Moving to avoid kenmore - go to fcps?

[Anonymous]

W&L = Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA

W-L = Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, VA

Carry on (although I suspect both will have been renamed by the time some of you finally get this right).

[Anonymous]

This thread is hilarious. Thanks for making my afternoon as I take a break from my officeslog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/arlington/122-Kenmore-Middle-School/

Sad

Look at the data. Are all students doing poorly? No. If your child isn't a minority, isn't an English language learner, isn't poor, you have nothing to worry about. It's not like some ES where there isn't a cohort of kids for an UMC child who is academically advanced. All kids have to go to school somewhere, and the poor and minority students have been purposely zoned out of almost every other area of Arlington, this is one of those schools. MC or UMC kids from stable homes, who have few impediments to learning, are doing very well at Kenmore. And maybe, just maybe, they will walk through the their future lives seeing people who don't have their exact same life circumstances as full humans, worthy of dignity, and not think they are "sad" or to be feared and avoided.

There is a huge achievement gap at Kenmore. How does that positively affect the perception of the higher-achieving kids towards the other kids at the school, assuming they aren't largely in different classes?

Speaking for my high achieving 7th grader, I don't think she realizes that others aren't doing as well as she is academically, although she has pointed out to me that kids who are learning English now as a 2nd language are obviously going to struggle with learning the same material she does. (we were discussing school rankings and test score gaps, and she thought the idea of picking a school based on that was rubbish.) She is tracked into some classes with other gifted students, but electives, lunch, and PE are all mixed. She is extremely open minded and accepting of all people.

The demographics at most schools include students from a range of backgrounds, but there's a larger cohort of high-achieving kids than at Kenmore.

Every thread about Kenmore triggers the same "I transferred my kid there from Williamsburg" posts, but any proposal to move kids to Kenmore (or Wakefield) provokes fierce opposition. Is Arlington not really that liberal, or do the other parents know something you're not sharing?

Most parents realize that schlepping their kid to another school won't magically change English from a second language to a first language for someone else.

It would at the elementary level. Some of our elementary schools have such a high proportion of ELL students that they aren't really learning English as fast or as well as they could in a more diverse environment with a strong cohort of native speakers. This is a real problem as we've moved away from direct and explicit instruction toward peer workshop models. Besides the peer group, the $$ that follows the kids helps, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington county and our good friend is a police officer here for over 10 years and said that ACPD send more units to Kenmore than W&L routinely. Not due to violent crimes but due to gang related "tension" and preventive reasons as a show of force.

He said he would never send his kids there, FWIW.

You already said this, and it's been debunked.

Is there permanently a police car at every jr high school? Or is the one at kenmore just there for the last couple boundary change meetings? Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington county and our good friend is a police officer here for over 10 years and said that ACPD send more units to Kenmore than W&L routinely. Not due to violent crimes but due to gang related "tension" and preventive reasons as a show of force.

He said he would never send his kids there, FWIW.

Well we all know how cops are completely free of all racial bias and never ever practice racial profiling, so he is no doubt an excellent source of information

[Anonymous]

School system sucks.

[Anonymous]

Even though I think OP is just trying to stir the pot, I’m sure there are some other Arlington parents reading this thread for validation that Kenmore is a terrible school.

Just wanted to say our oldest had a good three years there and youngest will go soon. Yes, there is huge achievement gap BUT that also means there are students on all levels. I’m sure your kids are gifted in all areas like most Arlington kids are, but some slightly more average kids feel more comfortable in a less competitive environment. The facilities are great and new and spacious and conducive for learning. We had a number of very good teachers and only a couple bad ones. One was PE which didn’t matter so much, one was math but I heard they left Kenmore for another Arlington MS (have fun with that!)

My child was never bullied, never said anything about gangs. We talk frankly about all kinds of stuff but they never noticed this kind of activity or even fights. Did comment often that there were a bunch of kids who were not interested in school and didn’t take it seriously, surelymore than Williamsburg etc, but didn’t seem to affect my child’s learning. If your kids have any interest in arts or tech you will love the facilities and offerings at this school. Lots of outlets in class, after school, and Act II.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington county and our good friend is a police officer here for over 10 years and said that ACPD send more units to Kenmore than W&L routinely. Not due to violent crimes but due to gang related "tension" and preventive reasons as a show of force.

He said he would never send his kids there, FWIW.

You already said this, and it's been debunked.

Is there permanently a police car at every jr high school? Or is the one at kenmore just there for the last couple boundary change meetings? Lol

JR High? You must not be from around here. Yes, every school has an SRO (school resource officer), and they are there more because of lunatics with access to firearms who like to shoot up little kids. There is an SRO assigned to every school, ES-HS, and they rotate between their assigned schools. You might have seen a car parked in front of my kids' ES. Clearly you should infer that SRO officer was there to crack down on gang activity and not to do a safety lesson with the 4 year olds in Pre-K.

