Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you expected to see performing seals rather than a typical classroom.

I'm not the PP; but that's a ridiculous response. I don't think it's much to expect students engaging with each other and their teachers rather than faces in a device and eating. One of the primary bits of advice parents are given is to visit a school to see what it's like. If I had the impression the previous poster had, I wouldn't want to send my kid to the school. I've been in many different schools. they have different "feels" and, especially an elementary school, should be (and in my experience often are) more stimulating and vibrant than what PP described.

Sounds like you expected to see performing seals rather than a typical classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people are moving for schools, they are moving to FFX Co.

Well, that depends on where you were living before. We moved from DC to Arlington in part because of schools. We liked that in APS you could be guaranteed admission to Spanish immersion if you lived in a certain area (that has since changed), & the immersion program has a good reputation & goes all the way through HS. We have one kid still at Key & one finishing up at Gunston & heading to Wakefield. We’ve been happy, even though these aren’t the typically coveted schools (which are really “better” because of families’ SES anyway).

So curious about Key. We had been very interested about the immersion program from the get go. But when I visited it was so different from what I had pictured. In classroom after classroom the kids seemed just bored, not engaged. Same with the teachers - a lot of going through the motions, zombie like. I don't know if the building made it feel institutional, but things felt ... sad? The tour guide took us to several classrooms, and we saw a lot of iPads, headphones, a lot of eating while watching the device, but at some point it just became obvious that no one kid seemed to be engaged with the teacher. Mostly just sitting on a rug sort of staring away at something. I have heard from parents about the amazing Escuela Key community, but it just was not on display at all - there wasn't a sense of pride or belonging. It was odd. The presentation talked a lot about kids taking the proficiency Spanish test when they graduate high school, or getting college credits for Spanish, but there seemed to be no focus on the fact that these are elementary students ... What is the ELA (or SLA) curriculum? How are they supporting the elementary students to ensure they are not just learning Spanish but have a good foundation in math and other subjects. I left really disappointed. What did I miss?

Anonymous wrote:

Dorothy Hamm, the new middle school in North Arlington, has been way under-enrolled, and was built to a much higher capacity. It’s new building and grounds are beautiful, the best among middle schools in Arlington. Test scores are among the highest in Northern Virginia, and the principal and teachers are well liked. All that is still not enough to convince families to return to APS. Families here are wealthy and fickle and the pandemic created a large shift away from APS towards private schools. Area privates like Maret, SFS, STA, NCS, GDS, WIS, etc are all quite good. Hopefully new families will came back to APS.

It wasn’t mentioned, but Long Branch is also a popular neighborhood ES located on the N/S Arlington border. The new Fleet ES also on the N/S Arlington border is well liked and serves nearby Fort Myer and military families in general.



We are Long Branch/TJ/W-L and have generally been happy but my youngest is now graduating from W-L. The virtue of APS vs Fairfax when we started was consistently small class sizes which made in ES for better meeting kids needs, including at the time pull-out for gifted students. All of those benefits seem to be gone. I still love living in Arlington but if moving here now with young kids I'd look for schools that go to Hamm/W-L. I think that's the best MS/HS option right now. And assume your may need to supplement for ES wherever you go.

But your own kids went to TJ? What was wrong with TJ?

It seems anyone living north of Route 50 will ultimately proffer the opinion that schools comprised of only north-of-route-50 students is the only "right" answer. And anyone from the central part of Arlington north of 50 will always proclaim WL is the holy grail of Arlington high schools.

PP, why is Hamm-WL any better than Hamm-YHS? or TJ-WL? or TJ-WHS? If your kids went to TJ, why are you convinced Hamm is better, let alone the best?

Dorothy Hamm, the new middle school in North Arlington, has been way under-enrolled, and was built to a much higher capacity. It’s new building and grounds are beautiful, the best among middle schools in Arlington. Test scores are among the highest in Northern Virginia, and the principal and teachers are well liked. All that is still not enough to convince families to return to APS. Families here are wealthy and fickle and the pandemic created a large shift away from APS towards private schools. Area privates like Maret, SFS, STA, NCS, GDS, WIS, etc are all quite good. Hopefully new families will came back to APS.

It wasn’t mentioned, but Long Branch is also a popular neighborhood ES located on the N/S Arlington border. The new Fleet ES also on the N/S Arlington border is well liked and serves nearby Fort Myer and military families in general.



We are Long Branch/TJ/W-L and have generally been happy but my youngest is now graduating from W-L. The virtue of APS vs Fairfax when we started was consistently small class sizes which made in ES for better meeting kids needs, including at the time pull-out for gifted students. All of those benefits seem to be gone. I still love living in Arlington but if moving here now with young kids I'd look for schools that go to Hamm/W-L. I think that's the best MS/HS option right now. And assume your may need to supplement for ES wherever you go.

But your own kids went to TJ? What was wrong with TJ?

