"Choice out"
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Anonymous
| Thinking about Arlington Schools - what does it mean to "choice out"? So there are public schools in Arlington that are only for people who choose to attend them? Do they have a lottery? How does this work? |
Anonymous
| Lottery |
Anonymous
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Choicing out means that you are entering a lottery for one of the choice schools. Which could be:
ATS Immersion (Claremont, Key) or some other program, like Campbell if you don't like Carlin Springs or a Montessori program. The ATS lottery is open to everyone in the county. Kids who have already lotteried into the lower-income preschool program are automatically in, and siblings of current ATS kids, and then the remaining spots are lottery. For immersion, they try for 50% native spanish speakers and 50% non-spanish speakers. There are kids who are in-bound for the school, and then the remaining spots have a lottery. |
Anonymous
And that language is telling....many people perceive that people are choosing not to attend their neighborhood school, versus choosing to attend a different type of program (e.g., traditional, immersion, Montessori). What's annoying is that its only people from schools with lower scores who apparently "choice out" -- people from "high performing" schools who send their kids to ATS or Drew or Key are just choosing the best fit for their child. 
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Anonymous
I fail to see why that is annoying. |
Anonymous
| They're not choice schools. They're chance schools. |
Anonymous
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I am so confused by these Choice options.
Is there a place on the Arlington website that explains all the options? It sounds like there are times when a family can choose (i.e. through a lottery) to not attend a neighborhood school and go to another school. However, you can not lottery into any school in APS. Just the ones that are open to the lottery. These open to the lottery schools can be made up of all lottery kids? Or part lottery and part zoned neighborhood? There are also schools that you have to test into? Like TJ High School. Are there any elementary or middle schools that you can "test" into? I need a place where this is all broken down. I would also like to know the odds of being able to lottery into any of the lottery schools. Is that recorded somewhere? |
Anonymous
They are making changes to a lot of the choice school stuff. The biggest change is to the immersion programs and science focus ( which will be a neighborhood school) The idea being there will be better equity in the choice programs Reed and Randolph will eventually be IB choice schools Key and Claremont are Spanish immersion ATS - full county lottery Campbell- full county lottery Montessori - Full county lottery |
Anonymous
To add to your confusion even more, the entire Transfer & Options policy underwent a major revision this spring, that will go into effect for the 2018/19 school year. But some aspects of it were tabled for further study and it may get revised again this year. If you dig around on google or on the APS website, you can probably find the revised policy that the School Board voted to adopt (although it will be a frustrating process to find it). There isn't any good resource that describes this process, and APS has not released the odds of getting accepted into any of the lotteries. In fact, there are allegations (on this site and elsewhere) that the lotteries are not fair and certain kids get in through backdoors-- that may or may not be true, just telling you the discussion is out there. TJ High School is an entirely different animal. It is located in Fairfax County, but Arlington pays FCPS for a certain number of slots every year. It is highly competitive to get into, and yes, you do need to achieve certain test scores. Some people, including a current School Board member, have argued that Arlington should pull out of this arrangement because it just results in the cream of the crop of Arlington students going to Fairfax. I don't know whether this will happen by the time your kids are in high school. (From your questions, it sounds like you have little ones who are not yet school age.) At the elementary level, your options are your neighborhood school, Spanish immersion (Key or Claremont, depending where you live), Drew Montessori and ATS. Some of the programs used to give admissions preference if you lived in certain neighborhoods, but that will be eliminated next year due to the Transfer & Options policy that was adopted last year-- then it is a straight lottery for everyone. There is also talk of opening a new "IB" lottery elementary school in 2021 in Westover in the building that now houses the APS daycare program. A good resource is to join the "Arlington Education Matters" facebook page, which is a community of parent-advocates. It is less snarky than this website because it is not anonymous. |
Anonymous
