APS for a bright engaged student - APS in decline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve got a bright, engaged student who will enter HS next year and I worry about these things. There is cohort placement in some classes, but not others. I like IB, but fear the size projections for WL. As a parent and staff member, I’ve seen a lot of problems with decisions meant to even the playing field and how it negatively impacted higher level students.

Is there anyway to level playing field but still differentiate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W-L does not have 4000 students. That’s ridiculous. It has about 2000. We have been very pleased with the level of instruction there. My son is in 10th grade.

But W-L will and must grow. They are building an addition now and then “tweaking” boundaries again. They have to move more kids to where they built seats. However, since they postponed the Career Center project indefinitely, and W-L can’t take all the kids they aren’t building seats for, Yorktown and Wakefield will get trailers and also be overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W-L does not have 4000 students. That’s ridiculous. It has about 2000. We have been very pleased with the level of instruction there. My son is in 10th grade.

But W-L will and must grow. They are building an addition now and then “tweaking” boundaries again. They have to move more kids to where they built seats. However, since they postponed the Career Center project indefinitely, and W-L can’t take all the kids they aren’t building seats for, Yorktown and Wakefield will get trailers and also be overcrowded.

Wait they postponed Career Center??

[Anonymous]

I am a fan of differentiation and I get why it would be a problem not to offer it, my understanding is that there are three math tracks in middle school (or at least in sixth grade). Also my sixth grader is very bright and is plenty challenged in her language arts and humanities classes. So I don’t know, it might be a teacher thing.

[Anonymous]

We moved one of our kids from W-L to private at her request (pre Covid). She moved at the beginning of 10th grade. She is super smart and was not challenged at all at W-L. She did the bare minimum and still had straight A's. I never saw her do homework.

I also have a senior still at W-L. She's a good student, very motivated and she has had a fine experience (aside from DL). Crowding never seemed to be an issue for her. She likes the large size.

Personally, I would go private if you can afford it. APS is fine for the average/good student. If you have kids on either end of the spectrum (gifted/learning disabilities) it's not the best place for them. I have all 3 types of students. Only the average student is still in APS. Just my 2 cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. Sorry it was 3000, not 4000. Just huge. And they were thinking of converting buck property to class space, and have all those crazy DL or night shifts, and getting spots in extracurriculars becomes a blood spot.

I have a senior at W-L now. He's had a good experience academically and made good friends but the extracurriculars have been an issue. It's not that they're competitive (at least what interested him). They tend to welcome all who want to participate. But, as a result, he told me he feels like it really doesn't matter if he participates in anything since there are 10 other kids who can do the same thing. Yes, he does some community service and did theater crew but if he didn't show up it would not in anyway be felt. He got a lot more out of ECs outside of school where he actually felt needed.

Less of an issue for a kid really dedicated to something like a music group or a sport. My 11th grade DD is in marching band and definitely has a strong community there.

[Anonymous]

OP I don’t know if it is helpful but have you seen the list of where APS students applied to college and where they were accepted? Any lack of academic rigor doesn’t seem to have stopped them from getting into good schools, as a whole.

I know there is value in private school and I wouldn’t hesitate to make the financial sacrifice to go private if I thought they needed it, but right now APS is good enough for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I don’t know if it is helpful but have you seen the list of where APS students applied to college and where they were accepted? Any lack of academic rigor doesn’t seem to have stopped them from getting into good schools, as a whole.

I know there is value in private school and I wouldn’t hesitate to make the financial sacrifice to go private if I thought they needed it, but right now APS is good enough for my kids.

Oops here is the link.

https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/where-arlingtons-class-of-2020-applied-to-college-and-got-in/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I don’t know if it is helpful but have you seen the list of where APS students applied to college and where they were accepted? Any lack of academic rigor doesn’t seem to have stopped them from getting into good schools, as a whole.

I know there is value in private school and I wouldn’t hesitate to make the financial sacrifice to go private if I thought they needed it, but right now APS is good enough for my kids.