Anonymous wrote:Dorothy Hamm, the new middle school in North Arlington, has been way under-enrolled, and was built to a much higher capacity. It’s new building and grounds are beautiful, the best among middle schools in Arlington. Test scores are among the highest in Northern Virginia, and the principal and teachers are well liked. All that is still not enough to convince families to return to APS. Families here are wealthy and fickle and the pandemic created a large shift away from APS towards private schools. Area privates like Maret, SFS, STA, NCS, GDS, WIS, etc are all quite good. Hopefully new families will came back to APS.

It wasn’t mentioned, but Long Branch is also a popular neighborhood ES located on the N/S Arlington border. The new Fleet ES also on the N/S Arlington border is well liked and serves nearby Fort Myer and military families in general.

We are Long Branch/TJ/W-L and have generally been happy but my youngest is now graduating from W-L. The virtue of APS vs Fairfax when we started was consistently small class sizes which made in ES for better meeting kids needs, including at the time pull-out for gifted students. All of those benefits seem to be gone. I still love living in Arlington but if moving here now with young kids I'd look for schools that go to Hamm/W-L. I think that's the best MS/HS option right now. And assume your may need to supplement for ES wherever you go.

Anonymous wrote:There are pyramids but some elementary schools split to 2 middles and some middles split to 2 high schools.

Williamsburg: all students go to Yorktown
Swanson: splits to Yorktown and W-L
Kenmore: Splits to all 3 high schools (mostly Wakefield, some to W-L, small number to Yorktown)
Hamm:Splits to Yorktown and W-L
Gunston- all to Wakefield
TJ- splits to Wakefield and W-L

Elementary splits to middle school happen in south Arlington elementaries, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Also you should know Arlington doesn't have defined pyramids. Many middle schools feed to multiple high schools

Lol...there are only 3 high schools, and only 6 middle schools.

Yorktown
W&L
Wakefield
HB
Arlington tech

I count 5 high schools.

3 neighborhood high schools. The other 2 are lottery programs. And WL also has a lottery IB program.

There are pyramids but some elementary schools split to 2 middles and some middles split to 2 high schools.

Williamsburg: all students go to Yorktown
Swanson: splits to Yorktown and W-L
Kenmore: Splits to all 3 high schools (mostly Wakefield, some to W-L, small number to Yorktown)
Hamm:Splits to Yorktown and W-L
Gunston- all to Wakefield
TJ- splits to Wakefield and W-L

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the recent past that meant north of Rte 50 or North Arlington in general. Higher prices north of 50 for homes similar in size to homes south of 50 would reflect that.

In the central part of North Arlington the most coveted pyramids used to include McKinley ES (now Cardinal), ASFS (Science Focus), and Taylor. Then Swanson for middle school, and W-L or Yorktown for high schools.

In the northern part of N Arlington, Nottingham and Jamestown, and Taylor for ES then Williamsburg for middle school, then Yorktown for high school were most coveted.

There were always other popular elementary schools like Glebe, Ashlawn, Tuckahoe, Oakridge, Campbell, and Patrick Henry even if they weren’t as coveted.

Wakefield for high school also has strong supporters and is well liked. TJ is a popular middle school and has the IB program.

But since then new schools have opened like Dorothy Hamm Middle School, boundaries have changed at all school levels, and the pandemic happened.

This is so accurate.

Left out Discovery.

Don’t bother going there. Ridiculous amount of teacher turnover due to the unsupportive administration. Children are not individually disciplined, which is s disaster.

Anonymous wrote:

Also you should know Arlington doesn't have defined pyramids. Many middle schools feed to multiple high schools

Lol...there are only 3 high schools, and only 6 middle schools.

DP, what’s your point? There are no defined pyramids for all of Arlington. A pyramid is when a cohort of elementary schools end up going to the same high school. E.g Ashlawn elementary school has kids that go to kenmore (that go to WL or Yorktown) and Swanson (that go to WL).

Anonymous wrote:

Also you should know Arlington doesn't have defined pyramids. Many middle schools feed to multiple high schools

Lol...there are only 3 high schools, and only 6 middle schools.

Yorktown
W&L
Wakefield
HB
Arlington tech

I count 5 high schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the recent past that meant north of Rte 50 or North Arlington in general. Higher prices north of 50 for homes similar in size to homes south of 50 would reflect that.

In the central part of North Arlington the most coveted pyramids used to include McKinley ES (now Cardinal), ASFS (Science Focus), and Taylor. Then Swanson for middle school, and W-L or Yorktown for high schools.

In the northern part of N Arlington, Nottingham and Jamestown, and Taylor for ES then Williamsburg for middle school, then Yorktown for high school were most coveted.

There were always other popular elementary schools like Glebe, Ashlawn, Tuckahoe, Oakridge, Campbell, and Patrick Henry even if they weren’t as coveted.

Wakefield for high school also has strong supporters and is well liked. TJ is a popular middle school and has the IB program.

But since then new schools have opened like Dorothy Hamm Middle School, boundaries have changed at all school levels, and the pandemic happened.

This is so accurate.

Left out Discovery.

Also you should know Arlington doesn't have defined pyramids. Many middle schools feed to multiple high schools

Lol...there are only 3 high schools, and only 6 middle schools.

Also you should know Arlington doesn't have defined pyramids. Many middle schools feed to multiple high schools