Wakefield High School

[Anonymous]

My kid is slated for Washington-Lee, but I am trying to do some due-diligence on the Wakefield option. Two questions for current Wakefield parents.

a) A few years ago I heard that the class sizes at Wakefield were substantially smaller than the corresponding classes at W&L. Was that true then? Is it still true now?

b) What exactly is Wakefield's Advance Placement (AP) "Network"? How does it differ from the regular AP offerings at W&L.

Input appreciated. Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Re: the AP network at Wakefield: http://www.apsva.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=8952

It basically means that students zoned for other schools in Arlington can transfer to Wakefield to AP, and the counselors will work with students to try and help them succeed with the AP courses. It's a counter-weight to the fact that many students in the Wakefield district have used the IB program at W-L as a means to transfer out of Wakefield.

While W-L has both IB and AP, the IB program gets more attention. If I had a kid who was more interested in AP than IB, and might need some additional support with AP classes, I'd consider Wakefield, given that W-L is getting so crowded and Wakefield has a new building.

[Anonymous]

Would people at W-L or Yorktown have a fit if APS proposed to move them to Wakefield?

Honest answers only, please.

[Anonymous]

yes

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be ok with Wakefield, partly because we are 1/2 mile from Yorktown and very far from Wakefield. I don't want my kid bussed all over town. And partly because I paid a very large amount of money for a very old, not-fully-renovated house to be in-bounds for Yorktown. (would have been fine with W-L.) If I wanted Wakefield, I would have spent less and gotten a nicer house.

So yes, I'd be annoyed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would people at W-L or Yorktown have a fit if APS proposed to move them to Wakefield?

Honest answers only, please.

I'm currently zoned for Wakefield, but I'm sure the answer to this is "yes". This is probably why there's a proposal to add high school capacity at the Career Center -- if they build a new program, they can take the pressure off of Yorktown, W-L with a fancy new program there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would people at W-L or Yorktown have a fit if APS proposed to move them to Wakefield?

Honest answers only, please.

No - we live 4 blocks from Yorktown and DC went to immersion for elementary school. Right across the street from Wakefield. Arlington's a small place and the drive never took us more than 20 minutes, often less. It would depend on whether DC wanted to pursue one of the programs at Wakefield, such as HS immersion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be ok with Wakefield, partly because we are 1/2 mile from Yorktown and very far from Wakefield. I don't want my kid bussed all over town. And partly because I paid a very large amount of money for a very old, not-fully-renovated house to be in-bounds for Yorktown. (would have been fine with W-L.) If I wanted Wakefield, I would have spent less and gotten a nicer house.

So yes, I'd be annoyed.

This is why I would be annoyed as well. I genuinely don't have an issue with my kids going to Wakefield, but the reality is the school boundaries significantly affects property values. A lot of people are not ok with Wakefield, right or wrong.

[Anonymous]

Have heard nothing but positive things from parents there. FWIW, my kids aren't anywhere near HS age yet, and we're zoned for W-L, but picked our house based on other factors, as we went into it happy to buy anywhere in the county. I'd be more than happy for my kids to attend Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have heard nothing but positive things from parents there. FWIW, my kids aren't anywhere near HS age yet, and we're zoned for W-L, but picked our house based on other factors, as we went into it happy to buy anywhere in the county. I'd be more than happy for my kids to attend Wakefield.

that's not the issue. if rezoned to Wakefield your house would easily lost 25% to 30% market value overnight. would you still be 'more than happy' then?

i didn't think so either.

[Anonymous]

I have friends who bought in one of the Washington-Lee pockets South of route 50, and they are kind of freaking out about the very real possibility of getting rezoned to Wakefield. They are closer to Wakefield than W-L. They also paid a lot less for their (bigger, newer) house than they would have if they were in North Arlington, so I'm not all that sympathetic. You have to look at these things when you're researching houses and neighborhoods.

