Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the district but DC goes to one of the countywide choice schools - in part because of lack of diversity. Have friends whose kids attend and it is a great school academically. But not diverse at all and some of the DCUM craziness you read about here definitely exists there.

What? You can't live in he district and go to a countywide Arlington public school unless you are committing fraud. Watch out--our countywide school has an investigator currently pursuing false residency claims.

I think what the poster meant by "the district" is the Nottingham district.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you love? What are you not so crazy about? Is there are decent number of WAH moms? What about diversity---are their kids who attend from South Asian/Middle Eastern backgrounds?

I can't tell you about Nottingham, but I can tell you that Long Branch and Barrett are probably the most diverse of the North Arlington schools, which seems to be the focus of your search. You will get more economic diversity in these schools than you will at Nottingham. There are definitely Muslim children at Long Branch and some South Asians (although not many, since there aren't that many in Arlington).

Both Long Branch and Glebe are only about 60% white, Barrett is about 40% white/40% hispanic. Those are the three most diverse neighborhood elementary schools in terms of ethnicity in N Arlington. The choice schools like Science Focus, ATS, Key, etc. are also fairly diverse.

Science Focus is not diverse.

Science Focus is 55% white. So the racial makeup is about the same as Long Branch and Glebe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you love? What are you not so crazy about? Is there are decent number of WAH moms? What about diversity---are their kids who attend from South Asian/Middle Eastern backgrounds?

I can't tell you about Nottingham, but I can tell you that Long Branch and Barrett are probably the most diverse of the North Arlington schools, which seems to be the focus of your search. You will get more economic diversity in these schools than you will at Nottingham. There are definitely Muslim children at Long Branch and some South Asians (although not many, since there aren't that many in Arlington).

Both Long Branch and Glebe are only about 60% white, Barrett is about 40% white/40% hispanic. Those are the three most diverse neighborhood elementary schools in terms of ethnicity in N Arlington. The choice schools like Science Focus, ATS, Key, etc. are also fairly diverse.

Science Focus is not diverse.

ahhh-- yes it is. My kids class has so many different nationalities along with socio-economic diversity given some of the apartments that feed into it (yes--not just the high end lofts and million+ condos). Check out the FARMS numbers and demo which is public ally available.

Anonymous wrote:In the district but DC goes to one of the countywide choice schools - in part because of lack of diversity. Have friends whose kids attend and it is a great school academically. But not diverse at all and some of the DCUM craziness you read about here definitely exists there.

What? You can't live in he district and go to a countywide Arlington public school unless you are committing fraud. Watch out--our countywide school has an investigator currently pursuing false residency claims.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you love? What are you not so crazy about? Is there are decent number of WAH moms? What about diversity---are their kids who attend from South Asian/Middle Eastern backgrounds?

I can't tell you about Nottingham, but I can tell you that Long Branch and Barrett are probably the most diverse of the North Arlington schools, which seems to be the focus of your search. You will get more economic diversity in these schools than you will at Nottingham. There are definitely Muslim children at Long Branch and some South Asians (although not many, since there aren't that many in Arlington).

Both Long Branch and Glebe are only about 60% white, Barrett is about 40% white/40% hispanic. Those are the three most diverse neighborhood elementary schools in terms of ethnicity in N Arlington. The choice schools like Science Focus, ATS, Key, etc. are also fairly diverse.

Science Focus is not diverse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you love? What are you not so crazy about? Is there are decent number of WAH moms? What about diversity---are their kids who attend from South Asian/Middle Eastern backgrounds?

I can't tell you about Nottingham, but I can tell you that Long Branch and Barrett are probably the most diverse of the North Arlington schools, which seems to be the focus of your search. You will get more economic diversity in these schools than you will at Nottingham. There are definitely Muslim children at Long Branch and some South Asians (although not many, since there aren't that many in Arlington).

