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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]These pathways are so bogus.[/b] IB?  Really?  How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB. [/quote]

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson. 
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.[/quote]

Adding to my original points:
This is not going to "fix" alignment from middle to high school programs. ALL of Jefferson is IB but very little of Jefferson is zoned to WL. Alignment would send ALL of a middle school to the same high school to continue the pathway.

What impact does this have on Wakefield? All the artsy kids will get to transfer to Yorktown, draining Wakefield of its arts programs and leaving it with a few hundred immersion kids, most of whom would be attending Wakefield anyway.

This is not some new idea APS has finally developed. It is merely trying to pick locations for programs it already has. And maybe make YHS feel like it is not the only high school without a special program?? The ONLY thing "new" here is the STEM program which we all knew was coming anyway as a feeder for Arlington Tech.

Montessori must be feeling really left out. Or is there already some unspoken behind the scenes decision that the middle school Montessori program will join the elementary program in its new building at the CC site? and presumably add  the high school years? or do they all get to relinquish their pathway when they go to high school?

And why should the HBW  pathway, which already exists, be in its own location with the high school follow-on? All the other programs have to find a home in another middle school. So, how about moving the HBW middle school program to one of the remaining middle schools without a niche pathway and expanding the high school program?

I know a lot of people think the planning staff is terrible; but this is our academic department!!! This is the biggest show of incompetency and worthless contribution at Syphax yet.  Flabbergasting.[/quote]

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