I looked at some absolutely amazing houses in South Arlington when I bought in 2011. I fell in love with a couple of them. But I just wasn't as sure about the schools, so I kept looking.

the only good thing about my daughter going to wakefield would be that her dad wouldn't complain as much about driving her to school from his house in Alexandria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be ok with Wakefield, partly because we are 1/2 mile from Yorktown and very far from Wakefield. I don't want my kid bussed all over town. And partly because I paid a very large amount of money for a very old, not-fully-renovated house to be in-bounds for Yorktown. (would have been fine with W-L.) If I wanted Wakefield, I would have spent less and gotten a nicer house.

So yes, I'd be annoyed.

This is why I would be annoyed as well. I genuinely don't have an issue with my kids going to Wakefield, but the reality is the school boundaries significantly affects property values. A lot of people are not ok with Wakefield, right or wrong.

What is the issue? They have a new building and it sounds like some good programs there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be ok with Wakefield, partly because we are 1/2 mile from Yorktown and very far from Wakefield. I don't want my kid bussed all over town. And partly because I paid a very large amount of money for a very old, not-fully-renovated house to be in-bounds for Yorktown. (would have been fine with W-L.) If I wanted Wakefield, I would have spent less and gotten a nicer house.

So yes, I'd be annoyed.

This is why I would be annoyed as well. I genuinely don't have an issue with my kids going to Wakefield, but the reality is the school boundaries significantly affects property values. A lot of people are not ok with Wakefield, right or wrong.

What is the issue? They have a new building and it sounds like some good programs there.

Educationally, Wakefield is fine. Some people are afraid of it because it has a higher proportion of FARMs kids and brown-skinned kids.

[Anonymous]

Wakefield is fine. The differences in graduation rates and test scores for white kids (for example) are not statistically significantly lower than those of white kids (for example) at Wash-Lee or Yorktown. But the perception is there. And if you spend $700K on a house zoned for a school ranked higher and that house gets re-districted, you are looking at a big hit to your equity. Nobody really wants that. as long as the perception that Wakefield is lesser is there, it will affect property values.

That said, I feel like enough white middle-class families are settling in South Arlington that at some point, things should be more balanced. This is especially likely if Wakefield can do something with immersion or a middle school feeding into it can do some sort of STEM focus. Then you'll have kids choosing to go there - like they choose to bus all over town to TJ in Fairfax.

here's the thing. Arlington is not unique. In every school district in the nation, there are schools with more expensive housing and less expensive housing. There are schools with more minority kids and fewer minority kids. I think people just talk about it in Arlington so much because Arlington is so small that it's easy to compare only 3 schools. It's harder in Fairfax - there you have to talk about entire tiers of high schools. You have your top tier (Langley, McLean, Woodson, etc.) and your middle tier (Fairfax, Robinson, Lake Braddock) and your lower tier (every Alexandria school, Edison, Stuart, Falls Church.)

Someone's gotta be the 3rd ranked out of 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wakefield is fine. The differences in graduation rates and test scores for white kids (for example) are not statistically significantly lower than those of white kids (for example) at Wash-Lee or Yorktown. But the perception is there. And if you spend $700K on a house zoned for a school ranked higher and that house gets re-districted, you are looking at a big hit to your equity. Nobody really wants that. as long as the perception that Wakefield is lesser is there, it will affect property values.

That said, I feel like enough white middle-class families are settling in South Arlington that at some point, things should be more balanced. This is especially likely if Wakefield can do something with immersion or a middle school feeding into it can do some sort of STEM focus. Then you'll have kids choosing to go there - like they choose to bus all over town to TJ in Fairfax.

here's the thing. Arlington is not unique. In every school district in the nation, there are schools with more expensive housing and less expensive housing. There are schools with more minority kids and fewer minority kids. I think people just talk about it in Arlington so much because Arlington is so small that it's easy to compare only 3 schools. It's harder in Fairfax - there you have to talk about entire tiers of high schools. You have your top tier (Langley, McLean, Woodson, etc.) and your middle tier (Fairfax, Robinson, Lake Braddock) and your lower tier (every Alexandria school, Edison, Stuart, Falls Church.)

Someone's gotta be the 3rd ranked out of 3.

3 out of 3? What about state wide?