Tell me about Kenmore - APS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll put it this way... no one moves to a neighborhood to go to Kenmore. People DO move to neighborhoods to avoid Kenmore.

I know a number of kids that transfered to kenmore because of their arts focus.

So the constant violence is OK as long as there is an arts focus?

Constant violence? There is no way a bunch of white UMC parents would let their kids stay in Kenmore if there was *constant* violence. That is not a thing.

Also, somebody upthread mentioned the uncomfortable fact that Kenmore students tend to self-segregate. It's highly likely that the victims and the perpetrators are of the same race and often switch roles.

This isn't totally related, but I have substituted in quite a few schools and from what I have seen, classroom behavior is unrelated to race or SES. A lot of students in gifted clusters are more poorly behaved than students in English Learner classes. It depends more on the cohort than SES or the rigor of the classes.

As a sub you don’t get told who is in the gifted cluster.

Well, unless you sub for the class called "world geography - gifted cluster."

And the SPED cluster is often put in the same class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll put it this way... no one moves to a neighborhood to go to Kenmore. People DO move to neighborhoods to avoid Kenmore.

I know a number of kids that transfered to kenmore because of their arts focus.

So the constant violence is OK as long as there is an arts focus?

Constant violence? There is no way a bunch of white UMC parents would let their kids stay in Kenmore if there was *constant* violence. That is not a thing.

Also, somebody upthread mentioned the uncomfortable fact that Kenmore students tend to self-segregate. It's highly likely that the victims and the perpetrators are of the same race and often switch roles.

This isn't totally related, but I have substituted in quite a few schools and from what I have seen, classroom behavior is unrelated to race or SES. A lot of students in gifted clusters are more poorly behaved than students in English Learner classes. It depends more on the cohort than SES or the rigor of the classes.

As a sub you don’t get told who is in the gifted cluster.

If the teacher puts it in the sub notes you do....

And the teacher indicates which kids are gifted?

[Anonymous]

Transferred to Kenmore from a Williamsburg for tech and art. DD now at Yorktown in all AP classes and doing well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll put it this way... no one moves to a neighborhood to go to Kenmore. People DO move to neighborhoods to avoid Kenmore.

I know a number of kids that transfered to kenmore because of their arts focus.

So the constant violence is OK as long as there is an arts focus?

Constant violence? There is no way a bunch of white UMC parents would let their kids stay in Kenmore if there was *constant* violence. That is not a thing.

Also, somebody upthread mentioned the uncomfortable fact that Kenmore students tend to self-segregate. It's highly likely that the victims and the perpetrators are of the same race and often switch roles.

This isn't totally related, but I have substituted in quite a few schools and from what I have seen, classroom behavior is unrelated to race or SES. A lot of students in gifted clusters are more poorly behaved than students in English Learner classes. It depends more on the cohort than SES or the rigor of the classes.

As a sub you don’t get told who is in the gifted cluster.

If the teacher puts it in the sub notes you do....

And the teacher indicates which kids are gifted?

If it matters to the content.

[Anonymous]

We have a child at Kenmore. The teachers are really engaged and there is no “constant violence.” That’s ridiculous. Some kids cause problems - mostly minor ones - but the rest avoid them. It was no different in my Midwest school growing up.

I appreciate that my child is learning to live in a world that is diverse and not just surrounded by a bunch of rich white kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that depending on where your future house is located, your kid and their friends may end up in separate high schools. Kids who attend Kenmore & live north of highway 50 go to W&L (I believe) and south go to Wakefield. Kenmore may (or might not) become the new immersion location but the SB put that convo on hold. You might consider joining Arlington Education Matters to get a feel for how some parents feel about APS. So far we are still new to Kenmore but find the staff responsive (but we are heavily involved and pay for a lot of external activities for our kid).

Not exactly. The neighborhood where the school is located, s of 50, and all the way down to Columbia Pike but west of 4MR are zoned to WL. Only a small number of Kenmore PUs are zoned Wakefield.

The single family neighborhoods north of 50 zoned to Kenmore are zoned to Yorktown. South of 50, most of Kenmore (prob around 80-90%) are zoned to W-L, and the remainder, mostly the single family homes near Barcroft ES are zoned to Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a child at Kenmore. The teachers are really engaged and there is no “constant violence.” That’s ridiculous. Some kids cause problems - mostly minor ones - but the rest avoid them. It was no different in my Midwest school growing up.

