APS Next Few Years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People love to complain and it's exacerbated on sites like DCUM. APS is not all that bad, at all. Kids are still getting great educations, going to good colleges and being successful. The benefit you might get at another high school in the area is marginal. The money you'll pay in moving/selling expenses is not worth it.

So it’s typical to spend so much idle time in FCPS and MCPS schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People love to complain and it's exacerbated on sites like DCUM. APS is not all that bad, at all. Kids are still getting great educations, going to good colleges and being successful. The benefit you might get at another high school in the area is marginal. The money you'll pay in moving/selling expenses is not worth it.

So it’s typical to spend so much idle time in FCPS and MCPS schools?

Nothing about the last year and a half was typical, you really can't use it to judge. In addition high school is very different from middle school in terms of workload

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People love to complain and it's exacerbated on sites like DCUM. APS is not all that bad, at all. Kids are still getting great educations, going to good colleges and being successful. The benefit you might get at another high school in the area is marginal. The money you'll pay in moving/selling expenses is not worth it.

So it’s typical to spend so much idle time in FCPS and MCPS schools?

Nothing about the last year and a half was typical, you really can't use it to judge. In addition high school is very different from middle school in terms of workload

Sure but when will things be back to typical? I doubt next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People love to complain and it's exacerbated on sites like DCUM. APS is not all that bad, at all. Kids are still getting great educations, going to good colleges and being successful. The benefit you might get at another high school in the area is marginal. The money you'll pay in moving/selling expenses is not worth it.

So it’s typical to spend so much idle time in FCPS and MCPS schools?

Nothing about the last year and a half was typical, you really can't use it to judge. In addition high school is very different from middle school in terms of workload

Sure but when will things be back to typical? I doubt next year.

And the year before DD reported lots of dead time AT SCHOOL, I was just skeptical until I saw her DL workload.

[Anonymous]

My now 10th grader son's experience in 7th grade at APS was wholly different from my daughter's last year. No long writing assignments, no essays, no history projects, no depression dinner project, civil war history completely skipped. Math and foreign language seemed similar but the rest was pared back significantly of content. I think it was because of the no homework rule, but I'm hoping 8th grade this coming year is more like it was a few years ago,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My now 10th grader son's experience in 7th grade at APS was wholly different from my daughter's last year. No long writing assignments, no essays, no history projects, no depression dinner project, civil war history completely skipped. Math and foreign language seemed similar but the rest was pared back significantly of content. I think it was because of the no homework rule, but I'm hoping 8th grade this coming year is more like it was a few years ago,

So as APS tries to make up for learning gap, will that be a focus on more remedial work? And they are increasing class sizes, so will long essays and such fall away to multiple choice for easier grading?

[Anonymous]

My now 10th grader son's experience in 7th grade at APS was wholly different from my daughter's last year. No long writing assignments, no essays, no history projects, no depression dinner project, civil war history completely skipped. Math and foreign language seemed similar but the rest was pared back significantly of content. I think it was because of the no homework rule, but I'm hoping 8th grade this coming year is more like it was a few years ago,

A big part of this is due to the new APS 6th/7th grade history curriculum, not to COVID. Lessons on the Civil War and the Depression have been moved to 6th grade. The new 7th grade curriculum should have had more economics/civics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People love to complain and it's exacerbated on sites like DCUM. APS is not all that bad, at all. Kids are still getting great educations, going to good colleges and being successful. The benefit you might get at another high school in the area is marginal. The money you'll pay in moving/selling expenses is not worth it.

So it’s typical to spend so much idle time in FCPS and MCPS schools?

I don’t know from experience but I think so much, in every school district, depends on the teacher. Teachers have significant leeway in the rigor of their classes. Of course maybe other schools mandate more essays and such but if a teacher can get away with not assigning so much graded work why wouldn’t they? I think a lack of rigor is a problem with most schools these days, even just based on the way colleges complain about freshman not knowing how to write a solid five-paragraph essay. So I suspect the true quality of education is more luck of the draw with a teacher than it is the school district.

[Anonymous]

I graduated 20 years ago, and remember public middle (and most of high) school seeming overly simple, lots of wasted time just staring out the window, etc. This isn't an APS problem, an equity problem, a new problem at all -- it's public school.

