APS - transferring to W-L high school - when?

[Anonymous]

We will be new to APS and see that W-L has an IB program. From reading the information in the handbook, it sounds like kids attend their home school for 2 years and then transfer to W-L for the last 2 years of high school. Is that correct? or do you request the transfer in freshman year?

[Anonymous]

IB is a lottery program, it is not a guaranteed option. More details here: https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

This is the APS policy: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SBP-25-2.2-Options-and-Transfers.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IB is a lottery program, it is not a guaranteed option. More details here: https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

This is the APS policy: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SBP-25-2.2-Options-and-Transfers.pdf

IB is not by lottery at W-L. It is by application by current 8th graders for whom W-L is not their home HS. Not sure how it works if a student is already a high schooler elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

It is by application, but sometimes there are more applicants than spaces. Then there's a wait list (not sure if it moves by lottery or merit)

Most kids zoned for other schools who want IB apply in 8th grade and spend all four years at W-L, even though only the last two are spent in the IB program.

PS Welcome to Arlington, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will be new to APS and see that W-L has an IB program. From reading the information in the handbook, it sounds like kids attend their home school for 2 years and then transfer to W-L for the last 2 years of high school. Is that correct? or do you request the transfer in freshman year?

If W-L is not your student's home HS then your student must apply to attend the IB program at W-L for all four years of high school. This happens in 8th grade. 9th and 10 grades are not actually IB but rather prerequisites and the last 2 years the student takes the actual IB courses. During 10th grade the W-L students doing "pre-IB" apply to the actual IB program. If W-L is not your home HS and a student decides not to do full IB, the student may stay at W-L for 11th and 12th grade only if they take a certain number of IB courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB is a lottery program, it is not a guaranteed option. More details here: https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

This is the APS policy: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SBP-25-2.2-Options-and-Transfers.pdf

IB is not by lottery at W-L. It is by application by current 8th graders for whom W-L is not their home HS. Not sure how it works if a student is already a high schooler elsewhere.

For now, anyone who lives in boundary to W-L has the option to enroll in IB classes. If you live in either the Wakefield or Yortown zones and want to participate in IB, you must apply for a transfer to W-L as a Freshman, and if more students apply than there are spaces available, a lottery is held (my understanding that there has been a lottery for qualified students for at least five years, because the number of qualified applicants consistently exceeds available space). If you are an IB transfer student, you must take the required IB classes or they will send you back to your home school.

What is not yet clear is whether the IB program will be separated from W-L when the school is expanded, so that all students, regardless of their boundary, will have equal access to the IB program. Makes sense to me that a unique program should not be exclusive for some yet guaranteed to others based on where one lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB is a lottery program, it is not a guaranteed option. More details here: https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

This is the APS policy: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SBP-25-2.2-Options-and-Transfers.pdf

IB is not by lottery at W-L. It is by application by current 8th graders for whom W-L is not their home HS. Not sure how it works if a student is already a high schooler elsewhere.

Correct, I wasn't clear. It has required a lottery for many years because demand has exceeded supply of seats, so I sort of used a shortcut in my explanation. Others were more clear than I was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What is not yet clear is whether the IB program will be separated from W-L when the school is expanded, so that all students, regardless of their boundary, will have equal access to the IB program. Makes sense to me that a unique program should not be exclusive for some yet guaranteed to others based on where one lives.

It may make sense morally, but as a practical matter, there's no good way to somehow separate it from its current location. It needs to be somewhere, it needs IB teachers, and the teachers who are qualified for IB generally teach other classes.

I don't think IB has been oversubscibed in recent years. If OP's kid meets the qualifications, s/he can attend.

OP, have you bought a house yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What is not yet clear is whether the IB program will be separated from W-L when the school is expanded, so that all students, regardless of their boundary, will have equal access to the IB program. Makes sense to me that a unique program should not be exclusive for some yet guaranteed to others based on where one lives.

It may make sense morally, but as a practical matter, there's no good way to somehow separate it from its current location. It needs to be somewhere, it needs IB teachers, and the teachers who are qualified for IB generally teach other classes.

I don't think IB has been oversubscibed in recent years. If OP's kid meets the qualifications, s/he can attend.

OP, have you bought a house yet?

I believe that it has been oversubscribed and has required a lottery for some time now. As a practical matter, they are trying to figure out how to make access to IB more equitable, which may include limiting access to IB only to those who qualify and/or who agree to complete all the required courses (no more automatic "ins" to IB classes for those who live in the boundary but who don't commit to the program). It doesn't have to move off-campus to become more equitable. Also, if they move it into the annex, it's close enough that teachers can continue to teach both IB and regular classes on the same campus.

[Anonymous]

As a practical matter for OP, it looks as though the lottery is not usually necessary. The limit for transfers recently was set at 64, and the pupil transfer report shows that only this year's senior class has that may (actually more -- 68).

See page 42 here:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a practical matter for OP, it looks as though the lottery is not usually necessary. The limit for transfers recently was set at 64, and the pupil transfer report shows that only this year's senior class has that may (actually more -- 68).

See page 42 here:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

You cannot judge the overall number of students who apply to or are actually in the IB program by the number of seniors in the program. Many students who are initially accepted into the program decide at some point not to do full IB. I know - two of them were mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a practical matter for OP, it looks as though the lottery is not usually necessary. The limit for transfers recently was set at 64, and the pupil transfer report shows that only this year's senior class has that may (actually more -- 68).

See page 42 here:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

I'm confused. Are you saying that no more than 64 students from YHS and Wakefiled applied to transfer? All applicants were accepted? That doesn't sound right to me. But perhaps the mega school aspect has made it less appealing.

[Anonymous]

There are fewer transfers than are allowed under the current rules. Maybe there's an explanation other than "fewer than the max applied," but I don't know what.

Between megaschool and IB workload, maybe fewer kids find the option appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a practical matter for OP, it looks as though the lottery is not usually necessary. The limit for transfers recently was set at 64, and the pupil transfer report shows that only this year's senior class has that may (actually more -- 68).

See page 42 here:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

I'm confused. Are you saying that no more than 64 students from YHS and Wakefiled applied to transfer? All applicants were accepted? That doesn't sound right to me. But perhaps the mega school aspect has made it less appealing.

I know Yorktown students who applied for IB and were not accepted for the class of 2017. I do not think 64 represents the number who applied especially given the fact that a decent amount who are accepted for pre-IB in 9th and 10th and don't do full IB in 11th and 12th.

The overcrowding may influence some students not to apply, but rightly or wrongly, many of the most selective colleges think full IB is the most rigorous coursework a high schooler can take and so I'm sure there are still plenty of Arlington families who want their children to do full IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a practical matter for OP, it looks as though the lottery is not usually necessary. The limit for transfers recently was set at 64, and the pupil transfer report shows that only this year's senior class has that may (actually more -- 68).

See page 42 here:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

I'm confused. Are you saying that no more than 64 students from YHS and Wakefiled applied to transfer? All applicants were accepted? That doesn't sound right to me. But perhaps the mega school aspect has made it less appealing.

I know Yorktown students who applied for IB and were not accepted for the class of 2017. I do not think 64 represents the number who applied especially given the fact that a decent amount who are accepted for pre-IB in 9th and 10th and don't do full IB in 11th and 12th.

The overcrowding may influence some students not to apply, but rightly or wrongly, many of the most selective colleges think full IB is the most rigorous coursework a high schooler can take and so I'm sure there are still plenty of Arlington families who want their children to do full IB.

The class that started as freshman a year ago (2016) also had many more applicants than spaces available. Then there was a lottery - I know a couple of kids who got off the wait list because some who got in through the lottery declined their spots.