Wakefield or Arlington Tech for an A/B Student Who Will Most Likely Stay In-State for College

[Anonymous]

are there other parents weighing the same options, or have done it previous years? he's a above average student with As/Bs and not particularity strong/interested (yet) in any subject. our hope is he will go to a public Virginia university with some kind of scholarship/aid (no hook/not URM). so... would love to hear from your thoughts. and how much will/did your DC's preference factor in the final decision? thx!

[Anonymous]

Arlington Tech is a vocational school. They are trying to market it otherwise but it’s not actually college prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Tech is a vocational school. They are trying to market it otherwise but it’s not actually college prep.

This. Until the first few graduating classes show a strong percentage going to colleges with solid tech-related programs, this is an unproven go-tech program. That’s not a bad thing, but I wouldn’t send my college bound kid there until I know they are sending kids to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Tech is a vocational school. They are trying to market it otherwise but it’s not actually college prep.

This. Until the first few graduating classes show a strong percentage going to colleges with solid tech-related programs, this is an unproven go-tech program. That’s not a bad thing, but I wouldn’t send my college bound kid there until I know they are sending kids to college.

PP here. Vo-tech in case it wasn’t clear. Damn autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

My son is at Arlington Tech. It is absolutely a college prep program. His schedule this year include Intensified World History, Intensified English, Intensified Algebra II/Trig, Biology, 3rd year foreign language plus TV production. Next year, he'll start dual enrollment classes with DE Pre Calculus. The dual enrollment program is most valuable if you expect your child to go to a VA university because they have guaranteed credit transfer arrangements with all the VA public Us. And, they get more guaranteed credits than they would with AP/IB. However, the same may not carry over at private schools. Personally, I don't care that much about the credit transfer -- I'd want him to retake foundational classes for his major at college regardless of any DE/AP/IB credit. More important to me is that he's taking rigorous classes and DE seems to do fine on that front. The curriculum has to be the same as the class at NOVA and the teacher has to have a master's degree in the specific subject they are teaching (that is not required for AP/IB classes).

It definitely needs to be the student's decision to go there. It's quite a different HS experience, esp. since they don't yet have 4 full grades of students. I like the personal attention he gets and the project approach and he particularly likes his science and TV classes, but he has at least one friend who has decided to go back to his home school next year because he thinks the school is too small and he wants the more traditional HS social experience.

Looking at the kids a year ahead, the classes they are taking and the projects they get to do, I have no question that they will do fine in their college applications.

[Anonymous]

It is not vocational at all- it is meant to be a STEM school with project based assessments.

[Anonymous]

9:58 - thanks for the good summary. Hope to see more such posts in the next few years, so parents feel like it's a good alternative to overcrowded general high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not vocational at all- it is meant to be a STEM school with project based assessments.

This is correct, as far as I know (I have no personal experience at Arlington Tech). But I think APS should change the name to something that doesn't sound so vocational.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not vocational at all- it is meant to be a STEM school with project based assessments.

This is correct, as far as I know (I have no personal experience at Arlington Tech). But I think APS should change the name to something that doesn't sound so vocational.

And probably the location, too, as kids will spend their day in the same building surrounded by true vocational students. Nothing wrong with vocational education at all, but it's a little hard to square with efforts to sell it as a college prep program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington Tech is a vocational school. They are trying to market it otherwise but it’s not actually college prep.

Do you know this for a fact or from personal experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not vocational at all- it is meant to be a STEM school with project based assessments.

This is correct, as far as I know (I have no personal experience at Arlington Tech). But I think APS should change the name to something that doesn't sound so vocational.

Arlington Science, Health & Industrial Technology

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not vocational at all- it is meant to be a STEM school with project based assessments.

This is correct, as far as I know (I have no personal experience at Arlington Tech). But I think APS should change the name to something that doesn't sound so vocational.

