Reply to HB Woodlawn provides unfair advantage to students for college since no intensified classes

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Reply to "HB Woodlawn provides unfair advantage to students for college since no intensified classes"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A bigger problem is that there are not enough AP classes that are offered so it's almost impossible to take as hard a course load as other schools unless you plan to take advanced classes elsewhere, which APS does not always recognize. However, you might need a crystal ball to know which courses may or may not be feasible to take in any given year at HB, not to mention the dearth of fine arts classes restrict you to certain time blocks only. Some AP courses, such as in science and math, traditionally conflict in time block so it may be impossible to fit them in during the 2 or 3 grades you're able to. All AP courses are very limited in number of classes offered per year so supply/demand forces students to wait until senior year to take the easier, more popular ones, thus having to take AP courses out of the traditional sequence. Some AP classes are taught along with the non-AP version of it so I'm guessing class prep for the AP test may be more difficult. Also, the availability of teachers is limited so it's not uncommon to see teachers teaching a particular course for the first time a kid is taking it, or is teaching an AP class that is outside the dept/field that they normally are teaching classes in; the teachers may know the material but since AP tests are standardized, they may have less familiarity with how best to prepare students for the actual test.

And, in general, if there is no true advanced level class for a course offered that has only very high performing students, the fact remains that any APS class, intensified or not, will probably be at a level where, if the kid is struggling, they're probably not looking at a college that actually cares about these lower level classes since APs will weigh more heavily anyhow. So yes, if you're an average student, the OP's argument may hold. But if you're competing with other kids from schools within/outside the county for a finite number of spots at competitive colleges, your transcript may not look as good. Just compare the colleges that HB kids get accepted to vs other high school kids.[/quote]

Mom of HB student. There was almost no class time devoted to prep for AP exams. I am not sure if this is because HB has less class time or because the AP classes are combined with regular classes in the same period. For whatever reason, my kid had to prep on their own for AP exams. From an informal sample of their friends, HB AP scores were pretty low.

So, OP, you have no idea what you're talking about. HB is wonderful in many ways and I'm glad my kid went there. [b]But it is NOT a better academic experience. It's just not.[/b] [/quote]

As the parent of a HB student who graduated last year, I would agree with this.  Overall, I was impressed by the teachers of the AP classes at HB, but I assume they are of similar caliber at Yorktown and W-L.  My son was frustrated with the lack of offerings of AP classes as he wanted to take more.  He ended up taking an AP class through Virtual Virginia his senior year, as well as Chinese virtually junior and senior year. There are also not as many elective choices as the larger schools, or the variety of clubs.  It all worked out for him college-wise, but as an academically motivated student, he was sometimes frustrated with the lack of classes to choose from at HB.  [/quote]

There is another high school in Arlington, people!  Wakefield has excellent AP teachers, too! But yes, I know....only the prime choice programs and north Arlington schools matter.
If  student is frustrated by the offerings at HB, they can always leave and go to their neighborhood school. [/quote]

HB parent here. Yes we are aware, we are just responding to the delusional poster who thinks HB kids have an advantage by having fewer classes available to then. That's not a thing.[/quote]

Yes, but responders mention YHS and WL, never WHS.[/quote]

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