If you left APS for private…

[Anonymous]

This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We sent our kids to APS all the way through 8th and then private Big3 HS. Our kids did very well and had no issue coming from APS, they were well prepared. But, our private HS experience was vastly different than our public school friend at W&L and Yorktown. To each their own, but we were very happy for the children to experience the rigor of private for the HS years. I would not send my kids to private ES and expect some big difference…unless I was at a not great ES or alternatively my kid had a lot of needs. Just my two cents.

This was our experience too. Our kid was as prepared for the Big 3 HS as the other kids who'd been in private the whole time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I very much doubt that any school, public or private or other, anywhere in the US does an effective job of teaching math. The PISA results indicate that the US underperforms other advanced economies systematically and nationwide.

No doubt, there exist individual math teachers (“Stand and Deliver”) in the USA who are very good, but these are few and far between. They exist despite our educational system and our system of Teacher’s Colleges, not because we have good systems.

Locally, the Kumon center in N Arlington and S McLean are used by students from the name-brand private schools, the parochial/religious schools, and (gasp) APS. Kumon, Mathnasium, RSM, and AoPS would not be thriving businesses in NoVA if our schools were systematically good at teaching math. A colleague who went to TJ observed that all the top math students at TJ supplemented and reinforced outside school all along the way. Sometimes that was with a parent, sometimes with a tutor, and sometimes at a math supplement center.

I had 2 DCs who went to TJ, did very well in math (one even majored in it in college) and we did zero supplementing/tutoring, etc. That person is misinformed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

You are cute. There’s this new thing called Recent Topics (insert sarcasm here) that shows recent threads. That’s how parents like me are finding this thread and unlike you, having something useful to say, as we moved our kid from APS to private. You public school parents are so insecure about your choice that you can’t handle the thought that someone can find fault with APS.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We sent our kids to APS all the way through 8th and then private Big3 HS. Our kids did very well and had no issue coming from APS, they were well prepared. But, our private HS experience was vastly different than our public school friend at W&L and Yorktown. To each their own, but we were very happy for the children to experience the rigor of private for the HS years. I would not send my kids to private ES and expect some big difference…unless I was at a not great ES or alternatively my kid had a lot of needs. Just my two cents.

Was it mostly a difference in academic rigor between your experience and your friends W&L/Yorktown experiences?

Academic and social differences. I wouldn’t pay for private school for a different social experience, however. Plenty of great/bright kids in APS that I would’ve been more than happy for my kids to socialize with. Some weirdos in both systems so whatever; sort of a wash and kid dependent.

Academically, there were many differences but two biggest for us were: (1) amount of homework and (2) writing. My kids were doing 1.5-3 hours of homework starting in 9. Nothing like this for kids’ APS peers. Freshman/sophomore years in APS, kids peers in APS were still not really doing homework. This meant there lives were very different. My kids didn’t have free time in the same way that APS kids do. Many families don’t want this, I get it. Next, the writing. My kids were writing many page papers starting in 9, many times per year, with significant feedback/editing from their teachers with multiple rounds of submission. This wasn’t possible in APS and wasn’t the experience of my children’s peers.

Weird. My kid in private had less homework than friends in public for 9th/10th. WL kids started doing APs in 9th and/or were doing IB.

By 11th, it seemed about the same.

My post was specific to my children’s experience at a Big3 private. I am certain you could find a range of different experiences at the various private schools across DC.

Your kids were doing APs in 9th?

That’s fairly common in APS, at least with families I know. It makes sense considering you can start high school credit classes in 7th grade.

Public is more advanced in math, though the quality of instruction is a concern. But the curriculum is well defined.

But it is “toss into deep end” from no-homework MS to AP HS.

Which MS did your kids attend?

Our kids have/had homework at DHMS.

Homework at DHMS is just classwork that is not finished. My kid always completed it in the allotted classtime.

I’m not sure why this myth about no homework at APS middle schools persists. My kid was at a different MS, but he had homework. As in, the math teacher teaches for the whole period, then assigns homework to do later. In Spanish (immersion), there was lots of reading, plus long projects, to be done at home. Now, my kid might sometimes do math homework during homeroom, but it wasn’t enough time to do it all, and it wasn’t unfinished class work.

I think the reason the “myth” (for you) persists is that two families can have very different experiences in the same school/classes. Our kids never had homework; that is, they never had work that they had to finish at home. That is not to say they weren’t assigned “homework” nor is it to say that other kids weren’t doing this same work at home. Accordingly, two families/two kids and yet different experiences. 99% of the time our kids finished the purported “home” work during the remainder of the block period. Infrequently, they would have to finish during homeroom or the miscellaneous SEL time. We have very driven, academically oriented kids.