Heres’ the thing, I went to a crappy high school and then on to the Ivy League, and that was a miserable experience. I almost flunked out.

College and career prep really starts in high school, its very cumulative, and if you start building a deficit early, eventually our kids have to make up that gap, and I would rather they do it when life is easier in high school (while we manage the day to day of living like grocery shopping) then when they dump into the deep end at college.

For so many of my classmates, college was a breeze because it was almost remedial, they had AP credits to skip entire semesters of core classes, it was just a great experience and they keep high grades throughout which then led to premier professional schools and careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. Sorry it was 3000, not 4000. Just huge. And they were thinking of converting buck property to class space, and have all those crazy DL or night shifts, and getting spots in extracurriculars becomes a blood spot.

I have a senior at W-L now. He's had a good experience academically and made good friends but the extracurriculars have been an issue. It's not that they're competitive (at least what interested him). They tend to welcome all who want to participate. But, as a result, he told me he feels like it really doesn't matter if he participates in anything since there are 10 other kids who can do the same thing. Yes, he does some community service and did theater crew but if he didn't show up it would not in anyway be felt. He got a lot more out of ECs outside of school where he actually felt needed.

Less of an issue for a kid really dedicated to something like a music group or a sport. My 11th grade DD is in marching band and definitely has a strong community there.

W-L isn’t overcrowded now; in 3 years they are expected to grow by 50%

[Anonymous]

My sense is that it’s a system in decline. Was it ever special? Doubt it. But, and this is key, it’s a county filled with folks who are not going to tell you that something THEY have selected isn’t ... all that. Bottom line is that it’s a mediocre-plus system suffering through a state of confusion. Bail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I don’t know if it is helpful but have you seen the list of where APS students applied to college and where they were accepted? Any lack of academic rigor doesn’t seem to have stopped them from getting into good schools, as a whole.

I know there is value in private school and I wouldn’t hesitate to make the financial sacrifice to go private if I thought they needed it, but right now APS is good enough for my kids.

Oops here is the link.

https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/where-arlingtons-class-of-2020-applied-to-college-and-got-in/

The results are far from impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a fan of differentiation and I get why it would be a problem not to offer it, my understanding is that there are three math tracks in middle school (or at least in sixth grade). Also my sixth grader is very bright and is plenty challenged in her language arts and humanities classes. So I don’t know, it might be a teacher thing.

They cancelled the highest track last year, because of the pandemic and everyone missing a quarter of the instruction, so now there are only two. Language arts needs more differentiation since there are kids who literally just arrived to the US and neither speak nor read English in the same classes as kids who are reading at a HS level. It’s impossible to serve such a spectrum adequately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W-L does not have 4000 students. That’s ridiculous. It has about 2000. We have been very pleased with the level of instruction there. My son is in 10th grade.

But W-L will and must grow. They are building an addition now and then “tweaking” boundaries again. They have to move more kids to where they built seats. However, since they postponed the Career Center project indefinitely, and W-L can’t take all the kids they aren’t building seats for, Yorktown and Wakefield will get trailers and also be overcrowded.

Wait they postponed Career Center??

Yes, after all the planning they “realized” they didn’t have any money for it (it’s South Arlington, after all) and they’ll just add trailers at the other schools instead. Or hope kids leave the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve got a bright, engaged student who will enter HS next year and I worry about these things. There is cohort placement in some classes, but not others. I like IB, but fear the size projections for WL. As a parent and staff member, I’ve seen a lot of problems with decisions meant to even the playing field and how it negatively impacted higher level students.

Is there anyway to level playing field but still differentiate?

I guess the question is what does that mean to you. Equity means providing each individual what they need. Extra support and remediation to those who need it, absolutely, but right now APS's approach in MS seems to be to not provide what's needed for the high achieving kids. Equity means you get to stagnate while we focus all our resources on others. The concern is that the differentiated classes become tracks and tracking we know has problems when it comes to racial and socio-economic divides. The problem is it means putting all kids in one classroom and relying on the teacher to meet the needs of 25 kids equitably. We all know teachers are a mixed bag, unfortunately.