Which elementary school in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea it was so controversial to like to incorporate a walk with your kids into your day. Walking to the elementary school with my kids is one of my favorite things about where we live. It's just nice to get out in the morning and walk and chat with people. It links me to my community. It's feels far less stressful than getting in a vehicle and punting your progeny out into the street while someone yells at you to hurry up and reminds you not to touch them.

But yeah, the people across the street from us are zoned for a different elementary school even though they're 2.5 blocks away from the one we walk to. The way APS draws boundaries is bananas and if you're a walker now, you might not be a walker a year from now.

For actual advice that OP asked for, we like the Westover neighborhood, OP. Schools are fine.

Just as another point of view, my child bussed for all of elementary and our bus stop was a real social hub. I met all my neighbors that way. The kids really bonded too. Very community building. I think many people have never been on a bus route and don't know what it's really like so just adding the perspective.

The bolded portion of the PP's response is confusing to me and I don't know what this means.

Driving your own kids is stressful. The pickup/drop off is crazy. The line, the hustle, the enforcers. It's all very stressful. Agree that the bus and walking are both preferred.

[Anonymous]

Both my kids have been very happy at Ashlawn ES. The teachers have all been great and it's more diverse than the ES further north in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea it was so controversial to like to incorporate a walk with your kids into your day. Walking to the elementary school with my kids is one of my favorite things about where we live. It's just nice to get out in the morning and walk and chat with people. It links me to my community. It's feels far less stressful than getting in a vehicle and punting your progeny out into the street while someone yells at you to hurry up and reminds you not to touch them.

But yeah, the people across the street from us are zoned for a different elementary school even though they're 2.5 blocks away from the one we walk to. The way APS draws boundaries is bananas and if you're a walker now, you might not be a walker a year from now.

For actual advice that OP asked for, we like the Westover neighborhood, OP. Schools are fine.

Just as another point of view, my child bussed for all of elementary and our bus stop was a real social hub. I met all my neighbors that way. The kids really bonded too. Very community building. I think many people have never been on a bus route and don't know what it's really like so just adding the perspective.

The bolded portion of the PP's response is confusing to me and I don't know what this means.

Driving your own kids is stressful. The pickup/drop off is crazy. The line, the hustle, the enforcers. It's all very stressful. Agree that the bus and walking are both preferred.

The bus is a pain because it move the whole “get to school time” way earlier and then if your kid misses it it’s a huge pain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP as you will see from this thread there are people who think the only criteria for a good school is one their child can walk to. Above all else, their children need to walk to school.

You need to lay out a lot more info about what you’re looking for if you want useful advice.

In N. Arlington that's code for "I don't want my kids going to school with the poors."

Honestly it’s not (at least not in north Arlington). Do you think there’s a substantial different between the number of poor people at cardinal vs tuckahoe vs Nottingham vs discovery vs Jamestown vs Taylor? No. The main difference is that those two blocks/not crossing a main road mean that your kid can walk home independently vs having to walk them home at pickup. It’s code for “I am lazy”.
Now in south Arlington where you have fleet vs barcroft vs Drew vs oak ridge, there may be a hidden meaning.

I'm not lazy. I don't want my kids to die. And it's hard to balance work when you have to do pickup at 3:30 every day personally.

[Anonymous]

Wow this thread is incredibly off topic from ops post. Op, for some reason people on this board tend to hate on arlington no matter what. Everyone I know that actually lives here is very happy. We love our elementary of Cardinal, and yes we do love walking/biking to school. Ashlawn also has a wonderful bike and walk to school community because many of the kids can take the trails right to school so they can do it earlier independently. Most elementary schools in Arlington are strong. Arlington has historically had an issue with the southern portion of the county having a higher concentration of subsidized housing etc., like many places, so those schools will have more socioeconomic diversity which can mean more kids have higher needs and you may see that reflected in the overall test scores. But having a more diverse community is a huge pro for everyone involved most of the time, in my opinion. We bid on a couple houses in penrose and I think we would have been very happy there, but ultimately the house we got was in the Westover area so I can't speak personally to the experience. I would say one consideration is that more kids tend to opt in to the "option" schools in southern parts of the county (these are a set of elementaries in Arlington that have a particular focus like language immersion or experiential learning that you can lottery into). The neighborhood school has definitely been a benefit to us, meeting so many friends in the neighborhood. But I don't think you can go really wrong.

[Anonymous]

I posted a bunch above, but generally I agree with others that you should pick a neighborhood you like since you will likely generally be happy with the schools. The differences between say Yorktown and W-L aren't big enough to say you need to focus only on one. And the elementary schools are good. Middle school is hard for many kids no matter the school, I haven't gotten there with my kids but neighbors kids seem to be doing just fine based on my conversations with their parents. No school system is perfect, if you let DCUM rule no one would live anywhere because apparently it is all terrible. It's about your priorities and what will be most meaningful to you. Go to the neighborhoods on a saturday morning, go to the parks, try to get a vibe and see what works for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

Basically all of the elementary schools that feed into Yorktown HS, Williamsburg and Hamm MS are interchangeable.

You get more diversity in income and testing outcomes as you move further south.

Including innovation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

Look at the WL <-> YHS transfers.

More kids want to be at WL for IB.

Hamm is great.

So Hamm/WL. Any of the ESs feeding into them are fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard to figure out. Some people simply like walking, biking.