[Anonymous]

Eastern Bluemont still goes to Ashlawn but goes to Swanson MS. We live there.

[Anonymous]

cool story. have fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&L = Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA

W-L = Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, VA

Carry on (although I suspect both will have been renamed by the time some of you finally get this right).

I've had 3 kids go through Washington-Lee. For some reason, most of the people who know that it has a hyphen, not an "and," connecting the names still usually refer to it as "double-you-an-ell."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/arlington/122-Kenmore-Middle-School/

Sad

Look at the data. Are all students doing poorly? No. If your child isn't a minority, isn't an English language learner, isn't poor, you have nothing to worry about. It's not like some ES where there isn't a cohort of kids for an UMC child who is academically advanced. All kids have to go to school somewhere, and the poor and minority students have been purposely zoned out of almost every other area of Arlington, this is one of those schools. MC or UMC kids from stable homes, who have few impediments to learning, are doing very well at Kenmore. And maybe, just maybe, they will walk through the their future lives seeing people who don't have their exact same life circumstances as full humans, worthy of dignity, and not think they are "sad" or to be feared and avoided.

There is a huge achievement gap at Kenmore. How does that positively affect the perception of the higher-achieving kids towards the other kids at the school, assuming they aren't largely in different classes?

Speaking for my high achieving 7th grader, I don't think she realizes that others aren't doing as well as she is academically, although she has pointed out to me that kids who are learning English now as a 2nd language are obviously going to struggle with learning the same material she does. (we were discussing school rankings and test score gaps, and she thought the idea of picking a school based on that was rubbish.) She is tracked into some classes with other gifted students, but electives, lunch, and PE are all mixed. She is extremely open minded and accepting of all people.

There are always different levels of achievement and students always know who the top academics are, as well as those who don't do so well academically. It's not a matter of the achievement gap. It's just people. And I think it's an added benefit if the more affluent, high-achieving academic students have the opportunity to see the realities of the achievement gap, anyway. Kids are smarter than adults - they know other students struggle for legitimate reasons, not because they're stupid; and they know those kids aren't dragging them down and dooming them to a life of failure - it's the adult parents who think that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&L = Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA

W-L = Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, VA

Carry on (although I suspect both will have been renamed by the time some of you finally get this right).

I've had 3 kids go through Washington-Lee. For some reason, most of the people who know that it has a hyphen, not an "and," connecting the names still usually refer to it as "double-you-an-ell."

Don't worry. It won't be a problem anymore after they change the name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/arlington/122-Kenmore-Middle-School/

Sad

Look at the data. Are all students doing poorly? No. If your child isn't a minority, isn't an English language learner, isn't poor, you have nothing to worry about. It's not like some ES where there isn't a cohort of kids for an UMC child who is academically advanced. All kids have to go to school somewhere, and the poor and minority students have been purposely zoned out of almost every other area of Arlington, this is one of those schools. MC or UMC kids from stable homes, who have few impediments to learning, are doing very well at Kenmore. And maybe, just maybe, they will walk through the their future lives seeing people who don't have their exact same life circumstances as full humans, worthy of dignity, and not think they are "sad" or to be feared and avoided.

There is a huge achievement gap at Kenmore. How does that positively affect the perception of the higher-achieving kids towards the other kids at the school, assuming they aren't largely in different classes?

Speaking for my high achieving 7th grader, I don't think she realizes that others aren't doing as well as she is academically, although she has pointed out to me that kids who are learning English now as a 2nd language are obviously going to struggle with learning the same material she does. (we were discussing school rankings and test score gaps, and she thought the idea of picking a school based on that was rubbish.) She is tracked into some classes with other gifted students, but electives, lunch, and PE are all mixed. She is extremely open minded and accepting of all people.

There are always different levels of achievement and students always know who the top academics are, as well as those who don't do so well academically. It's not a matter of the achievement gap. It's just people. And I think it's an added benefit if the more affluent, high-achieving academic students have the opportunity to see the realities of the achievement gap, anyway. Kids are smarter than adults - they know other students struggle for legitimate reasons, not because they're stupid; and they know those kids aren't dragging them down and dooming them to a life of failure - it's the adult parents who think that way.

Proves too much. High-achievers can “see the realities” of the achievement gap without being at a school of mostly low-achievers. What they may not glean at a school like Kenmore is just how many other high-achievers are out there.

[Anonymous]

^ exactly! Make sure they understand the rat race as early as possible!