Most MS kids spend significant time in school goofing off. It’s totally normal and healthy and absolutely zero indication of how smart the kids are or how successful they will be in HS or beyond. I absolutely am not criticizing the kids nor was it a problem for our family that my kids weren’t doing homework. They did other things. Happily. As I posted earlier, my kids went on to Big3 private HS and have been very successful. I feel like APS prepared them just fine and they weren’t missing something that private MS couldn’t afforded them.

Okay, you win. Your kids are the best. They somehow completed major, complicated projects with materials they didn’t even have at school, at school, and they created and recorded podcasts and other audio recordings, and did long term science projects, all at school so that they never, ever had to do any work at home. Congratulations. Those of us with mere mortal children have kids who had to do these things, plus things like study for tests, at home sometimes.

My 8th grader has never once studied for a test. They receive all As and are on the “hardest” trek. I do not believe my child is a genius.

They skipped the study guides, never memorized vocab words for their foreign language, etc? Fascinating.

Maybe the kid cheats.

An equivalent response would be “maybe your kid isn’t that smart and needs to spend hours studying for easy tests.” See how immature, defensive and rude both of these remarks are? My kid never studied for anything when they were at APS. Your kid has a different experience - it doesn’t mean they both can’t be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sent our kids to APS all the way through 8th and then private Big3 HS. Our kids did very well and had no issue coming from APS, they were well prepared. But, our private HS experience was vastly different than our public school friend at W&L and Yorktown. To each their own, but we were very happy for the children to experience the rigor of private for the HS years. I would not send my kids to private ES and expect some big difference…unless I was at a not great ES or alternatively my kid had a lot of needs. Just my two cents.

Was it mostly a difference in academic rigor between your experience and your friends W&L/Yorktown experiences?

Academic and social differences. I wouldn’t pay for private school for a different social experience, however. Plenty of great/bright kids in APS that I would’ve been more than happy for my kids to socialize with. Some weirdos in both systems so whatever; sort of a wash and kid dependent.

Academically, there were many differences but two biggest for us were: (1) amount of homework and (2) writing. My kids were doing 1.5-3 hours of homework starting in 9. Nothing like this for kids’ APS peers. Freshman/sophomore years in APS, kids peers in APS were still not really doing homework. This meant there lives were very different. My kids didn’t have free time in the same way that APS kids do. Many families don’t want this, I get it. Next, the writing. My kids were writing many page papers starting in 9, many times per year, with significant feedback/editing from their teachers with multiple rounds of submission. This wasn’t possible in APS and wasn’t the experience of my children’s peers.

Weird. My kid in private had less homework than friends in public for 9th/10th. WL kids started doing APs in 9th and/or were doing IB.

By 11th, it seemed about the same.

My post was specific to my children’s experience at a Big3 private. I am certain you could find a range of different experiences at the various private schools across DC.

Your kids were doing APs in 9th?

That’s fairly common in APS, at least with families I know. It makes sense considering you can start high school credit classes in 7th grade.

Public is more advanced in math, though the quality of instruction is a concern. But the curriculum is well defined.

But it is “toss into deep end” from no-homework MS to AP HS.

Which MS did your kids attend?

Our kids have/had homework at DHMS.

Homework at DHMS is just classwork that is not finished. My kid always completed it in the allotted classtime.

I’m not sure why this myth about no homework at APS middle schools persists. My kid was at a different MS, but he had homework. As in, the math teacher teaches for the whole period, then assigns homework to do later. In Spanish (immersion), there was lots of reading, plus long projects, to be done at home. Now, my kid might sometimes do math homework during homeroom, but it wasn’t enough time to do it all, and it wasn’t unfinished class work.

I think the reason the “myth” (for you) persists is that two families can have very different experiences in the same school/classes. Our kids never had homework; that is, they never had work that they had to finish at home. That is not to say they weren’t assigned “homework” nor is it to say that other kids weren’t doing this same work at home. Accordingly, two families/two kids and yet different experiences. 99% of the time our kids finished the purported “home” work during the remainder of the block period. Infrequently, they would have to finish during homeroom or the miscellaneous SEL time. We have very driven, academically oriented kids.

Most MS kids spend significant time in school goofing off. It’s totally normal and healthy and absolutely zero indication of how smart the kids are or how successful they will be in HS or beyond. I absolutely am not criticizing the kids nor was it a problem for our family that my kids weren’t doing homework. They did other things. Happily. As I posted earlier, my kids went on to Big3 private HS and have been very successful. I feel like APS prepared them just fine and they weren’t missing something that private MS couldn’t afforded them.

Okay, you win. Your kids are the best. They somehow completed major, complicated projects with materials they didn’t even have at school, at school, and they created and recorded podcasts and other audio recordings, and did long term science projects, all at school so that they never, ever had to do any work at home. Congratulations. Those of us with mere mortal children have kids who had to do these things, plus things like study for tests, at home sometimes.

