Who sends their kid to Wakefield HS? Is it really that bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it will be easier to get into colleges coming from Wakefield, than some of the other schools and areas mentioned here.

Doubt it, as the culture there doesn’t position the kids to be equally strong candidates for admission.

-1
Not from I have seen.

Then tell us about all the scholars coming out of Wakefield. For example, how many National Merit Semifinalists have there been at Wakefield the past five years? How strong is the Model UN program? What robotics teams or student publications have won national awards? The statistics on college admissions published in Arlington Magazine consistently fail to impress.

Yet they will have graduates that surpass kids from the “good” schools. Hard to accept, but it happens. No guarantees. Going to Yorktown doesn’t necessarily pay off. Often you just end up with an entitled kid with a drinking problem.

You didn’t answer the question. The best graduates generally are not coming out of Wakefield.

NP. This post directly above mine is very telling about its author’s thought process and values: Wakefield’s graduates are not the best. Tell us, PP, what makes a “best graduate?” On second thought, please don’t.

[Anonymous]

Shit hole school

[Anonymous]

The “best” graduates from my highly ranked and competitive FCPS aren’t doing anything special. They have good jobs and nice families. Same as many of the average students.
But go ahead and pay that extra 100k on your crappy house in 22207.
I’d prefer to save for my kids college fund and our retirement.
Also, I’ve never met an employee that gave 3 f#cks about nmsf. It really couldn’t be less important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The “best” graduates from my highly ranked and competitive FCPS aren’t doing anything special. They have good jobs and nice families. Same as many of the average students.
But go ahead and pay that extra 100k on your crappy house in 22207.
I’d prefer to save for my kids college fund and our retirement.
Also, I’ve never met an employee that gave 3 f#cks about nmsf. It really couldn’t be less important.

Sorry you ended up in South Arlington, but most want better schools for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The “best” graduates from my highly ranked and competitive FCPS aren’t doing anything special. They have good jobs and nice families. Same as many of the average students.
But go ahead and pay that extra 100k on your crappy house in 22207.
I’d prefer to save for my kids college fund and our retirement.
Also, I’ve never met an employee that gave 3 f#cks about nmsf. It really couldn’t be less important.

Not the average students from Wakefield, unfortunately.

Be honest with yourself. Let say if you live in Wakefield school district on a 1 acre lot house and I came and ask you to swap your house with my Mclean house that is also sitting on a 1 acre lot and Mclean/Langley HS district, free of charge? What would you answer be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The “best” graduates from my highly ranked and competitive FCPS aren’t doing anything special. They have good jobs and nice families. Same as many of the average students.
But go ahead and pay that extra 100k on your crappy house in 22207.
I’d prefer to save for my kids college fund and our retirement.
Also, I’ve never met an employee that gave 3 f#cks about nmsf. It really couldn’t be less important.

Yep. Also, many from my competitive FCPS high school are heroin addicts, so there’s also that. Three (just that I know of!) have died from overdose and many more had to go to treatment. It’s a crap shoot IMO. I’ll take my chances with Wakefield, although I have a long time to make the decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to US NEWS report, you can draw your own conclusion.

Wakefield:
college readiness: 43.8; AP test: 56%, AP passed: 70%. Student population: Asian 9%; black 22%; Hispanic 44%; white 20%

W-L:
college readiness: 54.3; AP test: 77%, AP passed: 61%. Student population: Asian 8%; black 5%; Hispanic 16%; white 66%

Yorktown:
college readiness: 69.2; AP test: 80%, AP passed: 82%. Student population: Asian 10%; black 11%; Hispanic 34%; white 40%

Langley:
college readiness: 72.4; AP test: 80%, AP passed: 87%. Student population: Asian 8%; black 5%; Hispanic 16%; white 66%

Mclean:
college readiness: 75; AP test: 81%, AP passed: 90%. Student population: Asian 21%; black 1%; Hispanic 5%; white 68%

W-L is mostly IB, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Plus your demographic information is wrong. No way Langley is 21% black and Hispanic, and McLean is closer to 12% Hispanic and 55% white.

Plus Yorktown is much whiter than W-L.

Although, ironically Yorktown is the most diverse school in the system. It matches Arlington County racial demographics almost exactly. SES is a different story. And, of course, Hispanics are disproportionately represented in the SCHOOL population, and most of them go to Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

why is everyone so obsessed with trashing schools their kids don't attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the middle class people I’ve met who sent their kids to Wakefield have kids at UVA, or comparable schools.

I understand paying more for metro, but not for schools. Not a great return on that investment.

I guess that means there aren’t that many middle class families at Wakefield, yet you know them all. Because Wakefield does not send many kids to UVA or “comparable schools.”

[Anonymous]

Let's get real by comparing apples to apples. When you compare a school as a whole that has lots of ESOL/FARMS kids to another school (as a whole) that has very few needy/language learners... of course the school with the higher SES and low language learners is going to appear better.

But, looking at the white kids at Wakefield (which is 20% of the population) compared to other schools like Yorktown or McLean (where the white population is closer to 60%), you still have the impact of family wealth affecting the results, but you also have a lot of similarities.

40% of the white students at Wakefield take AP classes. 47-59% of white kids are taking AP classes at Yorktown and McLean. 85-94% of not-low-income kids at Wakefield are passing SOLs in Biology/World Hist2/Writing. 95-97% of not-low-income kids are passing the same subjects at Yorktown and McLean.

Yes, there is a bump up in passrates and AP participation at Yorktown and McLean. I think that higher household income could easily account for that. It's not like Wakefield isn't providing a good education --- the kids who are ready to make use of it are doing just that.

The big difference is that Wakefield is really diverse.

