Is there really nothing "specialized" about the HB curriculum?

[Anonymous]

I saw this comment on FB. I had no idea that HB didn't have some sort of specialized curriculum. If this is the case, are we just paying for private school for a lucky few?

[Anonymous]

Students can create their own elective course, if they find a teacher willing to teach the topic. Instead of guidance counselors, students are assigned a TA—the approach is much more personalized than in a large high school, and not unlike elite private schools like St. Albans. Students also have an administrative role regarding the hiring and firing of teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw this comment on FB. I had no idea that HB didn't have some sort of specialized curriculum. If this is the case, are we just paying for private school for a lucky few?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw this comment on FB. I had no idea that HB didn't have some sort of specialized curriculum. If this is the case, are we just paying for private school for a lucky few?

Yes

[Anonymous]

It’s just a niche program that APS maintains so it can claim to prove some options, but meanwhile APS needs the space and other kids have an inferior experience.

[Anonymous]

Along with being able to create your own class, the original idea was that it was for kids who were "bright but bored" in traditional school setting so the block scheduling, later start, free periods and more flexibility (and more casual atmosphere) were appealing to a certain segment. Also without the focus on sports and all the usual clubs and activities students sort of did their own thing. I had a family member teach there in the 80s/90s and several friends who attended. It did not used to be the do all and end all of schools - appealed to a certain set of kids and I don't recall it even being selective at the time. Most students back then wanted a more traditional experience.

I think parents fleeing middle and high schools they perceive to be "less good", larger student bodies and overcrowding in recent years, plus parents becoming more focused on test scores have led to the overwhelming demand for H-B. Most of the kids who attend now would never have chosen it back in the day.

[Anonymous]

I don't see why we can't replicate the HB program so that more families have a chance at this school. If it can't grow, it should be replicated to grow with the demand/population growth. And since we can't build a 4th comprehensive HS right now, this is what they should aim to build at the CC. 800 seats with the majority being HS seats and some for MS, too. Take some of the money from the MS addition in the CIP and devote it to the CC site to build more amenities for all the programs co-located on the CC site. And to alleviate concerns about traffic, make the CC classes available only to kids enrolled in the CC or Arl Tech or HB2 during the school day. If you want to take a class offered there and you attend one of the other HS, you have to do it outside of traditional school hours (assuming we can extend the offerings there; if we can't other kids won't be able to take those classes and that would be the trade-off for going to tour neighborhood school). We can't all have it all. We have to make some hard choices.

[Anonymous]

We put four kids all the way through APS, two at HB and two at their neighborhood high school. Our youngest graduated nearly a decade ago. Irate parents made the same arguments that you all are making now -- it's not fair, they need to expand, blah blah blah. Nothing ever changes. The fact is, all of our kids got good educations, went to good colleges, and turned out fine. I guarantee that, a decade from now, you are all going to laugh about how much time you wasted worrying about such trivial -- and, I have to say, snowflake -- stuff. Take a deep breath . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We put four kids all the way through APS, two at HB and two at their neighborhood high school. Our youngest graduated nearly a decade ago. Irate parents made the same arguments that you all are making now -- it's not fair, they need to expand, blah blah blah. Nothing ever changes. The fact is, all of our kids got good educations, went to good colleges, and turned out fine. I guarantee that, a decade from now, you are all going to laugh about how much time you wasted worrying about such trivial -- and, I have to say, snowflake -- stuff. Take a deep breath . . .

There will be over 3,000 kids at W-L. Much different now. The competition to get into a top State school from there —UVA, etc, incredibly hard with quotas by the iniversities and competition within. I heard kids have to do the IB program for top schools or they won’t even look at them. Many were completely stressed out by it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Along with being able to create your own class, the original idea was that it was for kids who were "bright but bored" in traditional school setting so the block scheduling, later start, free periods and more flexibility (and more casual atmosphere) were appealing to a certain segment. Also without the focus on sports and all the usual clubs and activities students sort of did their own thing. I had a family member teach there in the 80s/90s and several friends who attended. It did not used to be the do all and end all of schools - appealed to a certain set of kids and I don't recall it even being selective at the time. Most students back then wanted a more traditional experience.