I appreciate that my child is learning to live in a world that is diverse and not just surrounded by a bunch of rich white kids.

I guess that experiences differ. After 3 months, we pulled our child from Kenmore and were fortunate to find a private school with a last minute opening. The teachers were fine but they were totally occupied with the bad apples. The bullying was horrific. DD is so much happier now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a child at Kenmore. The teachers are really engaged and there is no “constant violence.” That’s ridiculous. Some kids cause problems - mostly minor ones - but the rest avoid them. It was no different in my Midwest school growing up.

I appreciate that my child is learning to live in a world that is diverse and not just surrounded by a bunch of rich white kids.

I guess that experiences differ. After 3 months, we pulled our child from Kenmore and were fortunate to find a private school with a last minute opening. The teachers were fine but they were totally occupied with the bad apples. The bullying was horrific. DD is so much happier now.

How long ago was this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a child at Kenmore. The teachers are really engaged and there is no “constant violence.” That’s ridiculous. Some kids cause problems - mostly minor ones - but the rest avoid them. It was no different in my Midwest school growing up.

I appreciate that my child is learning to live in a world that is diverse and not just surrounded by a bunch of rich white kids.

I guess that experiences differ. After 3 months, we pulled our child from Kenmore and were fortunate to find a private school with a last minute opening. The teachers were fine but they were totally occupied with the bad apples. The bullying was horrific. DD is so much happier now.

How long ago was this?

Different poster here. We pulled our DD out in March to private after bullying at Kenmore. We tried to work with the administration but the issue continued. Our child is now successful once we left Kenmore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a child at Kenmore. The teachers are really engaged and there is no “constant violence.” That’s ridiculous. Some kids cause problems - mostly minor ones - but the rest avoid them. It was no different in my Midwest school growing up.

I appreciate that my child is learning to live in a world that is diverse and not just surrounded by a bunch of rich white kids.

I guess that experiences differ. After 3 months, we pulled our child from Kenmore and were fortunate to find a private school with a last minute opening. The teachers were fine but they were totally occupied with the bad apples. The bullying was horrific. DD is so much happier now.

How long ago was this?

Different poster here. We pulled our DD out in March to private after bullying at Kenmore. We tried to work with the administration but the issue continued. Our child is now successful once we left Kenmore.

New poster. We also pulled our child mid year (this was last school year) and home schooled until we started private this year. We had some good teachers at Kenmore but they weren’t always able to teach because they had to spend so much time dealing with behavior and other classroom issues. The bullying was out of control at certain times and even after trying to work with the school it just felt like their hands were tied. Private has its issues but the behavior aspect is night and day different.

[Anonymous]

I’m so curious how parents on here know that the teachers are spending all their time dealing with the bad apples instead of teaching their dead sons and daughters in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so curious how parents on here know that the teachers are spending all their time dealing with the bad apples instead of teaching their dead sons and daughters in middle school.

Obviously, meant “dear sons and daughters”; sorry for the terrible typo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so curious how parents on here know that the teachers are spending all their time dealing with the bad apples instead of teaching their dead sons and daughters in middle school.

Two of our DCs teachers flat out told so. We tried for 1.5 years to work through things and take time to understand the situation before we just pulled our DC out of Kenmore. Things are so much better at private but that age group is tough and there's still issues. The school is able to handle the situation differently and smaller class sizes also makes a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so curious how parents on here know that the teachers are spending all their time dealing with the bad apples instead of teaching their dead sons and daughters in middle school.

Two of our DCs teachers flat out told so. We tried for 1.5 years to work through things and take time to understand the situation before we just pulled our DC out of Kenmore. Things are so much better at private but that age group is tough and there's still issues. The school is able to handle the situation differently and smaller class sizes also makes a big difference.

This is the case across APS middle schools, not just at Kenmore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so curious how parents on here know that the teachers are spending all their time dealing with the bad apples instead of teaching their dead sons and daughters in middle school.

Two of our DCs teachers flat out told so. We tried for 1.5 years to work through things and take time to understand the situation before we just pulled our DC out of Kenmore. Things are so much better at private but that age group is tough and there's still issues. The school is able to handle the situation differently and smaller class sizes also makes a big difference.

This is the case across APS middle schools, not just at Kenmore.

Some APS middle schools have more issues than others. We moved (not because of schools) but had to change and the two schools are night and different. All schools have issues but some do have more than others.