Reply to APS middle school option livestream

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My 5th grader is wondering how HB is different from our home MS. Is there anywhere that explains this to students?[/quote]

students can leave campus on their own, the school population is capped and stays pretty much the same through middle and high school, and they work on an independent project with a teacher mentor every year.

core curriculum is same local middle.

generally you get more involved parents because it requires an active action and logistics to apply and attend a lottery school like HB.[/quote]

No, HB students do not work on an independent project every year with a teacher mentor.

- HB parent[/quote]

HB does do some independent work differently, why not explain it?[/quote]

"The student who can best take advantage of the personal freedom at H-B Woodlawn is self-motivated and 
self-directed. For these independent learners, there is no limit to their success. The flexibility, informality and 
individuality of the atmosphere at H-B Woodlawn encourage these students to design and implement their own 
programs. Some older students also take college courses, pursue internships and independent study projects, and 
participate in our "Community as School" Program."

And it will NEVER increase in size, because the school board is convinced that part of the success of the program is the small size which fosters more student-teacher interaction (since they don't have the 1-2 school counselors who probably don't even know your kid, the teachers serve as counselors).   So teachers and students have a lot of small group or even 1-1 counseling time (so if your child wants to study medicine, they can counsel with the biology teacher for college plans and career options).

"HBW is very popular; many applicants are turned away every year; I think HBW should accept more students. Why can’t APS expand HBW to take 600 more students?

Virtually all of the HBW community see HBW’s size as an integral part of the educational experience, and members feel strongly that increasing HBW enrollment substantially would fundamentally change HBW’s model and jeopardize the school’s success. As the only non-traditional middle and high school in Arlington, HBW provides each student the flexibility to design an educational program that works well for him or her and the opportunity to take additional classes, including independent study.

Teachers are the counseling staff as well as the classroom teachers, and effective relationships between students and teachers are developed through a significant amount of time spent together. It would be hard, probably impossible, to successfully continue this model within a larger school. In the words of one parent,  “…culture is a fragile thing. Once it is lost, it can rarely be reclaimed. Crowding can clearly cause that loss at HBW.”"

[/quote]

Yeah I think there are opportunities for older HS students to do independent study. But the earlier post said all HB students do an independent project every year and that's just not true. I have a younger HS kid who has been there though MS and I have not seen this yet. [/quote]

I was thinking of the unscheduled time, when they are free to visit their teachers, that starts in MS.

“ Students are expected to use their non-class time in a productive manner. Each student’s schedule at H-B Woodlawn varies depending on the grade level courses taken and extracurricular activities. In all cases students have some unscheduled time, increasing from less than one hour a week for sixth and seventh graders to up to several hours on some days for juniors and seniors.
During the unscheduled time students may work in the library, seek assistance from a teacher, spend time in the gym or cafeteria or be present anywhere in the building or surrounding grounds. Rules governing when students may leave school grounds during non-class time are found below under section 14 k entitled “Leaving Campus During School Hours.””

Independent study is an option for ANY and ALL high school students, your child just hasn’t taken the initiative, check out the POS. [/quote]

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