Doubt it's all in one place, so I'll help. No idea about the chances of getting in to any program. I think it varies by year. I doubt this is information that APS collects/analyzes. They don't publicize the number of applicants or length of waitlists either. There had been a hodgepodge of policies that resulted in some schools being 100% lottery and others being hybrids, where there was a neighborhood zone but then also a lottery component (certain kids, based on where they lived, were guaranteed spots and then anyone outside that area could enter a lottery). But given the severe overcrowding, these policies were not working and, as you noted, are just confusing. Anyway, the SB updated the admissions policies across the board in June, to be effective come fall 2018. Going forward, every child has a zoned neighborhood elementary school. Then there are the "option" elementary schools, and they are all now 100% lottery: Montessori, ATS, and Campbell (EL). The only wrinkle is that since there were TWO existing immersion schools, the county is divided into E/W zones, and if you're in the E zone you'd apply to Key and if you're in the W zone you'd apply to Claremont. I think if one school fills and the other one does not, the waitlist will be transferred so you'd have an equal chance at getting in through the lottery regardless of where you live. At the MS level, you have the option to continue in Immersion and Montessori (both programs are housed within the neighborhood MS Gunston). There is no MS option for continuation of Campbell EL or the traditional model found at ATS. But, then there is HB Woodlawn that goes from 6-12. I think it was started as a smaller school for kids who don't do well in a traditional comprehensive HS setting (it used to be known as "Hippie High") but it's become more of an elite option, like a private public school given that it has capped enrollment, the highest test/SAT scores, and will have a brand new super fancy building while all the other HS become overcrowded and have limited options to address the crowding. I think people apply for different reasons now than they may have in the past given the very different circumstances within the school system (for instance, parents who supposedly love ATS for the traditional model, but then opt for the least traditional school come 6th grade--schools at totally different ends of the educational spectrum. But they do share capped enrollment, the self-selecting nature of kids/parents, and very powerful and $$ PTAs, and I think that is attractive to a number of parents, myself included. At the HS level you have the option to continue in Immersion (currently program is housed within Wakefield). Then there is the new school named Arlington Tech. It's hard to describe what it is--not really a VoTech program, but not TJHSST either. It's a small program now, something like 250 students, but they want to grow it to over 1,200 I believe. Then there is a new program that will be sited at W-L HS, but no decision has been made on the program's focus. Ideas floated include: an expanded IB program, a 9th Grade academy, or a World Languages program. There are no "test-in" programs or schools within APS. APS does participate with TJHSST, though. I think there are something like 7 spots set aside for Arlington kids every year. |
Anonymous
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PP again- I forgot to add Campbell to that list of choice elementary schools...
Also, the choice IB programs in Westover and Randolph are not a done deal yet-- there is a lot of opposition to the idea and those decisions have not been finalized. That is the big fight that is going to happen this coming school year, in addition to redrawing boundaries for ES and MS. Sadly, APS is kind of a cluster right now. |
Anonymous
| Arlington does has some capped number of spots at TJHSST by agreement among several counties, but in most years it doesn't fill that number. About 10-30 students per grade attend - the cap is significantly higher than 7. |
Anonymous
| Also, Jefferson MS is IB. They used to let you choose it over other, less crowded schools, but I'm not sure if they still do. |
Anonymous
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your chance of getting into ATS- slim- they admit somewhere between 25%-50% of kids that apply.
your chance of getting into Montessori- pretty good. There has not historically been a waitlist for montessori at the elementary level. Your chance of getting into Immersion- pretty good if you are willing to be flexible. If you don't immediately get into your zoned immersion school, start pushing to be admitted to the other one, you probably will be (For the last several years Key has taken kids off the Claremont waiting list.) If the immersion waitlists continue to grow, APS is open to the idea of starting a 3rd elementary immersion school. There are a lot of educational benefits to immersion, particularly for native Spanish speakers. Your chance of getting into Campbell- this is a wild card, previously there were very few zoned schools for which you could apply to Campbell. This is changing in a year and the entire county will be able to apply. I suspect that Campbell will become like ATS- slim chances. |
Anonymous
| Also, important to know that while the lotteries are 'countywide', the slots are allocated by elementary zone based on (I think) number of kids in that zone. So, if there are 40 families in your zone applying for ATS, that's who you are up against for a spot, not the whole county. Some school zones have higher participation in the lotteries so it can be easier or harder to get in depending on where you live. |