Explain Arlington Traditional School to me

[Anonymous]

OP here. Got it on the diversity issue.

Anything else of relevance in terms of academics other than what 16:10 has shared, and some have disputed as being not that different from other Arl schools?

[Anonymous]

I don't have personal experience, so take this for what it's worth. From what I understand, the main academic differences are the one-teacher idea, grade promotion based entirely on performance (e.g. no social or automatic progression, although it's hard to picture other Arl. schools just pushing kids through), traditional teaching methods (no new or potentially trendy approaches to teaching math & reading), and homework for all. Socially, they have a dress code, are pretty vigilant about behavior even on the playground, and I've heard they have very involved families. That being said, I'm not sure if any of those things is terribly different from other schools except maybe the behavior piece. There are lots of complaints from parents about what's allowed at some other schools in terms of behavior & playground bullying.

[Anonymous]

So which schools are NOT like ATS? Are any more progressive? ASFS?

[Anonymous]

ASFS seems to be pretty structured, too. The most progressive is presumably the Montessori program at Drew.

We're at Taylor, and it trends pretty groovy.

[Anonymous]

True, ATS isn't just a N Arlington school. But I would love to see statistics on how many S Arlington people apply for the lottery there vs. N. Arlington residents. The vast majority of the kids who got in via the lottery/sibling (all except the VPI kids) live in N. Arlington.

[Anonymous]

I have heard the APS stats at a work session on overcrowding, and most children at ATS are from McKinley, Glebe, etc. The stats show that proximity to the choice school affects the number of people who apply, which then results in most of the kids coming from closer neighborhoods to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard the APS stats at a work session on overcrowding, and most children at ATS are from McKinley, Glebe, etc. The stats show that proximity to the choice school affects the number of people who apply, which then results in most of the kids coming from closer neighborhoods to the school.

Exactly. Proximity is the main factor. Many of the neighborhoods now zoned to McKinley and Glebe had three local neighborhood schools: Stonewall Jackson Elem, which is now houses ATS, Walter Reed Elem, which now houses the new Westover library and a preschool, and Woodlawn Elem which is now a hospice. Families in these neighborhoods have been very attracted by the proximity of ATS when it moved to its current location in the mid-90s. When ATS was housed at Page (which houses ASF today), many of the families at ATS (then called Page Traditional) were zoned to Taylor and Key.

With a school board member's support, a few years ago, affluent residents in near Lacy Woods supported moving ATS out of the Jackson building to create a new neighborhood school to alleviate crowding at McKinley. In the end ATS, remained in place, and the neighborhood is happy with overcrowded Mckinley, which is one of the highest performing elementary schools in Northern Va.

ATS is not a "white flight" school as someone previously mentioned in this thread. According to data on the APS website, Mckinley Elem is close to 80% white, and Glebe Elem is about 60% white for the 2010-11 school year.

[Anonymous]

I went to ATS. Your child would be lucky to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to ATS. Your child would be lucky to get in.

how old are you? could you be more specific re the 'lucky' part?

[Anonymous]

My daughter will start Kindergarten in ATS this year. We are in S. Arlington, and our neighborhood school is Hoffman-Boston, which we haven't heard rave reviews for, so we applied to ATS, Campbell, and Drew Montessori, all county-wide, lottery schools. We got lucky and got into ATS and Campbell after being on the waitlist for a couple of weeks, and picked ATS in the end because we were impressed with the administration and with the opinions of everyone we met who had children there.

From the kids and families we saw at orientation, I would say it is pretty diverse, the statistics support that as well to a large extent (60% white, 14% qualifying for free and reduced price lunches), it was important to us that the school reflect enough diversity so that our daughter would not feel excluded.

After visiting ATS a couple of times, I guess I would say what I liked about them is that every kid in the classrooms seemed to be engaged somehow. In the other schools I visited, there seemed to be some that were at loose ends. They just seem very focused at ATS, and the teachers were very impressive. Also their early focus on reading is great.

As for the dress code, it consists primarily of no exposed bellies and no hotpants, which is fine by me. I guess their rule about tucking in your T-shirt seems a bit odd to me, but I wouldn't consider that an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will start Kindergarten in ATS this year. We are in S. Arlington, and our neighborhood school is Hoffman-Boston, which we haven't heard rave reviews for, so we applied to ATS, Campbell, and Drew Montessori, all county-wide, lottery schools. We got lucky and got into ATS and Campbell after being on the waitlist for a couple of weeks, and picked ATS in the end because we were impressed with the administration and with the opinions of everyone we met who had children there.

From the kids and families we saw at orientation, I would say it is pretty diverse, the statistics support that as well to a large extent (60% white, 14% qualifying for free and reduced price lunches), it was important to us that the school reflect enough diversity so that our daughter would not feel excluded.

After visiting ATS a couple of times, I guess I would say what I liked about them is that every kid in the classrooms seemed to be engaged somehow. In the other schools I visited, there seemed to be some that were at loose ends. They just seem very focused at ATS, and the teachers were very impressive. Also their early focus on reading is great.

As for the dress code, it consists primarily of no exposed bellies and no hotpants, which is fine by me. I guess their rule about tucking in your T-shirt seems a bit odd to me, but I wouldn't consider that an issue.

What number was your daughter on the waitlist? Curious to know what our chances are. Thanks and congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:True, ATS isn't just a N Arlington school. But I would love to see statistics on how many S Arlington people apply for the lottery there vs. N. Arlington residents. The vast majority of the kids who got in via the lottery/sibling (all except the VPI kids) live in N. Arlington.

That can't be true because the lottery slots are based on address. Perhaps it is the case that most of the kids YOU KNOW were from N. Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True, ATS isn't just a N Arlington school. But I would love to see statistics on how many S Arlington people apply for the lottery there vs. N. Arlington residents. The vast majority of the kids who got in via the lottery/sibling (all except the VPI kids) live in N. Arlington.

That can't be true because the lottery slots are based on address. Perhaps it is the case that most of the kids YOU KNOW were from N. Arlington.

No the slots are NEVER based on address.

[Anonymous]

APS publishes transfer data for all its schools, and ATS is all transfer. So you can see that most of the students are from NArl.

H-B slots are divided up by home school. Maybe that's what 15:28 is thinking of?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will start Kindergarten in ATS this year. We are in S. Arlington, and our neighborhood school is Hoffman-Boston, which we haven't heard rave reviews for, so we applied to ATS, Campbell, and Drew Montessori, all county-wide, lottery schools. We got lucky and got into ATS and Campbell after being on the waitlist for a couple of weeks, and picked ATS in the end because we were impressed with the administration and with the opinions of everyone we met who had children there.

From the kids and families we saw at orientation, I would say it is pretty diverse, the statistics support that as well to a large extent (60% white, 14% qualifying for free and reduced price lunches), it was important to us that the school reflect enough diversity so that our daughter would not feel excluded.

After visiting ATS a couple of times, I guess I would say what I liked about them is that every kid in the classrooms seemed to be engaged somehow. In the other schools I visited, there seemed to be some that were at loose ends. They just seem very focused at ATS, and the teachers were very impressive. Also their early focus on reading is great.

As for the dress code, it consists primarily of no exposed bellies and no hotpants, which is fine by me. I guess their rule about tucking in your T-shirt seems a bit odd to me, but I wouldn't consider that an issue.

What number was your daughter on the waitlist? Curious to know what our chances are. Thanks and congrats!

We were No. 2 after the 4th class was approved, so I guess in reality we originally were No. 27 or so. So we were pretty lucky to get such a high number.