Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only time I was truly unhappy with APS was during COVID. But otherwise we’ve had a great experience at least so far at the elementary school level. My kids have had nothing but terrific teachers. I think the fact there are numerous threads about APS on here just speaks to the extent of parental involvement in the schools. For better or worse, the parents around here are really involved with keeping up with what is going on with the school board and at their kids’ schools. Sometimes that isn’t 100% a good thing, but I love that we’ve really gotten to know a lot of other parents because they are active with volunteering in the classroom, coaching sports, meeting up for after school park play dates, etc. And the focus on walk zones/neighborhood schools really creates a nice community where you see your kids’ classmates when out for bike rides or after dinner walks.

Beyond schools we just much prefer the lifestyle here. Even with the ability to be close to fully remote/one of us has a reverse commute, we like all the stuff we can walk to. We like not spending a lot of time in our car. There’s a ton of really good rec level and travel sports offerings. We have multiple really nice parks within a few blocks of us. We can easily get into DC for a date night, show, etc., but have all the benefits of a SFH on a quiet street.

This. Also, when my kids were in ES (youngest just graduated W-L) the strength of Arlington vs. neighboring districts was that they consistently had smaller class sizes and, with two kids with very inconsistent strengths, we preferred the APS model for gifted services to Fairfax's AAP. You also never had to worry about getting a spot in extended day while that was an issue in Fairfax. But, I don't know how much of this is still true given the growth in APS.

Yeah, no longer pull out gifted just watered down push in which is busywork overseen by primary classroom teacher already assigned classes 20% bigger than they used to be. Extended day much harder to secure. Larger classes as mentioned. Standards based fake grading. Equity priority over academic rigor so bright kids end up idle or on iPads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

One of the best school systems in the country?!?!? Hahaha

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t I want to live in Arlington? I work for the federal government in DC and my commute from Arlington is a breeze. Yes I don’t go in as often but if I ever need to go in I can just hop on the metro or get there in 15 minutes in an Uber. We have four parks walking distance to our house. We have an amazing trail. If we want to go to DC to enjoy all it has to offer it is 15 minutes away. My friends who live further never bother to go to DC unless it’s for some special occasion. The people here are educated and man you feel the difference. So are the kids. APS is a good school system and probably one of the best in the country. Yes, it has gone downhill but the difference is that parents expect the best and that’s why you hear a lot of complaints. These are some of the most educated parents in the nation and have high standards on what they consider a good education to be. So yes arlingtonians will complain and complain but it’s because we only want the best.

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you want to live in Arlington?
I love it here. For the most part, the people are highly educated but not snobby at all. They are fun and like to hang out and be social. We have great parks for little kids, it's fairly walkable and schools are decent.

Anonymous wrote:I’m on this board because Jeff inexplicably thinks LCPS has more in common with APS than FCPS. So while I’m looking for the rare posts about LCPS, all I see is a list of APS complaints a mile long. People are so unhappy and pay through the nose for a small house to be unhappy in. Why do people stay?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only time I was truly unhappy with APS was during COVID. But otherwise we’ve had a great experience at least so far at the elementary school level. My kids have had nothing but terrific teachers. I think the fact there are numerous threads about APS on here just speaks to the extent of parental involvement in the schools. For better or worse, the parents around here are really involved with keeping up with what is going on with the school board and at their kids’ schools. Sometimes that isn’t 100% a good thing, but I love that we’ve really gotten to know a lot of other parents because they are active with volunteering in the classroom, coaching sports, meeting up for after school park play dates, etc. And the focus on walk zones/neighborhood schools really creates a nice community where you see your kids’ classmates when out for bike rides or after dinner walks.

Beyond schools we just much prefer the lifestyle here. Even with the ability to be close to fully remote/one of us has a reverse commute, we like all the stuff we can walk to. We like not spending a lot of time in our car. There’s a ton of really good rec level and travel sports offerings. We have multiple really nice parks within a few blocks of us. We can easily get into DC for a date night, show, etc., but have all the benefits of a SFH on a quiet street.

This. Also, when my kids were in ES (youngest just graduated W-L) the strength of Arlington vs. neighboring districts was that they consistently had smaller class sizes and, with two kids with very inconsistent strengths, we preferred the APS model for gifted services to Fairfax's AAP. You also never had to worry about getting a spot in extended day while that was an issue in Fairfax. But, I don't know how much of this is still true given the growth in APS.