Reply to ACPS George Washington Middle School

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Reply to "ACPS George Washington Middle School - Feedback?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'd really appreciate feedback regarding GW middle school - I'm particularly interested in the degree of rigor in the honor classes and any feedback on the new curriculum.[/quote]

We moved rather than subject our children to this school.

I hate to say it, and it made me angry to have to do it... We TRIED to rationalize it by touring the school, hoping things would improve with the bifurcation and adoption of IB. But there's an organizational culture in the ACPS and that school in particular that just gave us a very negative vibe. We watched anxiously as our neighbor's dd, a very bright and achieving 5th grader, entered the school. She hated it. There are discipline problems in the school (see the reference to "Boob Day" in another post), an "open enrollment honors" curriculum that erodes the point of merit-based advancement, and so on. The school draws from communities where education isn't valued, so that compounds the problem.

On the tour I took with six other parents from my neighborhood, all of us walked out dialing privates or real estate agents. It amazed me to discover how anxious families with young children are over that school -- there seems to be a nightly conversation happening in the households of elementary-aged kids about what to do. Most move or go private. A few stick it out -- some of them even are ok with the decision, but to a family, every one that toughed GW out has had a bad experience.

I keep hearing the city's demographics are changing so the school is going to get better. I even believed that for a while, but then I saw how the school board functions and watched the superintendent attempt stupid, poorly thought out initiatives that amounted to throwing things at a wall to see what sticks. See the blowup last year about the longer school day/year, and the state's rejection of the proposal as but one example. The school board -- the policymaking apparatus -- is equally inept and follows the superintendent blindly rather than view him as the board's employee. Considering the superintendent's contract was just renewed for three more years, I'm even more confident in my decision to move.

Which kills me because I love Alexandria. Lived there for 15 years. But the rubber hit the road when middle school became more than an abstract thought.

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