It all depends on what you want. We chose private because I wasn’t thrilled with the amount of screen time I saw in APS - even at ATS which surprised me.

I think all the Arlington elementary schools are decent, but middle school is where it gets dicey. So if you are at all limited financially, I'd save up for MS and HS private.

Worth pointing our the generally speaking, the later you wait to apply to private the harder it gets (culminating with the incredibly difficult 9th grade entry).

If you’re inclined to go private, go for it. Depending on where you live in Arlington, most DC schools are either easily accessible by Metro or have shuttle stops (or both).

This is one of those things that over-analysis is kind of the ante for participation. Any way you slice it, the application process requires effort and if you don’t go visit the many schools, you’ll have no idea what you like and what you don’t. Considering the timing, I’m assuming that you are thinking about this for Fall of 2024. If so, start doing a bit of homework now so you can visit schools after the summer and be ready to roll with applications in the Fall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put our kids in APS with the understanding that if they were struggling or unhappy we would move them into private.
So far so good.
I did supplement in though.

Thank you. What do you mean exactly by supplement in? I get a feeling everyone is signing up their kid for these added courses and honestly, I am not a teacher or a curriculum developer. I want to take them to school and for school to teach them what they need to learn to be good citizens in the world and math and reading. Maybe that means we should just have applied to private now. I hate researching anything because I get analysis paralysis with all the options, so the thought of having to figure out what I should be supplementing with is giving me a bit of anxiety. Maybe that means that I need to stick to working in my field and let someone else handle the curriculum building?

I don’t know how to help with “analysis paralysis”, but there are many good options in PK-6, K-8, and K-12 privates in and near Arlington. Curricula vary, so it is worth looking closely at that. I would pick ATS over some of them, but for any school would supplement outside school as appropriate. One would have to want to go private and then be accepted and also be happy with the added expense, of course.

Please forgive the platitudes, but in our view:

No school is perfect. Each will have strengths and weaknesses. These vary from school to school. Separately, different kids have different aptitudes and different interests. Most schools spend any extra resources bringing up the bottom students, subject by subject, so the more advanced students often are bored. (I am not a genius but was bored throughout lower elementary school.). Most USA elementary schools are not really great at teaching math.

We found a school where DC fits in, is learning a lot, and is happy. Overall, it is a good fit. We also supplement with math, because DC’s school is hit or miss on that. Our DC is an advanced reader and likes to read, so we want to support that. Many folks supplement with music lessons or sports outside of school or with museum trips or in other ways.

I think it is unrealistic to think that any school will be 100% sufficient for all of its students. I wish reality were different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put our kids in APS with the understanding that if they were struggling or unhappy we would move them into private.
So far so good.
I did supplement in though.

Thank you. What do you mean exactly by supplement in? I get a feeling everyone is signing up their kid for these added courses and honestly, I am not a teacher or a curriculum developer. I want to take them to school and for school to teach them what they need to learn to be good citizens in the world and math and reading. Maybe that means we should just have applied to private now. I hate researching anything because I get analysis paralysis with all the options, so the thought of having to figure out what I should be supplementing with is giving me a bit of anxiety. Maybe that means that I need to stick to working in my field and let someone else handle the curriculum building?

OBVIOUSLY I should have included that as a parent I am mostly responsible for them learning to be good citizens. I am not outsourcing the raising of my children. Just that character is built at school too. I don't know how people are choosing all these supplemental activities and ferrying kids around. siiiiiiigh

Anonymous wrote:We put our kids in APS with the understanding that if they were struggling or unhappy we would move them into private.
So far so good.
I did supplement in though.

Thank you. What do you mean exactly by supplement in? I get a feeling everyone is signing up their kid for these added courses and honestly, I am not a teacher or a curriculum developer. I want to take them to school and for school to teach them what they need to learn to be good citizens in the world and math and reading. Maybe that means we should just have applied to private now. I hate researching anything because I get analysis paralysis with all the options, so the thought of having to figure out what I should be supplementing with is giving me a bit of anxiety. Maybe that means that I need to stick to working in my field and let someone else handle the curriculum building?

We put our kids in APS with the understanding that if they were struggling or unhappy we would move them into private.
So far so good.
I did supplement in though.

We went through this decision six years ago with our DS when he was in 3rd grade. We were in a neighborhood school in North Arlington. Our DS is a bright child but was not being challenged in his classes. We felt that the teachers were not giving him much attention as he was doing well but instead were more focused on kids who had IEPs or otherwise needed help. Which if you have a class of 25 kids or more, is understandable. He even said he did not like school. That was heartbreaking.

We chose the independent school route (The Langley School) and could not be happier. My son went from not liking school to loving going to school each day. And the class sizes of 15-17 enable the teachers to work closely with your kids and you get the sense that they know your child well.

Good luck on your decision.

Anonymous wrote:The option schools aren’t as difficult to get into as you seem to have been led to believe. The immersion programs (Key and Claremont) are both fantastic and I don’t think either are full. ATS and Science Focus are marginally harder, but nothing compared to independent schools.

Most stay in APS throughout the journey to 12th, but certainly some go to private schools in 6th and/or 9th.

Science Focus is not an option school, it's a neighborhood school. You must live in bounds to attend.

Immersion is certainly possible, because there are 2 school that split the county so there are more seats. Montessori, Campbell (EL) and ATS are the other options and they are county wide. Which you prefer depends on which style may fit your kid.

Weighing in on Catholic school- my opinion is you need to want the Catholic part first. That's the only time the Catholic schools outperform the other options. And I say that as a very happy Catholic school parent! But the facilities are worse and the academics have parts that are better and parts that are worse. So you really have to want to be there for the faith formation and community.
Hope that helps narrow things down for you! It's overwhelming with so many choices. So keep that in mind! There's not 1 right school. Most of your options will be great once you land there.

Your neighborhood elementary is good too. Arlington schools on the whole are very good. But elementary is universally good. And the option schools are not magnets. They are lotteries. And it’s not like they are particularly special in any way or higher achieving or anything.

If our DC were in ATS, we probably would stay through the end of ATS. What we did then would depend on DC’s abilities & interests and on how those aligned with our geographic APS HS.

The option schools aren’t as difficult to get into as you seem to have been led to believe. The immersion programs (Key and Claremont) are both fantastic and I don’t think either are full. ATS and Science Focus are marginally harder, but nothing compared to independent schools.

Most stay in APS throughout the journey to 12th, but certainly some go to private schools in 6th and/or 9th.

Our family is starting to think about public vs private school. We are in Arlington. From what I gather, the neighborhood school is OK but not as good as it could be. Option schools (ATS, Montessori, immersion) sound good, but difficult to get into, so we are considering other options. But there are lots of alternatives and it's hard to differentiate.

For elementary school:
Do families leave option schools for private schools? Why? It seems like it's so rare to get in to Traditional, can't imagine people leaving
How would you rank an option school versus a catholic school?
How would the catholic school (ex. St Anne, STM, St Agnes) rank compared to a higher end private school (Potomac - type)?

IF (and it's a rare IF) we were offered a spot in one of these special magnet programs, we can't tell if we should start at the magnet school because it's close to home, and if it doesn't work move them to a private OR just try to apply to one of the higher end privates from the beginning (that's an IF on admissions also), or go to a local Catholic School for elementary and then somewhere else. How did you decide?