Arlington Middle Schools
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Anonymous
| Our child is at Swanson Middle and we love it. Looking forward for you, I hear that Washington-Lee High School has a strong Special Ed department that has a good reputation among my friends who have kids in the program there. A couple of kids I know there are now happily college-bound because of intervention and advocacy by the W-L staff. |
Anonymous
+1 DC in 6th grade and has been an excellent year for her. Yes, it is crowded, but they all are. Class size is quite reasonable and teachers are v. engaged. |
Anonymous
If you live in N. Arlington, why do your kids go to Gunston? |
Anonymous
Not that PP but Gunston is the immersion middles school option |
Anonymous
Might be the Spanish immersion program? |
Anonymous
| OP here - thank you for all of the informative and constructive feedback! Appreciate more info from others! |
Anonymous
I live in Arlington, and I love it. It's close in and it's diverse. HOWEVER, I did buy for the schools and they really suck; a huge amount of teaching to the test, massive classrooms with more overcrowding to come, a lot of "relocatables" (which is APS speak for trailers), and a total refusal on the part of the School Board to address these issues in a substantive manner. My DS is now in private school. So... if you're buying for location, it's great. If you're buying for schools, look elsewhere. |
Anonymous
This was my post. To answer the earlier question, our kids did Spanish Immersion at Key, and continued with the Middle School program at Gunston. That was not our original plan, but the vast majority of their ES friends went on to Gunston, and it seemed like a more attractive option when our kids were in 4th and 5th then when they were in K and 1st. As for the "school-within-a-school" question, they have 3 courses in the Immersion Program (Spanish, Science, and Social Studies). So those 3 are only with the Immersion kids (who come from Key and Claremont, so its not entirely the same crew as ES). Their other classes (English, Math, PE, and another elective) are with everyone, I think (its possible that the Montessori kids are entirely segregated, but I'm just not certain). As I mentioned earlier, we have generally been happy with Gunston and APS more generally. There are problems for sure, but no option is perfect, and the problems are not crippling. |
Anonymous
We also bought in Arlington for the proximity and the schools and have had one or more children at Swanson and Washington Lee for the past 6 years. It is true that there are overcrowding problems and the entire 7th grade at Swanson is in trailers right now. That said, we have been happy with both schools and our kids have thrived. APS is highly ranked nationally and I think most parents would not agree that they "really suck." The School Board is struggling with how to handle the overcrowding but I would not say they are refusing to address the problem. I appreciate that in typical Arlington fashion they are holding multiple town hall meetings and making information available on-line about the possible solutions. https://www.apsva.us/more-seats-for-more-students/ In our experience, 95% of the teachers at Swanson are caring and student focused and the schools are neighborhood based and have a community feel. Our kids have gotten an excellent education there, played sports, and made friends. Our older child is taking AP and IB classes in high school and planning to apply to top colleges. I would not spend money to send them to a private school with this caliber of public school readily available. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're really happy with Kenmore. They are supportive and have co-taught classes. TJ and the IB program is also supposed to be very good. [/quote]
Thank you! Do you know if they do co-taught classes for science/social studies as well as for math/reading? TJ sounded interesting, but I was concerned about the amount of reading required for IB (but maybe I don't fully understand the program.) And yes (for the snipers), this is real. We like that Arlington is close in, has sidewalks and generally seems like a nice place to live. We could consider Fairfax, but not our first choice now.[/quote] I live in Arlington, and I love it. It's close in and it's diverse. HOWEVER, I did buy for the schools and they really suck; a huge amount of teaching to the test, [b]massive classrooms[/b] with more overcrowding to come, a lot of "relocatables" (which is APS speak for trailers), and a total refusal on the part of the School Board to address these issues in a substantive manner. My DS is now in private school. So... if you're buying for location, it's great. If you're buying for schools, look elsewhere.[/quote] What do you mean by "massive classrooms?" If you mean class sizes, this has not been my child's experience at all. -Another parent who disagrees that the schools "really suck" |
Anonymous
| I'm not sure about the "massive classrooms" comment. APS generally has the smallest classes around. Maybe not smallest school population, but they end up with trailers b/c they refuse to raise class size. |
Anonymous
Yeah, pp obviously doesn't know what s/he is talking about. |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're really happy with Kenmore. They are supportive and have co-taught classes. TJ and the IB program is also supposed to be very good. [/quote]
Thank you! Do you know if they do co-taught classes for science/social studies as well as for math/reading? TJ sounded interesting, but I was concerned about the amount of reading required for IB (but maybe I don't fully understand the program.) [/quote] Kenmore has cotaught classes for all subjects. I understand TJ/IB has a heavy focus on writing. We picked Kenmore over TJ as writing is not my DC's strength. We're very happy with Kenmore. Classes are small, no trailers, each child gets their own locker rather than sharing (this was a big deal for our child). |
Anonymous
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What happens to middle school overcrowding if Kenmore gets converted to a high school? Or are they just talking about building a high school adjacent to the middle school? I've lost track of all the ideas they've tossed out for dealing with the overcrowding.
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