My 8th grader has never once studied for a test. They receive all As and are on the “hardest” trek. I do not believe my child is a genius.

They skipped the study guides, never memorized vocab words for their foreign language, etc? Fascinating.

Maybe the kid cheats.

An equivalent response would be “maybe your kid isn’t that smart and needs to spend hours studying for easy tests.” See how immature, defensive and rude both of these remarks are? My kid never studied for anything when they were at APS. Your kid has a different experience - it doesn’t mean they both can’t be true.

Right. So your kid never does the study guides, practices foreign language vocab words, etc.

It just sounds like BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

You are cute. There’s this new thing called Recent Topics (insert sarcasm here) that shows recent threads. That’s how parents like me are finding this thread and unlike you, having something useful to say, as we moved our kid from APS to private. You public school parents are so insecure about your choice that you can’t handle the thought that someone can find fault with APS.

The PP isn’t insecure. She’s just calling out the bullshtters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

Yup. A lot of the trolling probably comes from the APE a-holes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where did the idea that 3 hours of homework per night is a good thing come from? That sounds dreadful. I sure as hell didn't do that of work when I was a kid in public school, and look at me now -- gainfully employed, successful in the workplace, making good money.

I mean what do you do? Many jobs are not academic in nature, like sales, modeling, plumbing…

I'm a policy analyst who spends a lot of time translating complex economic and health policy research for lay audiences, lol. It's about as academic as it gets outside of the academy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where did the idea that 3 hours of homework per night is a good thing come from? That sounds dreadful. I sure as hell didn't do that of work when I was a kid in public school, and look at me now -- gainfully employed, successful in the workplace, making good money.

I mean what do you do? Many jobs are not academic in nature, like sales, modeling, plumbing…

Do you have a job? Given your extremely low EQ I'm guessing it's a struggle for you to keep a job.

I asked you a question, and you criticize me.

I am a computer scientist, so yes not much need for EQ in my role, not sure why my asking if your job is built on academics shows a lack of that.

I’m guessing you aren’t a model or in sales if is asking about your career path makes you so bitter you engage in ad hominem attacks.

I'm the PP whose job you asked about. I just replied above (policy analyst). I am not the PP who asked about your EQ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

You are cute. There’s this new thing called Recent Topics (insert sarcasm here) that shows recent threads. That’s how parents like me are finding this thread and unlike you, having something useful to say, as we moved our kid from APS to private. You public school parents are so insecure about your choice that you can’t handle the thought that someone can find fault with APS.

So I find it very hard to believe that there are 5-6 separate sets of parents with kids who are in either highschool or college who were in aps and then went to a “big 3” highschool. I find it far more likely that there is a single troll (or perhaps 2) who is commenting repeatedly on this thread, and is sock puppeting or just plain old trolling. It’s sad because this board just isn’t helpful anymore.
Right now this thread is number 67 on recent topics between traveling to Puerto Rico and questions about lacrosse goalies… doubt someone would soon scroll that much repeatedly if they weren’t a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

I’m the one you responded two. We have kids in both, and hoping the tide will turn back to more rigor before our youngest is in high school.

But so much moaning about how homework is not important, wanting kids to spend their free time on their cell phone (and why not socializing which they said was more important than classwork), and generally a vibe of just let the kids be kids. Which is fine for some families, but if you want your kid to be challenged and grow it may not be a good environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where did the idea that 3 hours of homework per night is a good thing come from? That sounds dreadful. I sure as hell didn't do that of work when I was a kid in public school, and look at me now -- gainfully employed, successful in the workplace, making good money.

I mean what do you do? Many jobs are not academic in nature, like sales, modeling, plumbing…

I'm a policy analyst who spends a lot of time translating complex economic and health policy research for lay audiences, lol. It's about as academic as it gets outside of the academy.

Is that a government policy job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread belies why APS is floundering: you have a whole swath of parents who want to focus on socializing in school and do not want homework because it will interfere with sports etc.

And for many of their kids, they will do fine, leveraging the connections their parents have to go into jobs where degrees and grades don’t matter, and that’s fine for them.

For the rest of us, who have to actually have proven skills for a living, APS is woefully lacking because of these attitudes.

Honestly this post is so indicative of what’s wrong with this board in general. I remember a few years ago I would come here to hear new stuff and be better informed, and get actual information that was more often than not accurate. Now you just have trolls. People who pedantically criticize. People who claim to have all their kids in private schools but still feel the need to read and comment here. Obvious trolling.
Just like I don’t go back to the expecting parent board, I really doubt that people who are commenting here about having moved ever actually had a kid in aps.

I am directly answering the question was to what is the problem with APS and why we left.

I detailed the anti-academic preferences, from reducing homework and the emphasis on non academic aspects of school above coursework.

What is “indicative” about my post that you find fault with? And we had and have kids in APS and private, so our experience is valid to the OP.