overall dynamic is going to be less needs driven.

It's my belief that Hamm exceptionalism is tiresome. Some of us don't want to buy or live in N Arlington. We have work commutes to manage, family budgets to live within and neighborhood connections we value too much to give them up by moving north. My TJMS students have a large enough peer group of "very bright, very motivated" kids to rub shoulders with at school. Believe it or not, some of these kids aren't from well-off families. Heaven help us, they're from hardscrabble recent immigrant families where academic success is paramount. Their parents may have been professionals in Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela or Mongolia, but some of them are janitors or Lyft drivers in VA for now. Needs-driven peers who put nose to the grindstone and don't compete to have the snazziest stuff seem like good influences on my spoiled UMC children.

+1000!
Plus, the opportunity to be around so many peers from so many different backgrounds (not just racial backgrounds, but just as importantly economic backgrounds) deters the attitudes of entitlement and superiority that are espoused by so many anti-South Arlington school comments that pervade DCUM. That, and their ability to understand and communicate and work with people of all sorts, will also benefit them in their future careers and just life in general.

[Anonymous]

NP who likes living in South Arlington with kids at UVA, WL and TJMS who couldn’t agree more.

[Anonymous]

Could be just lucky, but all outstanding teachers so far in every single subject at TJMS. Director of after-school activities is awesome. Feel the school is well run and well organized.
Thankful to have the IB grading system (not affected by APS' "standard based grading"). Most languages offered of all MS - as far as we know, starting in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Same. 6th grader off to a great start. She tested 2 years ahead in math, speaks a language taught at school at home (language teacher sometimes gives her challenging work just for her) and plays a wind instrument decently. She likes band best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could be just lucky, but all outstanding teachers so far in every single subject at TJMS. Director of after-school activities is awesome. Feel the school is well run and well organized.
Thankful to have the IB grading system (not affected by APS' "standard based grading"). Most languages offered of all MS - as far as we know, starting in 6th.

Not true! Formatives are not graded under the IB system. Please do more research into the consequences of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could be just lucky, but all outstanding teachers so far in every single subject at TJMS. Director of after-school activities is awesome. Feel the school is well run and well organized.
Thankful to have the IB grading system (not affected by APS' "standard based grading"). Most languages offered of all MS - as far as we know, starting in 6th.

Not true! Formatives are not graded under the IB system. Please do more research into the consequences of this.

The IB rubric system is still more aligned with the SBG concept. So it's not as big of a jump.

[Anonymous]

TJ is a really good school. The administration is strong, responsive and effective. There are a ton of extracurriculars and after school activities and the teachers and other school staff are really committed. We have had two kids there with very different needs and the school has met them both well. The diversity is a big plus too.