I think parents fleeing middle and high schools they perceive to be "less good", larger student bodies and overcrowding in recent years, plus parents becoming more focused on test scores have led to the overwhelming demand for H-B. Most of the kids who attend now would never have chosen it back in the day.

I think this is exactly why we should close it. If the program was once meant for the "bright but bored" kids but now is only available to the lucky lottery winners, then it isn't really existing to serve its intended purpose. Or, at the very least, they should bump out the middle school kids and just make it all high school seats since that is the level where we will have the most extreme seat shortage once Stratford opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Along with being able to create your own class, the original idea was that it was for kids who were "bright but bored" in traditional school setting so the block scheduling, later start, free periods and more flexibility (and more casual atmosphere) were appealing to a certain segment. Also without the focus on sports and all the usual clubs and activities students sort of did their own thing. I had a family member teach there in the 80s/90s and several friends who attended. It did not used to be the do all and end all of schools - appealed to a certain set of kids and I don't recall it even being selective at the time. Most students back then wanted a more traditional experience.

I think parents fleeing middle and high schools they perceive to be "less good", larger student bodies and overcrowding in recent years, plus parents becoming more focused on test scores have led to the overwhelming demand for H-B. Most of the kids who attend now would never have chosen it back in the day.

I think this is exactly why we should close it. If the program was once meant for the "bright but bored" kids but now is only available to the lucky lottery winners, then it isn't really existing to serve its intended purpose. Or, at the very least, they should bump out the middle school kids and just make it all high school seats since that is the level where we will have the most extreme seat shortage once Stratford opens.

Respectfully, you're an idiot. There's no chance in hell that Arlington will ever close what many consider to be the crown jewel of its middle/high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put four kids all the way through APS, two at HB and two at their neighborhood high school. Our youngest graduated nearly a decade ago. Irate parents made the same arguments that you all are making now -- it's not fair, they need to expand, blah blah blah. Nothing ever changes. The fact is, all of our kids got good educations, went to good colleges, and turned out fine. I guarantee that, a decade from now, you are all going to laugh about how much time you wasted worrying about such trivial -- and, I have to say, snowflake -- stuff. Take a deep breath . . .

There will be over 3,000 kids at W-L. Much different now. The competition to get into a top State school from there —UVA, etc, incredibly hard with quotas by the iniversities and competition within. I heard kids have to do the IB program for top schools or they won’t even look at them. Many were completely stressed out by it.

See, you're just plain wrong and demonstrably so. According the SCHEV, when our youngest graduated from her Arlington high school nine years ago 43.4 percent of Arlington applicants to UVA and 42 percent of Arlington applicants to William and Mary were admitted. Average SAT scores of in state enrolled students were 1317 at UVA back then and 1324 at W&M.

Five years earlier than that, average SAT scores in state at UVA was 1315 and at W&M was 1331.

Last year 37.8 percent of Arlington applicants got into UVA and 53.6 percent of Arlington applicants got into W&M, with SATs in state averaging 1337 at UVA and 1329 at W&M.

The bottom line: SAT scores for in state students at W&M are actually lower now than they were 15 years ago, and at UVA they're only 20 points higher. And while the admissions rate for Arlington applicants has dropped over the years for UVA, it hasn't dropped for W&M. My hunch is that a big reason for the drop in admissions rate at UVA is because kids are applying to more schools than they did 10 or 15 years ago, and including more reach schools. The quality of admitted students hasn't changed very much though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put four kids all the way through APS, two at HB and two at their neighborhood high school. Our youngest graduated nearly a decade ago. Irate parents made the same arguments that you all are making now -- it's not fair, they need to expand, blah blah blah. Nothing ever changes. The fact is, all of our kids got good educations, went to good colleges, and turned out fine. I guarantee that, a decade from now, you are all going to laugh about how much time you wasted worrying about such trivial -- and, I have to say, snowflake -- stuff. Take a deep breath . . .

