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[quote=Anonymous]Hi, OP, we were in your situation a year ago.  We were a little nervous about TJ middle school--the building looks like a prison, and at least one-third of the students are poor--but were pleasantly surprised by our daughter's 6th grade experience.  In short, TJ is a hidden gem.  There have a been a couple threads about it in DCUM in the last year.  Search "Jefferson middle school Arlington."

The biggest class my daughter had in 6th grade was around 22 kids, seriously.  Her writing class had 15 students with a great teacher. In our experience, the 6th grade counselor is super, really on the ball, gets to know the kids, answers your emails and calls within 24 hours.  Arlington doesn't seem to offer much in the way of middle school GT, but I wouldn't worry about that.  I don't think the tracked humanities and science classes will start until SY 2023-24.

The school do a great job placing kids in appropriate math classes and the humanities and science work my kid was assigned was good.  They offer after-school math help/tutoring in the library one afternoon a week, free and open to all, not just kids who are really struggling.  Arlington uses sophisticated Lexia software to teach grammar in middle school, a surprisingly effective approach.   TJ has decent extra-curriculars, too, half a dozen sports (4-5 times a week after school for 90 minutes, nice tennis courts and playing fields), gardening club in the school gardens on Fridays in the fall and spring, daily band, orchestra or chorus (excellent band instructor, my kid learned to play a wind instrument) and 4 foreign languages to meet International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program requirements.  My daughter enjoyed taking American Sign Language as an elective.

As for discipline, I haven't heard about any fights in hallways.  The opposite, this seems to be a strict school with good discipline and all sorts of targeted interventions for kids who misbehave.  For example, if a kid gets caught bringing a banned substance to school, they need to carry a special backpack made of clear vinyl for at least the next quarter, so that teachers can see what's the in the bag.  The principal has been around for almost a decade, seems well-liked.  The librarians are very helpful, and the library facility is well-stocked.  A kid can check out one book at a time.  Students can do homework in the library for an hour after school if they want.  The school makes great use of the indoor track (for PE class) and lovely big auditorium they share with the county.

I'm not going to tell you that TJ offers the sun, the moon and the stars academically.  We hire a writing tutor weekly for our kid to add writing challenge and wish that the school assigned more homework (our kid can usually polish off hers in an hour or 90 minutes).  She also does extra language classes on weekends and takes private music lessons on top of those at school.  But for my tax dollars, TJ is a great deal.  My kid likes school, had made some sweet friends (very diverse group, including refugees from the Middle East who are better at math than my kid) and is looking forward to 7th grade.  Granted, we came out of DC public schools, so perhaps my expectations of TJ were a little lower than those of some Arlington parents.  Good luck.[/quote]

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