HB Admissions are rigged

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a double-blind lottery.
https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

Names are picked from one box and numbers are picked from another box.

That is not a double-blind lottery. It isn't possible to have a double-blind lottery when you're drawing names for spot in a program.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/double+blind

If you randomly pull applications out of a box and number them in the order you pull them, and then you randomly pull numbers out of a separate box, that is double blind. The order in which the applications were first pulled (which was random) has nothing to do with the order in which they are selected (which is also random).

No. It's just a lottery, which is inherently random. If there are X applications for Y spaces, each application has an X in Y chance of being chosen. You can't change that by how you draw the names. And there are no degrees of random. It either is or it isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a double-blind lottery.
https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

Names are picked from one box and numbers are picked from another box.

That is not a double-blind lottery. It isn't possible to have a double-blind lottery when you're drawing names for spot in a program.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/double+blind

If you randomly pull applications out of a box and number them in the order you pull them, and then you randomly pull numbers out of a separate box, that is double blind. The order in which the applications were first pulled (which was random) has nothing to do with the order in which they are selected (which is also random).

No. It's just a lottery, which is inherently random. If there are X applications for Y spaces, each application has an X in Y chance of being chosen. You can't change that by how you draw the names. And there are no degrees of random. It either is or it isn't.

Well, there are two separate random events. It's hard to see how someone can game that.

[Anonymous]

Urban settings all around the world have schools in high rise buildings, not off on a green campus somewhere. I admit I like the open space model for recreation so why not move the community centers into high rise facilities in Shirlington, on Columbia Pike, Ballston, and let the community centers that have land attached to them become schools again?

But the notion that each school needs its own huge campus is antiquated. W-L incorporates this newer model by sharing baseball fields and tennis courts with the county rather than having their own. Middle schools don't have pools but get county buses to take them to the high schools for swimming practice and swim meets - high schools can also share a pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Urban settings all around the world have schools in high rise buildings, not off on a green campus somewhere. I admit I like the open space model for recreation so why not move the community centers into high rise facilities in Shirlington, on Columbia Pike, Ballston, and let the community centers that have land attached to them become schools again?

But the notion that each school needs its own huge campus is antiquated. W-L incorporates this newer model by sharing baseball fields and tennis courts with the county rather than having their own. Middle schools don't have pools but get county buses to take them to the high schools for swimming practice and swim meets - high schools can also share a pool.

APS owns Quincy Park (where the W-L fields are). It was buried in one of the boarddocs. Yorktown's fields are, on the other hand, owned by Arlington County parks, not APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Urban settings all around the world have schools in high rise buildings, not off on a green campus somewhere. I admit I like the open space model for recreation so why not move the community centers into high rise facilities in Shirlington, on Columbia Pike, Ballston, and let the community centers that have land attached to them become schools again?

But the notion that each school needs its own huge campus is antiquated. W-L incorporates this newer model by sharing baseball fields and tennis courts with the county rather than having their own. Middle schools don't have pools but get county buses to take them to the high schools for swimming practice and swim meets - high schools can also share a pool.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Urban settings all around the world have schools in high rise buildings, not off on a green campus somewhere. I admit I like the open space model for recreation so why not move the community centers into high rise facilities in Shirlington, on Columbia Pike, Ballston, and let the community centers that have land attached to them become schools again?

But the notion that each school needs its own huge campus is antiquated. W-L incorporates this newer model by sharing baseball fields and tennis courts with the county rather than having their own. Middle schools don't have pools but get county buses to take them to the high schools for swimming practice and swim meets - high schools can also share a pool.

APS owns Quincy Park (where the W-L fields are). It was buried in one of the boarddocs. Yorktown's fields are, on the other hand, owned by Arlington County parks, not APS.

I find the way our elected officials act like the County government and APS aren't part of the same government is incredibly tiresome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another poster here - I also know a kid who got in for middle school because child was being bullied. Parent also happened to be a county employee but I don't know if that made a difference. Child thrived and blossomed at HB.

I also think that families who already have one child at HB get some kind of admissions bump because I know many, many families whose second child got in despite the huge odds. It seems to me more than coincidence. JMO

True, but they're not supposed to as laid out in the lottery process.

