HB-Woodlawn - what is the level of "independent study" in MS?
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Anonymous
DP, but come on. It’s a private school size population in a cool, appropriately sized building. You know exactly what the PP meant. Nobody thinks HB has sprawling grounds. There IS a lot of inaccurate info about HB that gets put out there. Some is intentional, most is due to someone not realizing they have old or incomplete information. HB is an easy target, but I’m not complaining – at all. We did get lucky. - different HB family |
Anonymous
Calm down, just putting accurate info out there. |
Anonymous
It's a fine school but definitely does not compare to private. Except for the number of students. |
Anonymous
But it is a radically different experience than the other area high schools, with a much slower pace, teachers having zero over sized classes, and less madness in the halls between classes |
Anonymous
| Why can’t all high school students leave campus when free like they do at HB? |
Anonymous
Has anyone brought that up at the other schools? What is their response? |
Anonymous
That was the case until the mid 80s as previously explained. Now open campus is limited to seniors at lunch at the three comprehensive high schools. I’m not sure if Arlington Tech has open campus for lunch or throughout the day like HB. |
Anonymous
But did they say why they won't open it again? |
Anonymous
I think Nancy Van Doren and other former school board members pre-Covid expressed interest in expanding open campus policies for the three comprehensive high schools. But then Covid created more urgent priorities. Open campus has its advantages such as a longer flexible lunch period where clubs could meet or where students could walk home for lunch, etc, versus multiple lunch periods. Right now open campus for seniors allows a quick run to the drive through at a taco bell or mcdonald’s. Or a walk to a nearby convenience store. |
Anonymous
It wasn’t previously explained. It simply said that the open campus was removed in the 80s, not WHY they haven’t made the open campus experience equitable between all Arlington high schools. Why give some students special treatment, esp when allowing students to leave for lunch would help alleviate overcrowding. |
Anonymous
School board members pre covid shared your interest in expanding open campus. It may be time to bring this topic up again. All three comprehensive high schools are near both homes and commercial areas. And with one longer lunch period (or at most two) it is a feasible option. The W-L annex cafeteria was removed from the project, so W-L would benefit from open campus for all grades, as it has just the one large cafeteria and other common areas where students can eat or study at lunch. |
Anonymous
One of my kids was class of '21 and my other kid entered in 9th and is in HS now. They didn't change anything about the TA arrangement in HS, didn't realize anything changed in MS. And I said the TAs replace counselors because in the other schools they do call them counseling staff (my kid who entered in 9th grade had a "counselor" at their neighborhood MS for each grade). Not psychological counselors, but course planning counselors. The TAs do serve that function, and in high school they are the college counselors. The kids at HB DO get more attention than in the other middle schools and high schools because of the model--because the teachers who agree to teach at H-B are willing to take that on. |
Anonymous
Not a slower pace--each HB class meets four times a week instead of five because of the block schedule. It's hard in many classes to have four periods instead of five to cover the required material (e.g., the AP and science curricula, music programs, languages). |
Anonymous
Yep, this is true. My kid has taken SOLs where all material was not covered, and took an AP without much time to review. |
Anonymous
Not sure where the comment about slower pace comes from. In fact, they’re not doing the new “intensified” middle school classes at HB because all classes are already compacted and a lot of the planned scope of those new classes is already incorporated at HB. HB is smaller and makes its own rules – love it or hate it for actual reasons and not made up BS. |