Hardy/Deal vs Arlington middle schools

[Anonymous]

A zillion APs increase the chances they offer the ones you want to take. Also the APS high schools are big with little handholding so I think the students are plenty prepared for college.

[Anonymous]

There's handholding in APS middle and high schools to be sure, if you're looking for it, with after-school tutoring available in schools, particularly for math. Kids prep for college in different ways.

What we're finding with IBD in APS is that if you go with a particularly tough and unusual subject, e.g. Arabic, Chinese or Russian, you get small classes. By the time you reach Level IV (students meet their language requirement with Level III) language class size is in the teens.

My younger kid works 1-2 years ahead in MS math. There are only a dozen kids in his 8th grade Algebra II class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A zillion APs increase the chances they offer the ones you want to take. Also the APS high schools are big with little handholding so I think the students are plenty prepared for college.

Not really. The class you want to take is the one with the good teacher--who makes it interesting, gives good assignments, and grades fairly and helpfully--and the one your friends are in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's handholding in APS middle and high schools to be sure, if you're looking for it, with after-school tutoring available in schools, particularly for math. Kids prep for college in different ways.

What we're finding with IBD in APS is that if you go with a particularly tough and unusual subject, e.g. Arabic, Chinese or Russian, you get small classes. By the time you reach Level IV (students meet their language requirement with Level III) language class size is in the teens.

My younger kid works 1-2 years ahead in MS math. There are only a dozen kids in his 8th grade Algebra II class.

agree but APS is not like a private where the school will proactively reach out early. That is fine in most cases - but the idea that DCPS is somehow better because there are fewer supports seems like people trying to justify staying in a weaker system.

[Anonymous]

If you are a typical DCUM parent - upper middle class, well-educated, engaged with your children and their education - your kid will do equally well regardless of whether they are in DC or Arlington. Of course, the worst DC schools are worse than the best Arlington schools. But as a DCUM parent, you are not sending your kid to the worst schools. You will probably send to Jackson Reed, McArthur, or one of the top charters. They will have excellent opportunities at those places, find a great peer group, and then go on to do well at a college that is right for them - same as they would if you moved to Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two DCPS graduates, both went to Hardy and then graduated from Wilson/Jackson Reed. It is hard to make a direct comparison between the middle schools, but I can tell you that measuring the ultimate outcome - college acceptance and readiness - the DCPS kids were very much on par with their peers from Arlington and Montgomery County.

If anything, I think the DCPS kids were more college ready and independent than the Arlington/MoCo kids.

It's not that kids can't do well from DCPS or that they can't be prepared for college and life. It's that it is so very hard to make sure your kid is one of those kids. In my observation, it seems particularly hard to make sure a boy is one of those kids.

In terms of independence, I think teens in Arlington can be very independent, depending on their parents and where they live. My kids at W-L walked to school/to most events and rode the bus and metro all over Arlington and DC.

[Anonymous]

My spouse, who has taught in both APS and DCPS, could not get novels delivered from the DCPS warehouse for an AP Lit class. Put the order in at the beginning of the school year, still hadn't received the books at Thanksgiving. We ended up buying 20 paperbacks ourselves and spouse gave them to the kids. Standard operating procedure in DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are a typical DCUM parent - upper middle class, well-educated, engaged with your children and their education - your kid will do equally well regardless of whether they are in DC or Arlington. Of course, the worst DC schools are worse than the best Arlington schools. But as a DCUM parent, you are not sending your kid to the worst schools. You will probably send to Jackson Reed, McArthur, or one of the top charters. They will have excellent opportunities at those places, find a great peer group, and then go on to do well at a college that is right for them - same as they would if you moved to Arlington.

My friend thought that and then her kids AP Bio class never had a teacher. That isn’t an easy thing for a parent to fix. Yes some kids do end up well prepared for college from these schools but it’s a combo of a lot of parent intervention and luck (or getting the teacher who is willing to buy the class books). Plus it is just a bigger mental load on parents to have kids at dcps. I felt like I could win a Nobel prize after I left DC because I was spending so much less mental energy on my kids education).

