Reply to Feedback on Washington & Liberty High School?

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "Feedback on Washington & Liberty High School?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]W-L is generally viewed as more diverse and academically focused than Yorktown.  Yorktown is white, preppy, and academically rather average. [/quote]

Spoken like a true WL-er.  I agree WL is not just viewed as, but IS much more diverse than Yorktown. I disagree that it is "more" academically focused.  Yorktown is very white and very wealthy, seems to have more kids with greater sense of "entitlement," but not sub-par to WL academically.  WL just has the IB program and therefore students have access to more academic options.[/quote]

IB is, on the whole, more academically rigorous than AP or DE (there are studies showing IB diplomates are more successful in college), and kids not zoned for W-L have to meet cretain standards to transfer in. So W-L is siphoning off some of the other schools' higher-achieving students[/quote]

It’s good for IB but odd how APS decided a brain drain to W-L from Yorktown and Wakefield was a good idea.  If they were trying to remedy economic gaps it should be Wakefield that alone gets both programs. [/quote]

IB had been discussed at W-L on and off for close to 30 years and with years of planning and debate that resulted in a specialized IB program for interested students, while preserving the APS course of study that includes AP classes, electives, and core classes, for the non diploma candidates. It wasn’t the APS curriculum admin or staff that determined W-L should have IB. The school itself took the initiative and created its own bespoke program. Following that success, APS supported sending students  to TJHSST, and encouraged the development of the unique programs at Wakefield and Yorktown. [/quote]

Someone in APS presumably signed off on letting YHS and WHS kids transfer to W-L.  With W-L offering both AP and IB, it results in W-L having a more robust curriculum and a brain drain from other schools. YHS in particular is weak now for a school with its demographics, while W-L seems perpetually overcrowded. [/quote]

One could also argue that it’s unfair that the Yorktown’s schools boundaries ensure that Yorktown wins the most state, regional, and district athletic championships. Wakefield by comparison has far fewer championships, and when they do win, it is usually as underdogs. The Post wrote a story last year on the Wakefield state championship crew team, a team few expected would come out on top.

My point is there are multiple inequities among the high schools. That is the downside of neighborhood schools. Also there isn’t much brain drain out of any of the APS high schools except maybe the very small number to TJHSST. IB at W-L is not an elite test-in program like at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville. It is simply a program (that has its merits) which is plopped on top of the standard APS high school curriculum. [/quote]

DP. I don't think anyone would argue what you're suggesting in your first point.  It's not really possible to draw boundaries according to athletic ability. The real factor is the wealth, and therefore the investment parents make and then the school in the coaching staff, etc that generate the results parents expect and the results then draw the parents, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, of course schools are going to have differences. However, some differences are contrived - whether by boundaries or by the programs the administration places in them. The problem I have with the IB program at WL is that it is open to all WL students with no restrictions and any student districted to WL can choose to participate fully or just a few classes or even just one class; meanwhile any students transferring into the IB program have to meet a baseline academic achievement requirement (unless APS has dropped that in recent years, a student could not earn anything less than a B in any class throughout all three of their middle school years - so just one C, even as a sixth grader, eliminated you from being able to transfer into the IB program.) All transfers must also complete the full IB program; they do not have the option of dropping to just a pick-and-choose selection of IB classes.  THAT is inequity by design.  If all the students at all three comprehensive high schools had those same opportunities, that would be equitable. If the IB program were truly a separate program located within WL and students were enrolled with equal opportunity (ie, same baseline eligibility and lottery draw equally from the three schools' boundaries), that would be fine too.

There may always be inequities of some kind; but APS has complete control over some of them.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics