APS — love our elementary but not excited about middle and high school options

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

You clearly don't understand the AT program at all and your argument is illogical. You get college credit for dual enrollment courses because they are college level courses, just like AP classes are supposedly college level classes.
AT students have the advantage of access to the CTE classes.
It is a selective program - you have to have taken Alg2 before you begin or no later than before you start 10th and there are limited seats. The Alg2 requirement already makes it more "selective" than HB which has no academic requirement, just limited seats. With AT, you have an expected level of academic rigor throughout the program AND it's limited seats. They have an advantage when they graduate because every student is required to complete a real internship their senior year. It's not like they are not applying to, and being accepted into, high quality colleges and universities. And when you leave AT with college credits, just like when passing AP exams, you get to take other (more advanced, if you like) classes when you get to college.

DE classes are only college credit in VA in most cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

So, what? everyone taking AP classes is doing so in order to go to Ivy League schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

Shame on you! You saved money instead of doing it to take more rigorous classes! Oh well...

For kids heading to community college, that is an excellent outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

Very few students get into Ivy League colleges. I wouldn’t base all of your planning on hoping that’s where your kid is headed.

You just aren’t getting it. Huge swaths of Arlington are aiming for elite colleges; maybe they won’t make it, but they aren’t going to handicap their kids changes with vocational and dual enrollment pathways. That’s my point. Arlington tech doesn’t address the capacity problem because it is not aspirational like TJHS.

AND THATS FINE. A vocational option is a good choice for many students, I’m just saying don’t point to Tech as in any way addressing the mainstream high school capacity crisis. It’s a specialized high school for a niche population.

Stop calling it a vocational program.

+1

[Anonymous]

The new building will have music spaces, similar to HB.
They did away with the algebra requirement because of equity.
These were discussed at the Oct 13th school board meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

Very few students get into Ivy League colleges. I wouldn’t base all of your planning on hoping that’s where your kid is headed.

You just aren’t getting it. Huge swaths of Arlington are aiming for elite colleges; maybe they won’t make it, but they aren’t going to handicap their kids changes with vocational and dual enrollment pathways. That’s my point. Arlington tech doesn’t address the capacity problem because it is not aspirational like TJHS.

AND THATS FINE. A vocational option is a good choice for many students, I’m just saying don’t point to Tech as in any way addressing the mainstream high school capacity crisis. It’s a specialized high school for a niche population.

Stop calling it a vocational program.

+1

I don’t care what you call it, as long as you acknowledge it is NOT the answer to the high school capacity problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

You clearly don't understand the AT program at all and your argument is illogical. You get college credit for dual enrollment courses because they are college level courses, just like AP classes are supposedly college level classes.
AT students have the advantage of access to the CTE classes.
It is a selective program - you have to have taken Alg2 before you begin or no later than before you start 10th and there are limited seats. The Alg2 requirement already makes it more "selective" than HB which has no academic requirement, just limited seats. With AT, you have an expected level of academic rigor throughout the program AND it's limited seats. They have an advantage when they graduate because every student is required to complete a real internship their senior year. It's not like they are not applying to, and being accepted into, high quality colleges and universities. And when you leave AT with college credits, just like when passing AP exams, you get to take other (more advanced, if you like) classes when you get to college.

DE classes are only college credit in VA in most cases.

And clearly Virginia has no Ivy League schools, nobody in Arlington is hoping to go to any Virginia schools, there are no "top" colleges in Virginia, and therefore an education at AT with lots of DE credit opportunities is merely vocational.

You must be right, though. Because Wakefield - with a graduating class more than 5x the size of AT - had more Ivy League acceptances last year. And only 1 from AT/ACC was accepted to Harvard the previous year.
https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/arlington-class-2022-colleges-universities-applied-accepted/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

Very few students get into Ivy League colleges. I wouldn’t base all of your planning on hoping that’s where your kid is headed.

You just aren’t getting it. Huge swaths of Arlington are aiming for elite colleges; maybe they won’t make it, but they aren’t going to handicap their kids changes with vocational and dual enrollment pathways. That’s my point. Arlington tech doesn’t address the capacity problem because it is not aspirational like TJHS.

AND THATS FINE. A vocational option is a good choice for many students, I’m just saying don’t point to Tech as in any way addressing the mainstream high school capacity crisis. It’s a specialized high school for a niche population.

Stop calling it a vocational program.

+1

I don’t care what you call it, as long as you acknowledge it is NOT the answer to the high school capacity problem.

I'll agree it isn't an answer to capacity; but the critic found it essential and relevant to harp on an inaccurate assessment of the program as a vocational program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new building will have music spaces, similar to HB.
They did away with the algebra requirement because of equity.
These were discussed at the Oct 13th school board meeting.

