South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And for those of you think the boundary for wakefield will move north to relieve some WL overcrowding, not going to ever happen now. The county is on a course to build a stem high school next or near Henry. The plan is to give WL zoned families priority, then every one else. So, that will allow the boundary to stay the same and keeps wakefield predominately minority, and further the brain drain from that school.

I think south Arlington should just form it's own county. It is already so segregated in every way, we shoukd be able to make our own decisions. County does not want to invest down here anyways unless it absolutely must.

That was not my understanding of what this new high school will be. I am pretty sure the county is talking about a technical high school at the Career Center site, not a high school to rival TJ. Can you share more about this new high school? I read a description somewhere and it sounded far more like a high school for the non-college track crowd.

Indeed. The above post isn't based in any sort of fact or reality. There are plans to beef up career and vocational training. I think that's a good thing and would
Most likely benefit Wakefield and it's test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In reviewing these numbers you need to keep in mind that at Yorktown twice the number of white kids took the SAT and that's going to lower the average. And neither school comes close to HB.

Would HB even report separately? All the kids there are officially students at either Yorktown, WL or Wakefield.

Also, even though it's a lottery school, there would be some sampling bias associated with HB given who is attracted to seek admission there in the first place.

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.

It's true that WL white students have been marginally outperforming Yorktown white students in recent years. While we have no way of knowing for sure, I'd bet this is because of out of boundary kids attending the IB program, both from Wakefield and Yorktown. The program does attract good students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In reviewing these numbers you need to keep in mind that at Yorktown twice the number of white kids took the SAT and that's going to lower the average. And neither school comes close to HB.

Would HB even report separately? All the kids there are officially students at either Yorktown, WL or Wakefield.

Also, even though it's a lottery school, there would be some sampling bias associated with HB given who is attracted to seek admission there in the first place.

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.

It's true that WL white students have been marginally outperforming Yorktown white students in recent years. While we have no way of knowing for sure, I'd bet this is because of out of boundary kids attending the IB program, both from Wakefield and Yorktown. The program does attract good students.

Really? Seriously ??!? WTF? You don't think it has anything to do with white affluent kids from Lyon Park, Ashton Heights, Lyon Village---you know the population explosion that has been going on since 2000...oh no its only because 'YHS students come to W-L for the IB program'

Yorktown lady- if W-L is so bad why are your YHS students choosing to come over? You are a complete oxyMORON.

[Anonymous]

What in the hell are you people even arguing about? Do you know how awful that you were making North Arlington parents look year?

Just stop now before you embarrass yourself further.

[Anonymous]

What in the hell are you people even arguing about? Do you know how awful you are making North Arlington parents look here?

Just stop now before you embarrass yourself further.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.

ACPS=Alexandria City Schools
APS= Arlington Co. Schools

[Anonymous]

What in the hell are you people even arguing about? Do you know how awful you are making North Arlington parents look here?

Just stop now before you embarrass yourself further.

I'm sorry, PP, but the damage has already been done. Everyone on DCUM knows that N. Arlington posters are a**holes, both here and on the real estate threads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In reviewing these numbers you need to keep in mind that at Yorktown twice the number of white kids took the SAT and that's going to lower the average. And neither school comes close to HB.

Would HB even report separately? All the kids there are officially students at either Yorktown, WL or Wakefield.

Also, even though it's a lottery school, there would be some sampling bias associated with HB given who is attracted to seek admission there in the first place.

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.

It's true that WL white students have been marginally outperforming Yorktown white students in recent years. While we have no way of knowing for sure, I'd bet this is because of out of boundary kids attending the IB program, both from Wakefield and Yorktown. The program does attract good students.

Really? Seriously ??!? WTF? You don't think it has anything to do with white affluent kids from Lyon Park, Ashton Heights, Lyon Village---you know the population explosion that has been going on since 2000...oh no its only because 'YHS students come to W-L for the IB program'

Yorktown lady- if W-L is so bad why are your YHS students choosing to come over? You are a complete oxyMORON.

I said both Yorktown AND Wakefield. Look, there's no denying that WL's IB program is a county magnet that attracts out of boundary kids. And the out of boundary kids who attend are typically motivated and white. This is the reality. It's the same reason why HB's scores are so high. Take out out-of-boundary IB kids and I guarantee WL's scores fall below Yorktown's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.

ACPS=Alexandria City Schools
APS= Arlington Co. Schools

Thanks for your useless contribution.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.



ACPS=Alexandria City Schools
APS= Arlington Co. Schools

Thanks for your useless contribution.

You're welcome, snotnose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually white kids at Washington-Lee HAVE achieved higher SAT scores than white kids at Yorktown for the last four years in a row. Three and four years ago it wasn't by that much, but for the last two years it's been a difference of over thirty points. (It was 60 points in 2014.)

