Who gives a fuck where other people send their kids to school?

Conversely, I don't give a fuck what other people think about where I choose to send my kids to school?

People that are so fixated on a school have zero going on.

I went to what people in McLean, Langley, etc would consider a 'lesser' Fairfax co HS solely based on demos.

95% went on to 4-year colleges and many top universities represented- even Harvard.

Better to swim with the smaller fishes then end up offing yourself do the toxic environment and crazies.

W-L matches up closely with South Lakes in Reston. People there also have to defend their school on DCUM, although perhaps not quite so frequently because Reston is not as close to DC as Arlington and is less often the topic of discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

The last Arlington magazine survey I read had more W-L (and Wakefield) kids going on to elite schools than Yorktown did. (HBW beat us too.)

Be careful about the Arlington Magazine survey. It was all self-reported data. You would need the Naviance numbers to really know application and acceptance rates.

Admissions bounce around from year to year, particularly if you define "elite" schools as Ivies and Ivy equivalents, where admissions is a crapshoot. Yorktown always has higher average SATs than W-L and this year had almost twice as many National Merit Semifinalists. Overall, more Yorktown students will be applying to and attending selective schools.

The last Arlington magazine survey I read had more W-L (and Wakefield) kids going on to elite schools than Yorktown did. (HBW beat us too.)

Be careful about the Arlington Magazine survey. It was all self-reported data. You would need the Naviance numbers to really know application and acceptance rates.

Anonymous wrote:Being realistic, the school is overburdened with ESL learners and that impacts all education.

Too me, it's similar to TC in Alex. If your child is white, rich and smart -no problems - they will be tracked into classes and a social scene with those similar kids. The problem that will occur is if your white, rich kid is average or your rich, smart kid is non-white.

I'm always intrigued by posts like this because the number of people who have direct experience with both TC and W-L must be very small. So that means you likely have no idea what goes on at these schools. Clearly you have no idea of the facts.

Countywide, 12% of Arlington high school students are of limited proficiency in English.

At Yorktown, 5% of of students are ESL.

At W-L, 7%.

At Wakefield, 12%.

At H-B Woodlawn, 16%.

Washington-Lee is an awesome school. We tried to find a good SFH feeding into it and couldn't, so we ended up in Yorktown boundary, further from metro rail. I'd send my kid to W-L in a minute. The people I know who have kids set to go there are happy about it. Many of them deliberately chose it - they weren't priced out of Yorktown.

W-L is more diverse than Yorktown, which can scare some people. I really don't get that. The 2009 numbers I have handy say that 95.1% of yorktown students graduated and 91.2% of W-L students graduated. 96% of Yorktown kids went on to college vs. 91% of W-L kids. The last Arlington magazine survey I read had more W-L (and Wakefield) kids going on to elite schools than Yorktown did. (HBW beat us too.)

In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason to avoid Washington-Lee or any of its feeder schools.

Anonymous wrote:Being realistic, the school is overburdened with ESL learners and that impacts all education.

Too me, it's similar to TC in Alex. If your child is white, rich and smart -no problems - they will be tracked into classes and a social scene with those similar kids. The problem that will occur is if your white, rich kid is average or your rich, smart kid is non-white.

What is the problem in this scenario?

Being realistic, the school is overburdened with ESL learners and that impacts all education.

Too me, it's similar to TC in Alex. If your child is white, rich and smart -no problems - they will be tracked into classes and a social scene with those similar kids. The problem that will occur is if your white, rich kid is average or your rich, smart kid is non-white.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/APS%20TransferReport%202013%2014.pdf

Transfers into Yorktown last year:
--from W-L: 15

Transfers into W-L last year:
--from Yorktown: 138

Hmmmm.

W-L students and families too lazy to explore better alternatives, and a legacy of when W-L was under-enrolled and solicited transfers.

And so the corollary would be that Yorktown parents are very motivated to explore better alternatives?

Maybe it was like a trip abroad to a disadvantaged location so that children would learn to be thankful for what they have?

Ha ha ha. Maybe they can go to Wakefield for a football game and then write a college essay about their experience with different cultures.

LoL

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/APS%20TransferReport%202013%2014.pdf

Transfers into Yorktown last year:
--from W-L: 15

Transfers into W-L last year:
--from Yorktown: 138

Hmmmm.

W-L students and families too lazy to explore better alternatives, and a legacy of when W-L was under-enrolled and solicited transfers.

And so the corollary would be that Yorktown parents are very motivated to explore better alternatives?

Maybe it was like a trip abroad to a disadvantaged location so that children would learn to be thankful for what they have?

Ha ha ha. Maybe they can go to Wakefield for a football game and then write a college essay about their experience with different cultures.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/APS%20TransferReport%202013%2014.pdf

Transfers into Yorktown last year:
--from W-L: 15

Transfers into W-L last year:
--from Yorktown: 138

Hmmmm.

W-L students and families too lazy to explore better alternatives, and a legacy of when W-L was under-enrolled and solicited transfers.

And so the corollary would be that Yorktown parents are very motivated to explore better alternatives?

Maybe it was like a trip abroad to a disadvantaged location so that children would learn to be thankful for what they have?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/APS%20TransferReport%202013%2014.pdf

Transfers into Yorktown last year:
--from W-L: 15

Transfers into W-L last year:
--from Yorktown: 138

Hmmmm.

W-L students and families too lazy to explore better alternatives, and a legacy of when W-L was under-enrolled and solicited transfers.

And so the corollary would be that Yorktown parents are very motivated to explore better alternatives?

Anonymous wrote:http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/APS%20TransferReport%202013%2014.pdf

Transfers into Yorktown last year:
--from W-L: 15

Transfers into W-L last year:
--from Yorktown: 138

Hmmmm.

W-L students and families too lazy to explore better alternatives, and a legacy of when W-L was under-enrolled and solicited transfers.

Nothing wrong with Yorktown but for commuting into DC and having a walking lifestyle (if that's important to you) the W-L neighborhoods definitely have the edge.

Sorry, but that is incorrect. I can be in NW DC over the chain bridge faster than I could from Clarendon. Add to that proximity to Tysons and even Bethesda and it's not even close.
Depends on where in DC you are going. And I bike everywhere which I prefer to walking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also, what does "higher rated schools of equal caliber" even mean?

It means "I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about."

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

If the schools are of "equal caliber," than the higher rating is meaningless. Get it?