Arlington Science, Health & Industrial Technology

I see what you did there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is at Arlington Tech. It is absolutely a college prep program. His schedule this year include Intensified World History, Intensified English, Intensified Algebra II/Trig, Biology, 3rd year foreign language plus TV production. Next year, he'll start dual enrollment classes with DE Pre Calculus. The dual enrollment program is most valuable if you expect your child to go to a VA university because they have guaranteed credit transfer arrangements with all the VA public Us. And, they get more guaranteed credits than they would with AP/IB. However, the same may not carry over at private schools. Personally, I don't care that much about the credit transfer -- I'd want him to retake foundational classes for his major at college regardless of any DE/AP/IB credit. More important to me is that he's taking rigorous classes and DE seems to do fine on that front. The curriculum has to be the same as the class at NOVA and the teacher has to have a master's degree in the specific subject they are teaching (that is not required for AP/IB classes).

It definitely needs to be the student's decision to go there. It's quite a different HS experience, esp. since they don't yet have 4 full grades of students. I like the personal attention he gets and the project approach and he particularly likes his science and TV classes, but he has at least one friend who has decided to go back to his home school next year because he thinks the school is too small and he wants the more traditional HS social experience.

Looking at the kids a year ahead, the classes they are taking and the projects they get to do, I have no question that they will do fine in their college applications.

thx. what was the biggest appeal to him before he started there? did anything stand out for him during the visits/info sessions that made him say "I'm coming here" in his mind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is at Arlington Tech. It is absolutely a college prep program. His schedule this year include Intensified World History, Intensified English, Intensified Algebra II/Trig, Biology, 3rd year foreign language plus TV production. Next year, he'll start dual enrollment classes with DE Pre Calculus. The dual enrollment program is most valuable if you expect your child to go to a VA university because they have guaranteed credit transfer arrangements with all the VA public Us. And, they get more guaranteed credits than they would with AP/IB. However, the same may not carry over at private schools. Personally, I don't care that much about the credit transfer -- I'd want him to retake foundational classes for his major at college regardless of any DE/AP/IB credit. More important to me is that he's taking rigorous classes and DE seems to do fine on that front. The curriculum has to be the same as the class at NOVA and the teacher has to have a master's degree in the specific subject they are teaching (that is not required for AP/IB classes).

It definitely needs to be the student's decision to go there. It's quite a different HS experience, esp. since they don't yet have 4 full grades of students. I like the personal attention he gets and the project approach and he particularly likes his science and TV classes, but he has at least one friend who has decided to go back to his home school next year because he thinks the school is too small and he wants the more traditional HS social experience.

Looking at the kids a year ahead, the classes they are taking and the projects they get to do, I have no question that they will do fine in their college applications.

thx. what was the biggest appeal to him before he started there? did anything stand out for him during the visits/info sessions that made him say "I'm coming here" in his mind?

He was impressed with the TV studio. He generally has never liked school so the idea of trying something different was appealing. I did push him to consider it to start with but tried really hard to make sure he knew either decision was OK with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is at Arlington Tech. It is absolutely a college prep program. His schedule this year include Intensified World History, Intensified English, Intensified Algebra II/Trig, Biology, 3rd year foreign language plus TV production. Next year, he'll start dual enrollment classes with DE Pre Calculus. The dual enrollment program is most valuable if you expect your child to go to a VA university because they have guaranteed credit transfer arrangements with all the VA public Us. And, they get more guaranteed credits than they would with AP/IB. However, the same may not carry over at private schools. Personally, I don't care that much about the credit transfer -- I'd want him to retake foundational classes for his major at college regardless of any DE/AP/IB credit. More important to me is that he's taking rigorous classes and DE seems to do fine on that front. The curriculum has to be the same as the class at NOVA and the teacher has to have a master's degree in the specific subject they are teaching (that is not required for AP/IB classes).

It definitely needs to be the student's decision to go there. It's quite a different HS experience, esp. since they don't yet have 4 full grades of students. I like the personal attention he gets and the project approach and he particularly likes his science and TV classes, but he has at least one friend who has decided to go back to his home school next year because he thinks the school is too small and he wants the more traditional HS social experience.

Looking at the kids a year ahead, the classes they are taking and the projects they get to do, I have no question that they will do fine in their college applications.

Thank you, this is great to hear! I was hoping that this is what Arlington Tech is.
I think APS has done an awful job getting the word out and providing an accurate assessment for all parents of what the program wants to accomplish. Hence the great public skepticism when they announced they will expand by an additional 800 seats. It will probably take a graduating class to fully set the record straight!