I can't speak to the college question except that I saw somewhere on this board that more W-L than Yorktown kids got admitted to ivies either this year or last.

The greatest inference to be drawn here is that there are some white parents at W-L who could not give a hoot about the sub-par performance of non-white students at W-L compared to Yorktown. That is a shame, since there are a whole lot more of them at W-L at Yorktown.

Of course I care about the performance of all the kids at the school. But I'm a white parent who is zoned for W-L who is trying to fight back against the perception that the school is underperforming compared to Yorktown scores. The FARM kids at W-L will not have a better experience if all the rich (probably white) kids get scared of the test scores and move somewhere else and their PTA and other volunteer contributions vanish. The reality is that if you are white your kid will likely achieve better results at W-L than at Yorktown (as the test scores indicate), while at the same time keeping your kid at W-L despite its higher FARMs rate than Yorktown helps the FARMs kids if you support the school with $ or volunteerism. In that way it's a bit like ATS except without the lottery. So, win-win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

To answer your question, ACPS does report HB scores separately. They haven't always done this but in recent years they have. The average SAT score at HB for all students has ranged from 1807 to 1887 in the last five years, and was 1862 this year. For white students, scores ranged from 1879 to 1922 and was 1912 this year. These scores are higher than any in Virginia other than TJ, including Langley and Mclean. This year HB had eight students apply to Brown, and four got in. Pretty impressive.

ACPS=Alexandria City Schools
APS= Arlington Co. Schools

Thanks for your useless contribution.

Not the poster who pointed it out, but it's probably the only useful observation on this thread. The rest is just the typical bickering between Yorktown and W–L parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What in the hell are you people even arguing about? Do you know how awful you are making North Arlington parents look here?

Just stop now before you embarrass yourself further.

I'm sorry, PP, but the damage has already been done. Everyone on DCUM knows that N. Arlington posters are a**holes, both here and on the real estate threads.

Pretty much. It's embarrassing. Check out some of the threads where people ask about Lake Braddock, West Springfield, or Robinson in FFX county. All three have healthy rivalries. Yet if a poster asks about buying into a certain pryamid you see responses like this:

" we chose X school, but have friends at Y that really love it!"

" you can't go wrong with any of them. Decide if you prefer IB or AP. Aside from that - all great schools"

" we liked the band dept at Z but think we would have been pleased at Y as well"


Etc etc etc....


We look like such assholes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually white kids at Washington-Lee HAVE achieved higher SAT scores than white kids at Yorktown for the last four years in a row. Three and four years ago it wasn't by that much, but for the last two years it's been a difference of over thirty points. (It was 60 points in 2014.)

I can't speak to the college question except that I saw somewhere on this board that more W-L than Yorktown kids got admitted to ivies either this year or last.

The greatest inference to be drawn here is that there are some white parents at W-L who could not give a hoot about the sub-par performance of non-white students at W-L compared to Yorktown. That is a shame, since there are a whole lot more of them at W-L at Yorktown.

Of course I care about the performance of all the kids at the school. But I'm a white parent who is zoned for W-L who is trying to fight back against the perception that the school is underperforming compared to Yorktown scores. The FARM kids at W-L will not have a better experience if all the rich (probably white) kids get scared of the test scores and move somewhere else and their PTA and other volunteer contributions vanish. The reality is that if you are white your kid will likely achieve better results at W-L than at Yorktown (as the test scores indicate), while at the same time keeping your kid at W-L despite its higher FARMs rate than Yorktown helps the FARMs kids if you support the school with $ or volunteerism. In that way it's a bit like ATS except without the lottery. So, win-win.

There are twice as many white kids taking the SAT at Yorktown than there are at WL. And WL has a magnet program that attracts white kids. These two facts alone account for the slight discrepency between reported SAT scores for white kids in both schools. It has nothing to do with WL offering a superior education. You know zero about statistics.

I'm not saying that Yorktown is better than WL. I'm just saying that WL isn't better than Yorktown.

PTA contributions? Who gets involved in PTA at the high school level??

[Anonymous]

Well, it looks like the W-L PTA raised $20K and spent $23K on programs for its kids in 2013-14. http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/2422/Treasurer.s%20Report%20%2004.7.14.pdf

Yorktown's PTA raised $37K and spent $37K in the same period. http://www.yhspta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Yorktown-High-School-PTA-budget-2013-2014-revsd-8-25.pdf

PTAs are not irrelevant at the high school level -- they raise money that is used on scholarships and teacher project donations. Yorktown gets more monetary support from its PTA, probably because its kids have higher SES. So I think it's important for high SES parents zoned for W-L not to be frightened away by talk like other posters on this board, because W-L needs those folks to stay. And they should -- as the test and college admissions results show, their kids do great at W-L.