Reply to Who sends their kid to Wakefield HS? Is it really that bad?

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Reply to "Who sends their kid to Wakefield HS? Is it really that bad?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Let's get real by comparing apples to apples.  When you compare a school as a whole that has lots of ESOL/FARMS kids to another school (as a whole) that has very few needy/language learners... of course the school with the higher SES and low language learners is going to appear better.

But, looking at the white kids at Wakefield (which is 20% of the population) compared to other schools like Yorktown or McLean (where the white population is closer to 60%), you still have the impact of family wealth affecting the results, but you also have a lot of similarities.

40% of the white students at Wakefield take AP classes.  47-59% of white kids are taking AP classes at Yorktown and McLean.  85-94% of not-low-income kids at Wakefield are passing SOLs in Biology/World Hist2/Writing.  95-97% of not-low-income kids are passing the same subjects at Yorktown and McLean.

Yes, there is a bump up in passrates and AP participation at Yorktown and McLean.  [b]I think that higher household income could easily account for that[/b][i][u].  It's not like Wakefield isn't providing a good education --- the kids who are ready to make use of it are doing just that.

The big difference is that Wakefield is really diverse.

I posted much further back in this thread that my friend's kid just started there.  She is having a great experience.  She is involved in sports, so that is her group.  Perhaps a different kid who didn't have a group of like-minded/similar SES peers might not have such a good experience.  I can't say for sure.  I know that they are very happy with it.  In fact, they are so happy with it and impressed by other kids who went to ARlington public school for MS, that they are taking their younger child out of catholic school and putting her in public MS and then on to Wakefield.

So, you can crow all you want about National Merit semifinalists and what not.  You can compare apples to oranges.  Or you can look at the data that applies to kids who aren't poor and aren't learning English and think about how that data would apply to your kid (assuming your kid is in the same categories).

[/quote]

You nailed it right there.  It comes down to these simple words:  resources, resources and more resources.

The wealthy people and UMC in Arlington and Great Falls/Mclean/Langley will send their kids to private schools like Sidwell, Potomac, and Madeira because they can afford it.  The MC in Arlington and Mclean with HHI between 400k - 600k will send their kids to Yorktown, Mclean/Langley, respectively.  They have extra income to support school activities, private tutoring and private sports lessons for their kids.  Those are things kids with immigrant parents simply can not afford.  You can take any not performing well from Wakefield and help him with private tutoring, he/she will do just as well as any kids from Yorktown or Mclean.  The problem is that the parents of Wakefield kid don't have the resource to help him.  Another example,  my kid attends Sidwell at a cost of 43k/year, including all fees, and she also has private tutoring three times a week for a total of 6 hours, at a cost of $80/hour.  On top of that, she is also preparing for the SAT every Sunday for 5 hours at a cost of $200.

If the kid is already smart and driven, he/she will succeed at Wakefield, Yorktown or Mclean.  That being said, those that succeeded at Wakefield is more of the exception rather than the rule.  We are not talking about the top kids.  We are talking about the average one.  The sad reality is that money does matter a lot when it comes to education.

I came to US in 1982 as a refugee from Vietnam.  I lived in the seven corners ghetto apartments and attended Stuart HS.  My wife is also a refugee from Vietnam and graduated from Wakefield HS in 1989.  Back in the '80s, there were a very large Vietnamese students population at Falls Church, Stuart and Wakefield because there are so many apartments in those areas that immigrants could afford.  I have 20 close friends from Stuart and Falls Church HS that I keep in touch.  All of us are living in either Vienna, Mclean, Langley or Great Falls.  All of their kids are either attending private schools or Mclan/Langley HS.  None of us would want our children to attend either Stuart or Wakefield.

If you ask any of the former Vietnamese students that graduated from Stuart, Falls Church and Wakefield today if they want to send their kids to Wakefield, Falls Church, and Stuart versus Mclean/Langley HS, I can almost guarantee that Mclean/Langley HS will win by a landslide.  The current Vietnamese students that are attending Wakefield today because their parents are recent immigrants, they will become successful and their kids will not be attending Wakefield in the future.

Btw, drugs and alcohol are everywhere, including Mclean and Yorktown.  Even Sidwell is not immuned by it.[/quote]

So you have a weird grudge / chip on your shoulder. Thanks for sharing.[/quote]

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