Then take a nice walk or bike ride. It's one single factor among many factors in deciding boundaries and school use and not every kid who could walk to school is going to be able to walk to school.

Ok? I agree that it’s one of many factors that should be considered for boundary planning.

PP seemed confused about why some people prefer to walk their kids to school.

You might be missing the context of recent debates around this topic. APS needs to do redo middle school boundaries and it started a massive outcry on this very topic. People who want their children to continue to walk to school are willing to throw just about anyone under the bus (no pun intended) just so long as their kids get to keep walking.

Ok. It’s a high priority for many families. They are entitled to their opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

For the OP, the above is good advice. We also did the move from DC to Arlington solely for schools (Fairfax was too far for me to consider). We moved into Glebe. Glebe is tricky because it splits down the middle for middle school (to Swanson and Dorothy Hamm) and then those middle schools split again between Yorktown and W&L. If I could do it again, I'd think more about Taylor. However, Glebe's neighborhoods allowed us to walk easily to the metro so that was nice (we both worked in the city until covid). I'd also put Science Focus (not really science focused) on the list. No one we know has been happy at Discovery, unfortunate because when you see the building coming from DC, it's amazing.

I'd also think about if you want to stay in DC and try private school. If your child is going into middle or high school, I'd lean towards staying in DC, keeping the equity in your home, and doing one of the privates. We're in the process now of transitioning from Swanson to private school, but our older child has done great moving into high school.

Middle school issues aside, APS is so much better run than DCPS. A lot more transparency. Safer (no lead issues, no asbestos issues, schools have heating and cooling, some mice but no daytime rat infestations...). Less emphasis on testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard to figure out. Some people simply like walking, biking.

Then take a nice walk or bike ride. It's one single factor among many factors in deciding boundaries and school use and not every kid who could walk to school is going to be able to walk to school.

Ok? I agree that it’s one of many factors that should be considered for boundary planning.

PP seemed confused about why some people prefer to walk their kids to school.

You might be missing the context of recent debates around this topic. APS needs to do redo middle school boundaries and it started a massive outcry on this very topic. People who want their children to continue to walk to school are willing to throw just about anyone under the bus (no pun intended) just so long as their kids get to keep walking.

Ok. It’s a high priority for many families. They are entitled to their opinion.

Sure and some of them also think they're entitled to whatever they want at the expense of other kids. This is not on topic to OP except to prepare OP for how next level the obnoxious Arlington crowd can be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

Basically all of the elementary schools that feed into Yorktown HS, Williamsburg and Hamm MS are interchangeable.

You get more diversity in income and testing outcomes as you move further south.

Including innovation?

I would have zero concerns with Innovation. It’s sited near what is probably the best walkable neighborhood in Arlington, and it feeds to Hamm and WL. They won’t ever move those kids anywhere but Williamsburg or Yorktown if they have to shift boundaries. It’s more diverse than the other N Arlington schools, and it’s in a solid set of schools for middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

Basically all of the elementary schools that feed into Yorktown HS, Williamsburg and Hamm MS are interchangeable.

You get more diversity in income and testing outcomes as you move further south.

Including innovation?

Right now Innovation is very diverse and well balanced. It’s a great school community! My kids are doing well there.

That said, in a few years the huge Marbella redevelopment (all Committed Affordable) will come online and send 100+ new higher needs students to the school. There’s a decent chance APS will just decide to tank it and move Woodbury Park there as well as signaled in the pre-CIP report. If I were moving to Arlington with toddlers I would be wary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

Basically all of the elementary schools that feed into Yorktown HS, Williamsburg and Hamm MS are interchangeable.

You get more diversity in income and testing outcomes as you move further south.

Including innovation?

Right now Innovation is very diverse and well balanced. It’s a great school community! My kids are doing well there.

That said, in a few years the huge Marbella redevelopment (all Committed Affordable) will come online and send 100+ new higher needs students to the school. There’s a decent chance APS will just decide to tank it and move Woodbury Park there as well as signaled in the pre-CIP report. If I were moving to Arlington with toddlers I would be wary.

Not to take this too far OT, but would they then have to shift boundaries to bring more kids to Science Focus? If they move Woodbury Park?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP as you will see from this thread there are people who think the only criteria for a good school is one their child can walk to. Above all else, their children need to walk to school.

You need to lay out a lot more info about what you’re looking for if you want useful advice.

In N. Arlington that's code for "I don't want my kids going to school with the poors."

Honestly it’s not (at least not in north Arlington). Do you think there’s a substantial different between the number of poor people at cardinal vs tuckahoe vs Nottingham vs discovery vs Jamestown vs Taylor? No. The main difference is that those two blocks/not crossing a main road mean that your kid can walk home independently vs having to walk them home at pickup. It’s code for “I am lazy”.
Now in south Arlington where you have fleet vs barcroft vs Drew vs oak ridge, there may be a hidden meaning.

True, there isn't any significant difference in the homogeneity of the northernmost schools. But the tactic still serves to retain each school as it is, parents keeping what they like the way it is. On a broader scale, it serves to block any efforts to diversify any of our schools by any means because of individual school communities' narcissism. There are countywide ripple effects. And it's also a way to ensure APS never seriously considers a ranked-choice enrollment system that could absolutely foster less segregation and less disparities in resources and opportunities and outcomes across the district.