Well then, it aligns perfectly with the instructional expectations and standards of any other Arlington high school - all of which are college preparatory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

Very few students get into Ivy League colleges. I wouldn’t base all of your planning on hoping that’s where your kid is headed.

You just aren’t getting it. Huge swaths of Arlington are aiming for elite colleges; maybe they won’t make it, but they aren’t going to handicap their kids changes with vocational and dual enrollment pathways. That’s my point. Arlington tech doesn’t address the capacity problem because it is not aspirational like TJHS.

AND THATS FINE. A vocational option is a good choice for many students, I’m just saying don’t point to Tech as in any way addressing the mainstream high school capacity crisis. It’s a specialized high school for a niche population.

Stop calling it a vocational program.

So the technical magnet programs like TJHS offer barbering and EMT pathways too??

https://careercenter.apsva.us/arlington-tech/program-information/

It's a shared campus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new building will have music spaces, similar to HB.
They did away with the algebra requirement because of equity.
These were discussed at the Oct 13th school board meeting.

Well then, it aligns perfectly with the instructional expectations and standards of any other Arlington high school - all of which are college preparatory.

Looking at the college acceptances in Arlington Magazine, there doesn't seem to be much difference between HB and Arlington Tech, except a bit more lean to engineering schools for AT. Both, like all the HS, have the most applications going to VA public schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

Very few students get into Ivy League colleges. I wouldn’t base all of your planning on hoping that’s where your kid is headed.

You just aren’t getting it. Huge swaths of Arlington are aiming for elite colleges; maybe they won’t make it, but they aren’t going to handicap their kids changes with vocational and dual enrollment pathways. That’s my point. Arlington tech doesn’t address the capacity problem because it is not aspirational like TJHS.

AND THATS FINE. A vocational option is a good choice for many students, I’m just saying don’t point to Tech as in any way addressing the mainstream high school capacity crisis. It’s a specialized high school for a niche population.

Stop calling it a vocational program.

+1

I don’t care what you call it, as long as you acknowledge it is NOT the answer to the high school capacity problem.

It could be but people need to be aware of what they offer and that it’s not just a vocational school. There are plenty of people who aren’t obsessed with Ivy leagues in Arlington and kids who don’t care about the limited extracurricular options but they need to be informed of this well in advance of starting high school. I think they should start talking about this in the early middle school years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Arlington Tech is to become a dual enrollment program with NoVA community college for credit classes. More desirable to my DS to earn college credit rather than the empty promise of AP classes.

This again aligns with a vocational focus. You take AP because of the rigor needed to pass the AP exam and what that represents as to your college readiness, not to get college credits to save money on tuition (because at elite colleges you don’t pay per credit hour, you just pay annual tuition and take even more advanced classes if you AP out)

Oh. I did it wrong and graduated from college a year early. Oopsies!

You were able to transfer dual enrollment courses to an Ivy League school and graduated early? They don’t do that anymore even for AP; and even 20 years ago DE were considered less than.

Very few students get into Ivy League colleges. I wouldn’t base all of your planning on hoping that’s where your kid is headed.

I’ll go one further and say they should offer seats at Arlington Tech to middle schoolers. There aren’t many options for middle school students who don’t want to go to their home school, and middle school is really the weak link in Arlington. Expand Arlington Tech into middle school.

You just aren’t getting it. Huge swaths of Arlington are aiming for elite colleges; maybe they won’t make it, but they aren’t going to handicap their kids changes with vocational and dual enrollment pathways. That’s my point. Arlington tech doesn’t address the capacity problem because it is not aspirational like TJHS.

AND THATS FINE. A vocational option is a good choice for many students, I’m just saying don’t point to Tech as in any way addressing the mainstream high school capacity crisis. It’s a specialized high school for a niche population.

Stop calling it a vocational program.

+1

I don’t care what you call it, as long as you acknowledge it is NOT the answer to the high school capacity problem.

It could be but people need to be aware of what they offer and that it’s not just a vocational school. There are plenty of people who aren’t obsessed with Ivy leagues in Arlington and kids who don’t care about the limited extracurricular options but they need to be informed of this well in advance of starting high school. I think they should start talking about this in the early middle school years

[Anonymous]

At the last SB meeting, Dr. Durán said that APS was ranked #2 for best school district in VA (below Fall Church). It also had at least two highly ranked high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the last SB meeting, Dr. Durán said that APS was ranked #2 for best school district in VA (below Fall Church). It also had at least two highly ranked high schools.

Niche?