If you can afford a rigorous private, sure. If not, save up for a good college. Be thankful you have a smart and motivated daughter and that this is the biggest of our parenting problems. She can spend her extra time on stellar ECs and test prep. Your daughter will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated 20 years ago, and remember public middle (and most of high) school seeming overly simple, lots of wasted time just staring out the window, etc. This isn't an APS problem, an equity problem, a new problem at all -- it's public school.

If you can afford a rigorous private, sure. If not, save up for a good college. Be thankful you have a smart and motivated daughter and that this is the biggest of our parenting problems. She can spend her extra time on stellar ECs and test prep. Your daughter will be fine.

Did you go to a highly ranked public like FCPS, MCPS, or APS? I was similarly poorly prepared for college and had lots of wasted public school time, but I was at a low scoring rural school district. I would think you get better since housing is orders of magnitude more expensive partly because of the schools.

I hate to squander my DD youth on academic enrichment to fill the gaps school isn’t covering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated 20 years ago, and remember public middle (and most of high) school seeming overly simple, lots of wasted time just staring out the window, etc. This isn't an APS problem, an equity problem, a new problem at all -- it's public school.

If you can afford a rigorous private, sure. If not, save up for a good college. Be thankful you have a smart and motivated daughter and that this is the biggest of our parenting problems. She can spend her extra time on stellar ECs and test prep. Your daughter will be fine.

OP, this is why RSM and AOPS are all over Fairfax and Moco, the public schools are not doing the job. People who send their kids to private dont do those type of learning enrichment because the school provides adequate instruction.

[Anonymous]

All of our children will end up living in our basements. Their true destiny of Ive League educations and a happy, independent, fulfilling adult life was a sure thing, if only we'd sent them to private schools.

Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of our children will end up living in our basements. Their true destiny of Ive League educations and a happy, independent, fulfilling adult life was a sure thing, if only we'd sent them to private schools.

Oh well.

Have you missed the generational anger from the millennials about being unable to afford housing, start families, and trapped under crushing student debt? If you aren’t in a lucrative job, every following generation will be making bigger and bigger concessions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD will be a freshman next year. The last year was a wash for her, finished her work way ahead of her class, and spent lots of class time reading or drawing on computer (when DL). Hybrid was a little better but still seems like a huge chunk of her 8th grade day was just kind of sitting around. She gets all As, yada yada. No homework.

We are zoned for WL next year, and we hope that IB/AP/honors classes will engage her much better. I am worried about overcrowding (have they finished the 600 seat addition). My work just wen 4x WFH so moving to FCPS, MCPS, HCPS, etc would be options, but would it be any more engaging? Is this all we should expect from our school, to house her and give her about 3 hours of actual instruction?

OP, my 3rd of 4 children to go through WL is a rising senior. My other child graduated from a top private HS in DC. As others have said, you cannot compare APS MS to APS HS, especially if you are basing it on the past year your DD was in MS. There are certainly plenty of classes at WL for a student to be academically challenged. My kids took many AP and IB classes in their 4 years at WL, beginning in 9th grade with World History, to the point that in 11th and 12th they had only one "regular" class. Almost every other class they took in 9th or 10th was "intensified" if that was available. They are all very smart students but certainly not geniuses and a lot of their friends did the same. At times this type of course load was over the top time-intensive. It will certainly keep your DD very busy and engaged, assuming she is interested in what she is studying. Then throw in a couple after school activities and your DD will be PLENTY busy. Given that you cannot afford private, staying in Arlington and having your DD at WL where she can take AP and IB is your best bet. And I would not worry about the overcrowding. WL has always been overcrowded during the time my DCs have attended and the teachers and admin figure it out. When my oldest started, the current building (minus lots of internal changes they made to deal with overcrowding when my 2nd DC attended) was three years old and already overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of our children will end up living in our basements. Their true destiny of Ive League educations and a happy, independent, fulfilling adult life was a sure thing, if only we'd sent them to private schools.

Oh well.

Have you missed the generational anger from the millennials about being unable to afford housing, start families, and trapped under crushing student debt? If you aren’t in a lucrative job, every following generation will be making bigger and bigger concessions.

This sounds like a "the effects are bad but the causes are good" kinda post.