APS Middle School Boundaries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

Wow, showing your upper class bias much? You've totally missed the point that APS is trying to bring pathways and options to families whose students will go straight from HS to workforce, or roughly equivalent. They are not needing to expand more advanced/honors for families like you who wish or are trying to get into TJ HS and Ivies. Those other families - and there are MANY - deserve pathways and options too, and folks like you and me are already well served.

What? That’s inane. Half my graduating class didn’t go to college, and they would be best served going to the Career Center for high school. Arts focus? Spanish language ? How the F does that get them a job? Are they going to teach Spanish?

We need to ready kids for college or a career, not pathways.

Wait are you questioning about speaking Spanish could help someone with a job if they don't go to college? How about the ability to speak a HUGE unskilled population who they could be working with? Don't you think Spanish will be helpful for working in construction or trades? Spanish is also helpful for going into the service industry. Talking to customers, talking to fellow employees, etc. Spanish is helpful going into healthcare.

I could 100% see the benefits to Spanish if someone is going into unskilled or semi-skilled work. Actually, folks in those industries probably have more of a chance to use spanish than someone who is going into highly skilled work. Now I also think that there should be more non college pathways but spanish is 100% useful in that regard.

There are a TON of native Spanish speakers that are learning English here. Having immersion level Spanish will get you laughed at by the crew for claiming you know Spanish.

That is simply not true. As a Spanish speaker I would never laugh at anyone trying to communicate with me in my native language. That is ridiculous. No one is saying that immersion kids are 100% fluent but they are certainly fluent enough to communicate with someone who speaks Spanish better than if they only spoke English. That is just a ridiculous comment

[Anonymous]

What was the point of the pathways presentation? Is that their new focus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was the point of the pathways presentation? Is that their new focus?

Excellent question.
The academic department finally came out with this big idea and plan. Only, it's such incompetence and laziness that it really is neither a big idea nor a plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the point of the pathways presentation? Is that their new focus?

Excellent question.
The academic department finally came out with this big idea and plan. Only, it's such incompetence and laziness that it really is neither a big idea nor a plan.

Pathways seems like a makework effort to make schools more interesting so people won't complain when they are bused 3 schools over. "But it has a Tiddlywink focus!".

I wish they would spend more time on differentiation, they just started the honors program in middle school, get that off the ground and expanded to all courses first.

I would love a middle school ATS -- dress code, more discipline, maybe less vaping in the bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anything in board doc from boundaries discussion last night? Mine won’t load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile Gunston will sit overcrowded for 2 more years and Williamsburg will be way under used for 3 more years (counting this year). Entire cohorts of kids moving through and they're doing nothing.

I know Gunston is overcrowded but I am somewhat impressed by how small my kid's class sizes are there. He has barely any classes with over 20 kids. It is interesting because someone mentioned in another post how WMS classes are 30plus kids. Also interesting because a friend at WMS says her kid does all work on the ipad and my Gunston kid does none lol (not that this has anything to do with overcrowding just though it was interesting). ANYWAY, i know that overcrowding is an issue and other resources are stressed and the hallways are chaotic. I also think PE is kind of crazy because multiple classes go at once but just found the class size comparison interesting.

Yes, this is a crazy phenomenon. Most under-enrolled school by far = completely overcrowded classrooms, most overcrowded school by far = small class sizes.

But yes, overall the overcrowded school will feel this strain more and more, while for the under-enrolled school this just seems to be mismanagement that could be fixed more easily.

Does Gunston get Title I money? That could explain it.

Title I is PreK-5th.

Why do you think that? It’s absolutely not. Elementary schools do get a disproportionate amount, in general, but it can cover pre K to HS.

APS uses Title I and Title I money exclusively for elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

Wow, showing your upper class bias much? You've totally missed the point that APS is trying to bring pathways and options to families whose students will go straight from HS to workforce, or roughly equivalent. They are not needing to expand more advanced/honors for families like you who wish or are trying to get into TJ HS and Ivies. Those other families - and there are MANY - deserve pathways and options too, and folks like you and me are already well served.