There will be over 3,000 kids at W-L. Much different now. The competition to get into a top State school from there —UVA, etc, incredibly hard with quotas by the iniversities and competition within. I heard kids have to do the IB program for top schools or they won’t even look at them. Many were completely stressed out by it.

See, you're just plain wrong and demonstrably so. According the SCHEV, when our youngest graduated from her Arlington high school nine years ago 43.4 percent of Arlington applicants to UVA and 42 percent of Arlington applicants to William and Mary were admitted. Average SAT scores of in state enrolled students were 1317 at UVA back then and 1324 at W&M.

Five years earlier than that, average SAT scores in state at UVA was 1315 and at W&M was 1331.

Last year 37.8 percent of Arlington applicants got into UVA and 53.6 percent of Arlington applicants got into W&M, with SATs in state averaging 1337 at UVA and 1329 at W&M.

The bottom line: SAT scores for in state students at W&M are actually lower now than they were 15 years ago, and at UVA they're only 20 points higher. And while the admissions rate for Arlington applicants has dropped over the years for UVA, it hasn't dropped for W&M. My hunch is that a big reason for the drop in admissions rate at UVA is because kids are applying to more schools than they did 10 or 15 years ago, and including more reach schools. The quality of admitted students hasn't changed very much though.

Not true. Students that do all AP classes at W-L have also been accepted into top schools, even Ivy League, all within the past few years. As long as the student is deliberate in course selection--all AP or IB--that's fine. There's no need to do the full IB Diploma just to get into a good school. Also, the percentage of students getting into good schools has stayed the same, even as the school population has increased over the past 30 years. That will not change as the school population continues to fluctuate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We put four kids all the way through APS, two at HB and two at their neighborhood high school. Our youngest graduated nearly a decade ago. Irate parents made the same arguments that you all are making now -- it's not fair, they need to expand, blah blah blah. Nothing ever changes. The fact is, all of our kids got good educations, went to good colleges, and turned out fine. I guarantee that, a decade from now, you are all going to laugh about how much time you wasted worrying about such trivial -- and, I have to say, snowflake -- stuff. Take a deep breath . . .

Can you share what the differences were at that time, between the schools re: curriculum etc? I get what you are saying, but would like to know since you had 4 kids go through, two at HB, if you could share if they felt there were differences, what those were, and which type of kids would benefit from HB (and why).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Along with being able to create your own class, the original idea was that it was for kids who were "bright but bored" in traditional school setting so the block scheduling, later start, free periods and more flexibility (and more casual atmosphere) were appealing to a certain segment. Also without the focus on sports and all the usual clubs and activities students sort of did their own thing. I had a family member teach there in the 80s/90s and several friends who attended. It did not used to be the do all and end all of schools - appealed to a certain set of kids and I don't recall it even being selective at the time. Most students back then wanted a more traditional experience.

I think parents fleeing middle and high schools they perceive to be "less good", larger student bodies and overcrowding in recent years, plus parents becoming more focused on test scores have led to the overwhelming demand for H-B. Most of the kids who attend now would never have chosen it back in the day.

I think this is exactly why we should close it. If the program was once meant for the "bright but bored" kids but now is only available to the lucky lottery winners, then it isn't really existing to serve its intended purpose. Or, at the very least, they should bump out the middle school kids and just make it all high school seats since that is the level where we will have the most extreme seat shortage once Stratford opens.

Respectfully, you're an idiot. There's no chance in hell that Arlington will ever close what many consider to be the crown jewel of its middle/high schools.

This poster is right. So what about making HB2?!? Then it "grows," without disturbing the original program.