[Anonymous]

I went to Hardy and now what is Jackson Reed in the 90’s. My childhood buddies and I all live in DC and send our kids to DCPS. Do with that what you will. There are also some pretty famous graduates who came out of Jackson Reed when I was there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two DCPS graduates, both went to Hardy and then graduated from Wilson/Jackson Reed. It is hard to make a direct comparison between the middle schools, but I can tell you that measuring the ultimate outcome - college acceptance and readiness - the DCPS kids were very much on par with their peers from Arlington and Montgomery County.

If anything, I think the DCPS kids were more college ready and independent than the Arlington/MoCo kids.

It's not that kids can't do well from DCPS or that they can't be prepared for college and life. It's that it is so very hard to make sure your kid is one of those kids. In my observation, it seems particularly hard to make sure a boy is one of those kids.

In terms of independence, I think teens in Arlington can be very independent, depending on their parents and where they live. My kids at W-L walked to school/to most events and rode the bus and metro all over Arlington and DC.

It is really not that hard to make sure your kid is one of those kids that is well prepared. If your kid is at Jackson Reed, MacArthur, one of the high performing charters, they will find good peers, teachers that care, and an environment will tons of opportunities. I know that those of you who move have a real interest in pretending that DC is a wasteland, but it is not. It has its challenges, but let's not pretend that Arlington and other places are a perfect universe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two DCPS graduates, both went to Hardy and then graduated from Wilson/Jackson Reed. It is hard to make a direct comparison between the middle schools, but I can tell you that measuring the ultimate outcome - college acceptance and readiness - the DCPS kids were very much on par with their peers from Arlington and Montgomery County.

If anything, I think the DCPS kids were more college ready and independent than the Arlington/MoCo kids.

It's not that kids can't do well from DCPS or that they can't be prepared for college and life. It's that it is so very hard to make sure your kid is one of those kids. In my observation, it seems particularly hard to make sure a boy is one of those kids.

In terms of independence, I think teens in Arlington can be very independent, depending on their parents and where they live. My kids at W-L walked to school/to most events and rode the bus and metro all over Arlington and DC.

It is really not that hard to make sure your kid is one of those kids that is well prepared. If your kid is at Jackson Reed, MacArthur, one of the high performing charters, they will find good peers, teachers that care, and an environment will tons of opportunities. I know that those of you who move have a real interest in pretending that DC is a wasteland, but it is not. It has its challenges, but let's not pretend that Arlington and other places are a perfect universe.

And let’s not pretend that DCPS is anywhere near the same level as APS while we’re at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's be brutally honest here, ok? There are plenty of reasons to prefer living in DC over Arlington, and obviously the best DC public schools are perfectly capable of providing a solid education for a smart and self-motivated kid.

But if you're talking strictly about which public school system is better, without regard to anything else, Arlington is without question better. Much better. Deal and Hardy may be the best in DC, but in Arlington they'd be average. Williamsburg, Swanson and Hamm would all blow them away. And as others have said, the high schools are another level entirely. J-R is the best in DC, but is only on par with Wakefield in Arlington--generally considered the worst in the county.

It's strictly a matter of demographics.

You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

Wut. JR is not even top five in DC.

[Anonymous]

What kind of kids do you have? Mine would have done well in any safe school.
If your kids need handholding, move to VA.
DC1 went to DCPS skipping at least 15-20 days every year.
College is easy and he is working 30+ hours a week to keep busy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of kids do you have? Mine would have done well in any safe school.
If your kids need handholding, move to VA.
DC1 went to DCPS skipping at least 15-20 days every year.
College is easy and he is working 30+ hours a week to keep busy.

As someone who has watched the curriculum in the middle schools change over the last twenty years in dc, i don’t think he’d be that well prepared today. Kids no longer read books.

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe that there’s a serious argument going on on DCUM on whether DCPS even at its best holds a candle to APS. The only reasonable argument that can be made is that sending your kids to a top school district isn’t necessary.