Both Long Branch and Glebe are only about 60% white, Barrett is about 40% white/40% hispanic. Those are the three most diverse neighborhood elementary schools in terms of ethnicity in N Arlington. The choice schools like Science Focus, ATS, Key, etc. are also fairly diverse.

Anonymous wrote:What do you love? What are you not so crazy about? Is there are decent number of WAH moms? What about diversity---are their kids who attend from South Asian/Middle Eastern backgrounds?

I can't tell you about Nottingham, but I can tell you that Long Branch and Barrett are probably the most diverse of the North Arlington schools, which seems to be the focus of your search. You will get more economic diversity in these schools than you will at Nottingham. There are definitely Muslim children at Long Branch and some South Asians (although not many, since there aren't that many in Arlington).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has been very helpful for me, as well. My daughter is an ethnic minority and I am concerned that, simply by virtue of there not being many kids in the school that are of other races/ethnicities, she will feel out of place. Think we will focus our search in other neighborhoods that feed into schools with a bit more diversity.

What if she just learned to treat people as individuals? Would that be so bad? If there were more minorities would her "place" be to associate with them rather than with other children?

As a transracial adoptive parent, I can tell you that this is a very typical white response (said as a white person myself). It's nice in theory but does not necessarily play out in practice. Step back and think about how many people react here to S Arlington schools (or to the number of Asians at TJ). People in public give off a nice progressive accepting vibe but underneath, things aren't so rosy. I don't think that a non-white or multiracial family should avoid Nottingham and other schools like it, but it's not so simple and it's not so easy being so obvious and visible as a minority.

Anonymous wrote:This thread has been very helpful for me, as well. My daughter is an ethnic minority and I am concerned that, simply by virtue of there not being many kids in the school that are of other races/ethnicities, she will feel out of place. Think we will focus our search in other neighborhoods that feed into schools with a bit more diversity.

What if she just learned to treat people as individuals? Would that be so bad? If there were more minorities would her "place" be to associate with them rather than with other children?

This thread has been very helpful for me, as well. My daughter is an ethnic minority and I am concerned that, simply by virtue of there not being many kids in the school that are of other races/ethnicities, she will feel out of place. Think we will focus our search in other neighborhoods that feed into schools with a bit more diversity.

17:56 - we're in Nottingham/Williamsburg and I see the lack of diversity as one of the few downsides of where we live. It was a factor for me, though not enough to keep me from buying our house. Frankly, the world we live in is NOT all white and not all well-off, and I worry about my kid going to a school where nearly every classmate will be white and fairly well-off.

Thanks for the helpful comments about Nottingham, PP's. We'll only be there for a year before we're redistricted, but it's nice to know my daughter is headed somewhere good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the district but DC goes to one of the countywide choice schools - in part because of lack of diversity. Have friends whose kids attend and it is a great school academically. But not diverse at all and some of the DCUM craziness you read about here definitely exists there.

why would you deliberately seek out diversity? that's really strange.

Don't you roll your eyes at me.

Why the hell would someone actively seek diversity? That is just a really strange criteria.

Did you ever stop to think that the DC might not be white or that the parents might be of more than one race? Or that the parents don't - for whatever reason - want such a homogeneous environment? Or even that the parents are a gay or lesbian family and don't want to be THE Diversity in DC's school?

I'm ignoring 18:35. She doesn't get to derail the thread, she's just a troll.

Carry on, please.

Why would you actively seek diversity? Seriously? Uh... let's see...

To help your child learn to get along with all kinds of people.
To take advantage of the wonderful things that come with a multicultural environment.
To give your child an opportunity to make friends that are not all replicas of him or herself.
To teach your child that not everyone is white.

That's just a short list to get the other posters started. Carry on!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the district but DC goes to one of the countywide choice schools - in part because of lack of diversity. Have friends whose kids attend and it is a great school academically. But not diverse at all and some of the DCUM craziness you read about here definitely exists there.

why would you deliberately seek out diversity? that's really strange.

Don't you roll your eyes at me.

Why the hell would someone actively seek diversity? That is just a really strange criteria.