Who's not supposed to? The bullied child? There are explicit policies in place administrative placements outside of the lottery, and it can cover situations like this (e.g., if the bullied child has autism and is being moved into the HB autism program). It's not a secret.

In this case the bullied child did NOT have autism, just had issues fitting in with the general school population. As I said the kid thrived at HB but only got in because parents lobbied for admission. So I know for a fact that kids get into HB without going through lottery or being admitted through the autism program.

NP and H-B alumni (I transferred in from Yorktown in the 90s when a spot on the waitlist opened up). I can tell you there were more than a few kids who "cut in line" and got in because their psychologists or psychiatrists wrote letters stating they needed to be in the program if Yorktown, W-L, or Wakefield weren't meeting their needs for some reason. I have no idea if this still happens but would not be at all surprised if it does.

[Anonymous]

Is there anything good about APS these days? Everything is contentious, whether it's Woodlawn, building a fourth high school, who gets moved out of W-L, or the drug culture and bullying at Williamsburg and Yorktown. We are so disappointed in the level of distrust in this community. When did it get off the rails so badly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there anything good about APS these days? Everything is contentious, whether it's Woodlawn, building a fourth high school, who gets moved out of W-L, or the drug culture and bullying at Williamsburg and Yorktown. We are so disappointed in the level of distrust in this community. When did it get off the rails so badly?

Turns out we're like any other community when there's a scarcity of resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a double-blind lottery.
https://www.apsva.us/school-options/high-school-choices/how-to-apply/

Names are picked from one box and numbers are picked from another box.

That is not a double-blind lottery. It isn't possible to have a double-blind lottery when you're drawing names for spot in a program.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/double+blind

If you randomly pull applications out of a box and number them in the order you pull them, and then you randomly pull numbers out of a separate box, that is double blind. The order in which the applications were first pulled (which was random) has nothing to do with the order in which they are selected (which is also random).

No. It's just a lottery, which is inherently random. If there are X applications for Y spaces, each application has an X in Y chance of being chosen. You can't change that by how you draw the names. And there are no degrees of random. It either is or it isn't.

Different Xsin the box face different Ys. That is a fact.

[Anonymous]

HB is for the connected, and once you are in the HB ecosystem you realize how classist it is when the UMC whites in all AP classes don't associate with the very few minorities that are let in. The elitist ATS to HB route is steeped in conspiracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there anything good about APS these days? Everything is contentious, whether it's Woodlawn, building a fourth high school, who gets moved out of W-L, or the drug culture and bullying at Williamsburg and Yorktown. We are so disappointed in the level of distrust in this community. When did it get off the rails so badly?

It hasn't gone off the rails so badly, our perspective is just skewed (and I'm not excusing myself from this, I've done my fair share of griping about things that still better than in some of our surrounding schools). Despite all of the "problems" in our system, it's still one of the best school systems in the country, and the vast majority of children in the system will have the opportunity for an excellent education. It's human nature, though, to never be quite satisfied with what you have always want better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HB is for the connected, and once you are in the HB ecosystem you realize how classist it is when the UMC whites in all AP classes don't associate with the very few minorities that are let in. The elitist ATS to HB route is steeped in conspiracy.

ATS to HB is such a joke. Those schools could not be more different, so if one is such a great fit for your child, the other probably isn't. For some people, though, all that matters is exclusivity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB is for the connected, and once you are in the HB ecosystem you realize how classist it is when the UMC whites in all AP classes don't associate with the very few minorities that are let in. The elitist ATS to HB route is steeped in conspiracy.

ATS to HB is such a joke. Those schools could not be more different, so if one is such a great fit for your child, the other probably isn't. For some people, though, all that matters is exclusivity.

and being a "winner"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HB is for the connected, and once you are in the HB ecosystem you realize how classist it is when the UMC whites in all AP classes don't associate with the very few minorities that are let in. The elitist ATS to HB route is steeped in conspiracy.

Your post is steeped in conspiracy.

Do the UMC whites in all AP classes in Yorktown associate with the very few minorities there? What is the elitist Discovery to Yorktown route steeped in? Piles of money?