Anonymous wrote:What are their concerns? We are house hunting right now and would love to hear about real experiences and not just test scores & % free lunches - neither seem very helpful in understanding what a school is really like. Thanks!

tell that to the poster who thinks Duncan's got some insider information on Arl schools to base his residence decision on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is typically considered the best of the neighborhood school. Check out the current issue of Arlington Magazine. It shows test scores for all of the Arlington Elem schools.

I know a few families that have been unhappy with Jamestown, despite its reputation.

What are their concerns? We are house hunting right now and would love to hear about real experiences and not just test scores & % free lunches - neither seem very helpful in understanding what a school is really like. Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is typically considered the best of the neighborhood school. Check out the current issue of Arlington Magazine. It shows test scores for all of the Arlington Elem schools.

I know a few families that have been unhappy with Jamestown, despite its reputation.

In North Arlington, the weaker schools in terms of general learning environment are not necessarily the schools with higher numbers of low income kids. By that definition, Science Focus (20% low income) would be a weaker school than Taylor or Jamestown (about 1-2% low income) because it has more low income kids. That is simply not the case, and Science Focus is one of the best schools (if not the best) in the county in terms students who test at the advanced level. The percentage of low income students has also not affected the school's popularity, where there are no longer any spaces for kids who want to transfer into the school from Taylor or Jamestown, the other team schools. Long Branch has a lot of low income kids (close to 30%), but it has a lot of very wealthy kids from Lyon Park and Ashton Heights as well. The school has traditionally been a high performing neighborhood school, and it is often one reason for purchasing a home in the neighborhood.

Anyways, in N Arlington, the income/socio-economic disparity among schools is usually not a big issue at all among homebuyers. Families that want to avoid the lowest income schools tend avoid S Arlington schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"weaker" school: (one with economic or cultural diversity)... seriously?

That's how a lot of obsessive parents think on here unfortunately. Happily, in Arlington there are diverse quality options as well.

You have a distorted sense of diversity if you think 50%+ low income=diversity...the US let alone Arlington is not 50% low income, so that is not a representative school...to me a diverse school would be one that is demographically representative of my city, state, country etc. The weakest schools in N Arlington in terms of test scores (and by most accounts general learning environment) also happen to be ones that are majority low-income or close to it....and FWIW I'm not white- the issue is not ethnicity but socioeconomic dynamics....

Anonymous wrote:he couldn't settle for DC public so he chose Arl public. plain and simple. no way he chose to live 1-hr from work either. he chose the neighborhood for commute, then decided against spanish immersion (Key).

don't fool yourself to think he knew more about Arl pub elem school than what his realtor told him.

he's the freaking sec. of education. Do you seriously think he relied on some stupid realtor to advise him on schools? I didn't even trust a realtor when I bought my two houses. We did not use a realtor either time. I have been completely unimpressed and aghast at how little these people know. He has access to information on schools that none of us do. Yes-- I am sure he asked Sally Bimbo what she thought of the local schools. Give me a break.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"weaker" school: (one with economic or cultural diversity)... seriously?

That's how a lot of obsessive parents think on here unfortunately. Happily, in Arlington there are diverse quality options as well.

Mmm, no. It's not just "obsessive parents". That's what the data shows, unfortunately.

Anonymous wrote:"weaker" school: (one with economic or cultural diversity)... seriously?

That's how a lot of obsessive parents think on here unfortunately. Happily, in Arlington there are diverse quality options as well.

"weaker" school: (one with economic or cultural diversity)... seriously?

he couldn't settle for DC public so he chose Arl public. plain and simple. no way he chose to live 1-hr from work either. he chose the neighborhood for commute, then decided against spanish immersion (Key).

don't fool yourself to think he knew more about Arl pub elem school than what his realtor told him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science Focus is more of a neighborhood school these days and less of a team school option, a victim of its own popularity. So I'd put it in the same league as the other highest performing N Arlington neighborhood schools. What's unique is that Science Focus is more diverse than Taylor, McKinley, Nottingham, etc.

Science Focus is phenomenal. The Secretary of Education's kids attend. You can't go wrong with any of the N.Arlington elementary schools. Some have better name recognition, but they are all stellar.

but is he gifted???

The point was---I read an interview he gave where he described looking at all of their school options before moving down here and this was the school they settled on. This guy has a wealth of information on education and could have sent his kids anywhere privately or publicly in the Washington DC Metro area and he chose this school. FWIW, I chose it before I knew that he was even at the school and it wouldn't have changed my own perception as a Scientist myself.

not true. no way he went private.

we have had presidents that sent their kids public and presidents that sent them private....Amy Carter was a product of DC public school.

Bill Moore sends his kids to private schools. He was criticized for doing so as liberal as he is...and he said 'my own kid will not be a social experiment".

If an equivalent school were not available, don't fool yourself that he wouldn't have gone private. Furhter, he could have sent them to any DC, Ffx or Mont co school....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science Focus is more of a neighborhood school these days and less of a team school option, a victim of its own popularity. So I'd put it in the same league as the other highest performing N Arlington neighborhood schools. What's unique is that Science Focus is more diverse than Taylor, McKinley, Nottingham, etc.

Science Focus is phenomenal. The Secretary of Education's kids attend. You can't go wrong with any of the N.Arlington elementary schools. Some have better name recognition, but they are all stellar.

but is he gifted???

The point was---I read an interview he gave where he described looking at all of their school options before moving down here and this was the school they settled on. This guy has a wealth of information on education and could have sent his kids anywhere privately or publicly in the Washington DC Metro area and he chose this school. FWIW, I chose it before I knew that he was even at the school and it wouldn't have changed my own perception as a Scientist myself.

not true. no way he went private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science Focus is more of a neighborhood school these days and less of a team school option, a victim of its own popularity. So I'd put it in the same league as the other highest performing N Arlington neighborhood schools. What's unique is that Science Focus is more diverse than Taylor, McKinley, Nottingham, etc.

Science Focus is phenomenal. The Secretary of Education's kids attend. You can't go wrong with any of the N.Arlington elementary schools. Some have better name recognition, but they are all stellar.

but is he gifted???

The point was---I read an interview he gave where he described looking at all of their school options before moving down here and this was the school they settled on. This guy has a wealth of information on education and could have sent his kids anywhere privately or publicly in the Washington DC Metro area and he chose this school. FWIW, I chose it before I knew that he was even at the school and it wouldn't have changed my own perception as a Scientist myself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science Focus is more of a neighborhood school these days and less of a team school option, a victim of its own popularity. So I'd put it in the same league as the other highest performing N Arlington neighborhood schools. What's unique is that Science Focus is more diverse than Taylor, McKinley, Nottingham, etc.

Science Focus is phenomenal. The Secretary of Education's kids attend. You can't go wrong with any of the N.Arlington elementary schools. Some have better name recognition, but they are all stellar.

but is he gifted???

Anonymous wrote:Science Focus is more of a neighborhood school these days and less of a team school option, a victim of its own popularity. So I'd put it in the same league as the other highest performing N Arlington neighborhood schools. What's unique is that Science Focus is more diverse than Taylor, McKinley, Nottingham, etc.

Science Focus is phenomenal. The Secretary of Education's kids attend. You can't go wrong with any of the N.Arlington elementary schools. Some have better name recognition, but they are all stellar.