Sounds like you're trying to have it both ways. The reason why your kids attend classes with 15 students is that the other students are deemed high-risk, so those schools get extra resources to help those students. People don't avoid South Arlington schools because they are "scared" of non-whites. They avoid them because student performance is regularly below average. Wakefield has a very high drop-out rate, some of the worst SAT scores in NoVa and not a single National Merit Semifinalist this year. The other poster is also right that the housing stock is not as nice as in North Arlington. In comparison, at TC, you're getting the best that the City of Alexandria has to offer and you can still live in one of the best neighborhoods in Alexandria. |
What really needs to be determined is the effect good teachers have versus the effect of the peer group (can anyone point to a study?). As long as good teachers are teaching the students and our children thrive, then who cares whether students whose native language is not English don't do as well on standardized tests? Let's face it, Arlington's housing stock is pretty boring---all of it! In this regard, Alexandria certainly has the advantage. But with TC, you're not so much getting the best that the city has to offer, you're getting the ONLY HS the city has to offer. |
I am the south Arlington poster. Look, I love my neighborhood, house, kids' schools, classmates, and neighbors. I recognize our school gets extra funding and think it is great. There is so much more to education than test scores. Also, the kids know English - their parents may not, but the kids do. My child is not stunted by his classmates being ESL. |
The middle school IB program is a stand-alone, meaning you don't have to feed into a high school IB program. It is a very nice program; one of the best things about it is that the school is certified as an IB school by teachers from throughout the world who don't care about NCLB or any other American testing regime. This helps keep the school from drifting too far from good practices (since it is a good program) or dumbing down classes. |
do u know why ASFS is not filling up all the K/1st classes? i find that hard to believe given a school with waitlist. also 1st grade class has a full-time aide? that's unheard of. |
Define "full". Both Alexandria and Arlington have put a priority on keep class size down, unlike FCPS. That's why you will see these kinds of numbers. |
Yes, those sizes seem pretty standard for K and 1st in Arlington. Once they get up to around 25, they usually make another class to bring the #s back down. My son is in 2nd grade now, though, and he has 25 in his class and another class just got their 26th student. So classes do seem to get bigger as the grades go up. |
but as a choice school with waitlist ASFS should be filling up (or close to) to the max # allowed before needing to add a new class. no? |
Duh. If all 5 classes breach the 21 limit.. You open a new class. Then that number is spread among the 5 classes. There were between 18-21 in all 5 K classes. The popular teacher had the biggest #. |
r u a troll? the limit was never 21; and with a waitlist you would expect all the classes were filled close to the limit. unless they ran out of children on the waitlist, of course. |
Who let Prince on the boards? |
just answer the questions |
No hayfield hawks anywhere ![]() |
My thoughts exactly! Still a very good system with lots of involved parents. We live in Vienna. |
APS has classroom capacity for K set at 23 (although ATS is pushed to 24 per class). Not sure why ASFS would be under that if there is a waitlist. |