Those other families will not get into the “democratic caring pathway” aka HB anymore than they did before! These pathways are bogus. There is no true access. And besides what good do these pathways do for one who wants to go straight into the workforce? Other than already earning an associate degree in HS - neither Spanish Immersion, nor HB “pathways” will help with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

Wow, showing your upper class bias much? You've totally missed the point that APS is trying to bring pathways and options to families whose students will go straight from HS to workforce, or roughly equivalent. They are not needing to expand more advanced/honors for families like you who wish or are trying to get into TJ HS and Ivies. Those other families - and there are MANY - deserve pathways and options too, and folks like you and me are already well served.

Um, where is there evidence of trying to provide such pathways? They are retaining the same existing special programs and adding in a STEM specialty. They don't even mention CTE or the Career Center.

And implementing some intensified courses at the middle school level is not to placate families eyeing TJ and ivy league colleges. That's just a reasonable and basic curriculum piece that benefits everyone and provides every student the opportunity to be more appropriately challenged. You must be oblivious to the whole middle school complaints and initiative.

+1. This “pathways” initiative is just APS’ way to re-wrap their original proposal. They’ve added nothing (STEM “pathway” is likely Arlington Tech), nor will this broaden access to any of these “paths”, especially not HB, nor will it prepare anyone any better for college or the workforce!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

Wow, showing your upper class bias much? You've totally missed the point that APS is trying to bring pathways and options to families whose students will go straight from HS to workforce, or roughly equivalent. They are not needing to expand more advanced/honors for families like you who wish or are trying to get into TJ HS and Ivies. Those other families - and there are MANY - deserve pathways and options too, and folks like you and me are already well served.

What? That’s inane. Half my graduating class didn’t go to college, and they would be best served going to the Career Center for high school. Arts focus? Spanish language ? How the F does that get them a job? Are they going to teach Spanish?

We need to ready kids for college or a career, not pathways.

Duh. This IS getting them ready for a career or possibly college. But again, you're comment is clearly coming from the bias that college is the destination after APS. It is for many, but not many others. PART of what pathways do is allow more families in the non-college track to find a way through APS and get something out of it. For decades those people have been dropping out, burning out or getting shoved through to college only to find out they were not ready for that. Don't you hear the calls in our society for more career preparation that is not college and not student loans?

You are totally joking that the “pathways” are in any way helpful, particularly for those not going to college! They couldn’t be more unhelpful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

totally

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

It was a feeble and inept attempt by the principal of HB to describe its "pathway." I don't think Syphax academic staff even bothered to write it, probably because they're clueless but also because nobody seems to be able to define HB's unique instructional program. I think the SB suggested eliminating that phrase for the exact reason people here are saying. Personally, I think if you can't justify your program with a meaningful description of what it is, there's no real need for the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

It was a feeble and inept attempt by the principal of HB to describe its "pathway." I don't think Syphax academic staff even bothered to write it, probably because they're clueless but also because nobody seems to be able to define HB's unique instructional program. I think the SB suggested eliminating that phrase for the exact reason people here are saying. Personally, I think if you can't justify your program with a meaningful description of what it is, there's no real need for the program.

HB program description (old): kids struggling in traditional school environment because of dyslexia or other mild LD, high interest in arts or theater or writing, and likes pot

HB program description (now): private school classroom size available to a select few lottery winners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

It was a feeble and inept attempt by the principal of HB to describe its "pathway." I don't think Syphax academic staff even bothered to write it, probably because they're clueless but also because nobody seems to be able to define HB's unique instructional program. I think the SB suggested eliminating that phrase for the exact reason people here are saying. Personally, I think if you can't justify your program with a meaningful description of what it is, there's no real need for the program.

HB program description (old): kids struggling in traditional school environment because of dyslexia or other mild LD, high interest in arts or theater or writing, and likes pot

HB program description (now): private school classroom size available to a select few lottery winners[/quote]

...and their siblings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

It was a feeble and inept attempt by the principal of HB to describe its "pathway." I don't think Syphax academic staff even bothered to write it, probably because they're clueless but also because nobody seems to be able to define HB's unique instructional program. I think the SB suggested eliminating that phrase for the exact reason people here are saying. Personally, I think if you can't justify your program with a meaningful description of what it is, there's no real need for the program.

HB program description (old): kids struggling in traditional school environment because of dyslexia or other mild LD, high interest in arts or theater or writing, and likes pot

HB program description (now): private school classroom size available to a select few lottery winners

Yes, it was designed to be the weird school for weird kids but the lottery system means that there's no way to determine which kid really "needs" the environment so it's entirely random.