Kilmer vs Longfellow middle. Similarities/differences?

[Anonymous]

A friend's kid was at Longfellow. He received an excellent education, but there's a real winner-take all competitive structure to the extracurriculars. When I was in school, anyone could go to the math competitions. At Longfellow, there is a huge amount of competition to even be allowed to participate in the math team or science bowl. At 12, don't you want your kid to try things out without having to be the absolute best?

[Anonymous]

Churchill is solid prep for Longfellow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which elementary schools are known to prepare the students for longfellow's advanced math track? Assuming not just haycock aap? Also, is there a part of Longfellow that is zoned for langley?

If you are an AAP kid who lives in the Franklin Sherman, Churchill Road or Spring Hill ES districts, you might go to Longfellow MS AAP and then Langley HS. All of Churchill Road is zoned for Langley, while Franklin Sherman and Spring Hill split between Langley and McLean.

[Anonymous]

One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

This is why so many of us don't want Cooper to become an AAP factory. Currently, it doesn't have AAP and it is so refreshing after coming from a center elementary school. My kids have been so much happier at Cooper than they were in their elementary school.

[Anonymous]

And the lack of academic focus at Cooper is why those of
us with kids at Longfellow don't want Cooper to try to start an AAP program.

[Anonymous]

Cooper sends its AAP kids to both Kilmer and Longfellow. With the projected growth at the latter schools, particularly Kilmer, it's inevitable that Cooper will have its own AAP soon, and that will change the dynamic at all three schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

My DC is happier at McLean than at Longfellow, but I attribute much of it to his greater maturity. I don't think most kids like middle school too much. We'd been at Kilmer previously and the teachers at Longfellow were, on average, better. As for the e-letters, I appreciated the frequent communications, but thought they could have been more varied and imaginative. It doesn't take much effort to recycle a list of award winners and it does create the impression, which I don't really think is the reality, is that all the school cares about awards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

My DC is happier at McLean than at Longfellow, but I attribute much of it to his greater maturity. I don't think most kids like middle school too much. We'd been at Kilmer previously and the teachers at Longfellow were, on average, better. As for the e-letters, I appreciated the frequent communications, but thought they could have been more varied and imaginative. It doesn't take much effort to recycle a list of award winners and it does create the impression, which I don't really think is the reality, is that all the school cares about awards.

The reasons for which I did not like Longfellwo were not becasue it was an awkward age and a level of immaturity that is "normal". One DC's friends was beaten up in the locker room and his phone was stolen. They completely violated federal laws (big gaffs, not "technicalities") regarding my DC's IEP and several others of which I know. They are a major lawsuit waiting to happen. They keep and protect incompetent teachers. It is run like a prison and everyone is prseumed guilty until they prove otherwise and they then *may* call the parents.

I am glad that your DC did not have the problems that others have had at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

This is why so many of us don't want Cooper to become an AAP factory. Currently, it doesn't have AAP and it is so refreshing after coming from a center elementary school. My kids have been so much happier at Cooper than they were in their elementary school.

That's nice for you, but it comes at the expense of the GE population at Longfellow since there are so many more AAP students there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

My DC is happier at McLean than at Longfellow, but I attribute much of it to his greater maturity. I don't think most kids like middle school too much. We'd been at Kilmer previously and the teachers at Longfellow were, on average, better. As for the e-letters, I appreciated the frequent communications, but thought they could have been more varied and imaginative. It doesn't take much effort to recycle a list of award winners and it does create the impression, which I don't really think is the reality, is that all the school cares about awards.

The reasons for which I did not like Longfellwo were not becasue it was an awkward age and a level of immaturity that is "normal". One DC's friends was beaten up in the locker room and his phone was stolen. They completely violated federal laws (big gaffs, not "technicalities") regarding my DC's IEP and several others of which I know. They are a major lawsuit waiting to happen. They keep and protect incompetent teachers. It is run like a prison and everyone is prseumed guilty until they prove otherwise and they then *may* call the parents.

I am glad that your DC did not have the problems that others have had at the school.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I think our experience was more common than the ones you are reporting here. One of our children at Longfellow also had an IEP and we had no problems. DC also had very good teachers both years - not a stinker in the bunch. Of course, that may have been the luck of the draw.

I will say that, before we moved, we were looking at one house zoned for Cooper and one for Longfellow, and we did agonize a bit as to whether our non-AAP kid would fare better at Cooper than Longfellow because it didn't have AAP, or better at McLean than Langley because it wasn't as socially exclusive. At the end, we just decided to go with the house that offered the shorter commute and assumed it would work out OK, which it has so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

This is why so many of us don't want Cooper to become an AAP factory. Currently, it doesn't have AAP and it is so refreshing after coming from a center elementary school. My kids have been so much happier at Cooper than they were in their elementary school.

That's nice for you, but it comes at the expense of the GE population at Longfellow since there are so many more AAP students there.

I don't think most GE parents at LMS have this us vs. them mentality. But it really doesn't matter whether it makes some non-AAP kids or their parents feel bad or not because the numbers alone won't permit FCPS to keep sending AAP kids in-boundary for Cooper off to Longfellow and Kilmer much longer.

[Anonymous]

I have a child in Kilmer AAP and we couldn't be happier. The Algebra and Tech Ed teachers are amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a child in Kilmer AAP and we couldn't be happier. The Algebra and Tech Ed teachers are amazing.

I guess this is where the luck of the draw comes in. We had a child at Kilmer and were not happy with the Algebra or foreign language teachers. They were indeed amazing, but not in a positive way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my happiest days as a parent was last June. My youngest's last day at Longfellow. Too much focus on the high achieving students. A weekly gag me e-letter highlighting all the high achieving students accomplishments. Think- worst braggy Christmas letter, every week. The AAP program is the priority for the Principal.

This is why so many of us don't want Cooper to become an AAP factory. Currently, it doesn't have AAP and it is so refreshing after coming from a center elementary school. My kids have been so much happier at Cooper than they were in their elementary school.

That's nice for you, but it comes at the expense of the GE population at Longfellow since there are so many more AAP students there.

Just as there are so many more AAP students at Colvin Run (center), but no one seems to care that it comes at the expense of the GE kids there. Perhaps there are just too many AAP students in general.