I posted much further back in this thread that my friend's kid just started there. She is having a great experience. She is involved in sports, so that is her group. Perhaps a different kid who didn't have a group of like-minded/similar SES peers might not have such a good experience. I can't say for sure. I know that they are very happy with it. In fact, they are so happy with it and impressed by other kids who went to ARlington public school for MS, that they are taking their younger child out of catholic school and putting her in public MS and then on to Wakefield.

So, you can crow all you want about National Merit semifinalists and what not. You can compare apples to oranges. Or you can look at the data that applies to kids who aren't poor and aren't learning English and think about how that data would apply to your kid (assuming your kid is in the same categories).

[Anonymous]

Everyone is posting about scores and admission rates for now. I am wondering what the high schools will be like 10 years from now. For that I look at trends. Yorktown and W-L are trending down. Wakefield up. Wakefield seems like the better bet. Houses are moderately cheaper. Some neighborhoods are closer to where I need to be for work. And many neighborhoods are walkable. Show me the flaw in my reasoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's get real by comparing apples to apples. When you compare a school as a whole that has lots of ESOL/FARMS kids to another school (as a whole) that has very few needy/language learners... of course the school with the higher SES and low language learners is going to appear better.

But, looking at the white kids at Wakefield (which is 20% of the population) compared to other schools like Yorktown or McLean (where the white population is closer to 60%), you still have the impact of family wealth affecting the results, but you also have a lot of similarities.

40% of the white students at Wakefield take AP classes. 47-59% of white kids are taking AP classes at Yorktown and McLean. 85-94% of not-low-income kids at Wakefield are passing SOLs in Biology/World Hist2/Writing. 95-97% of not-low-income kids are passing the same subjects at Yorktown and McLean.

Yes, there is a bump up in passrates and AP participation at Yorktown and McLean. I think that higher household income could easily account for that. It's not like Wakefield isn't providing a good education --- the kids who are ready to make use of it are doing just that.

The big difference is that Wakefield is really diverse.

I posted much further back in this thread that my friend's kid just started there. She is having a great experience. She is involved in sports, so that is her group. Perhaps a different kid who didn't have a group of like-minded/similar SES peers might not have such a good experience. I can't say for sure. I know that they are very happy with it. In fact, they are so happy with it and impressed by other kids who went to ARlington public school for MS, that they are taking their younger child out of catholic school and putting her in public MS and then on to Wakefield.

So, you can crow all you want about National Merit semifinalists and what not. You can compare apples to oranges. Or you can look at the data that applies to kids who aren't poor and aren't learning English and think about how that data would apply to your kid (assuming your kid is in the same categories).

Mclean poster can’t do that. They aren’t the brightest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The “best” graduates from my highly ranked and competitive FCPS aren’t doing anything special. They have good jobs and nice families. Same as many of the average students.
But go ahead and pay that extra 100k on your crappy house in 22207.
I’d prefer to save for my kids college fund and our retirement.
Also, I’ve never met an employee that gave 3 f#cks about nmsf. It really couldn’t be less important.

Not the average students from Wakefield, unfortunately.

Be honest with yourself. Let say if you live in Wakefield school district on a 1 acre lot house and I came and ask you to swap your house with my Mclean house that is also sitting on a 1 acre lot and Mclean/Langley HS district, free of charge? What would you answer be?

Why on earth would I want to live in McLean? Sure it would be less expensive to buy there.
I could have done that from the start. No thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is posting about scores and admission rates for now. I am wondering what the high schools will be like 10 years from now. For that I look at trends. Yorktown and W-L are trending down. Wakefield up. Wakefield seems like the better bet. Houses are moderately cheaper. Some neighborhoods are closer to where I need to be for work. And many neighborhoods are walkable. Show me the flaw in my reasoning.

Explain how you think Yorktown and W-L are trending down, while Wakefield is trending up. The flaw in your reasoning is that you've provided no support for your statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's get real by comparing apples to apples. When you compare a school as a whole that has lots of ESOL/FARMS kids to another school (as a whole) that has very few needy/language learners... of course the school with the higher SES and low language learners is going to appear better.

But, looking at the white kids at Wakefield (which is 20% of the population) compared to other schools like Yorktown or McLean (where the white population is closer to 60%), you still have the impact of family wealth affecting the results, but you also have a lot of similarities.

40% of the white students at Wakefield take AP classes. 47-59% of white kids are taking AP classes at Yorktown and McLean. 85-94% of not-low-income kids at Wakefield are passing SOLs in Biology/World Hist2/Writing. 95-97% of not-low-income kids are passing the same subjects at Yorktown and McLean.

Yes, there is a bump up in passrates and AP participation at Yorktown and McLean. I think that higher household income could easily account for that. It's not like Wakefield isn't providing a good education --- the kids who are ready to make use of it are doing just that.

The big difference is that Wakefield is really diverse.

I posted much further back in this thread that my friend's kid just started there. She is having a great experience. She is involved in sports, so that is her group. Perhaps a different kid who didn't have a group of like-minded/similar SES peers might not have such a good experience. I can't say for sure. I know that they are very happy with it. In fact, they are so happy with it and impressed by other kids who went to ARlington public school for MS, that they are taking their younger child out of catholic school and putting her in public MS and then on to Wakefield.

So, you can crow all you want about National Merit semifinalists and what not. You can compare apples to oranges. Or you can look at the data that applies to kids who aren't poor and aren't learning English and think about how that data would apply to your kid (assuming your kid is in the same categories).

Mclean poster can’t do that. They aren’t the brightest.

Assuming the McLean poster's kids take after her, they are the brightest. In VA, anyway.