Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ ok, this I think really nails it.
It's the type A North Arlington helicopter parent neurosis. Frankly, I'm glad my kid won't be apart of that. The kids on my street who went to south Arlington schools K-12 are at great colleges. I'm not going to get caught up in some pearl clutching rat race over whether or not my kid is ahead in third grade. They are learning other valuable life skills in their neighborhood school. They are learning that not everyone is privledged, and looks like them. They are learning patience. They are learning empathy.
Sitting down at the table together, talking every night, and reading to and with my kid will do more than anything else.

+1

-1. South Arlington kids have worse outcomes across the board, whether poor or middle class, and it's due in part to the factors described by PP.

Hope you are fixing five-course meals, because there is a lot of extra work you'll need to do to compensate for the slow pace at school.

When my kid is the more successful, popular kid at UVA or MIT- are we really going to care which elementary school they went to? Not really.

[quote=Anonymous]South Arlington public schools get a bad rap. Is this deserved? Does the reputation apply to all the elementary/middle/high schools, or are there some good ones? [/quote]

Honestly, OP? It all depends on what you define as a "bad rap" and what you are using as a basis of comparison. Compared to North Arlington schools, South Arlington schools are [i]generally[/i] regarded as worse. There are some exceptions, with Patrick Henry and Oakridge (elementary schools) among them. Thomas Jefferson is generally a well-regarded middle school, and many, many parents are also fine with Wakefield (high school), but note that Wakefield is also considered the worst of Arlington's three (main) high schools.

So, no, South Arlington schools are not all universally "bad," but nor are they considered as "good" as those in North Arlington. (A lot of the bickering you will read on DCUM boils down to that simple statement.) You probably already know this, but North Arlington schools tend to be "whiter," richer, and have better test scores than South Arlington schools. That doesn't necessarily make South Arlington schools "bad," per se, but again, not as "good" relative to North Arlington schools.

The key word is "relative." South Arlington schools are, by-and-large, safe, caring environments with good teachers, the same curriculum as North Arlington schools, few behavioral problems, and parents who care for and love their children. (Again, to varying degrees across schools, and again, with fewer parental resources than in North Arlington.)

I went to much, much worse schools in my own childhood. (Schools with serious safety issues, drugs, race riots, etc. Schools where, sadly, sometimes the teachers cared more about the students than their own strung-out/absentee parents.) The comparison between my childhood schools and South Arlington schools is night and day. We are not talking inner city Detroit here. In most South Arlington schools the kids are simply poorer, browner, and the test scores are not as good. A bit simplistic, perhaps, but that's the basic "bad rap" in a nutshell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ ok, this I think really nails it.
It's the type A North Arlington helicopter parent neurosis. Frankly, I'm glad my kid won't be apart of that. The kids on my street who went to south Arlington schools K-12 are at great colleges. I'm not going to get caught up in some pearl clutching rat race over whether or not my kid is ahead in third grade. They are learning other valuable life skills in their neighborhood school. They are learning that not everyone is privledged, and looks like them. They are learning patience. They are learning empathy.
Sitting down at the table together, talking every night, and reading to and with my kid will do more than anything else.

+1

-1. South Arlington kids have worse outcomes across the board, whether poor or middle class, and it's due in part to the factors described by PP.

Hope you are fixing five-course meals, because there is a lot of extra work you'll need to do to compensate for the slow pace at school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ ok, this I think really nails it.
It's the type A North Arlington helicopter parent neurosis. Frankly, I'm glad my kid won't be apart of that. The kids on my street who went to south Arlington schools K-12 are at great colleges. I'm not going to get caught up in some pearl clutching rat race over whether or not my kid is ahead in third grade. They are learning other valuable life skills in their neighborhood school. They are learning that not everyone is privledged, and looks like them. They are learning patience. They are learning empathy.
Sitting down at the table together, talking every night, and reading to and with my kid will do more than anything else.

+1

-1. South Arlington kids have worse outcomes across the board, whether poor or middle class, and it's due in part to the factors described by PP.

Hope you are fixing five-course meals, because there is a lot of extra work you'll need to do to compensate for the slow pace at school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who mentioned that the real difference starts in 2nd grade is spot on. And, to the people who doubt that if one waits too long to leave an under performing SA school, kids will be behind in a high performing school - don't opine unless you have seen it. I know 8 families from my kid's school that left for NA or falls church over the last 5 years. Each kid was behind, lacked the requisite study skills and was no longer the star of,the class in the New school. Yes, same curriculum, but the kids are expected to master the material at different times. The depth of instruction is much different in NA schools because the kids are prepared to learn it. Kids do homework and have additional help at home so more advanced instruction in class. This is generally not the case in SA schools. And the schools I am talking about are not Henry and Oakridge.

Some parts of SA will continue to gentrify, others will not. West of George Mason and the area just to its east is a lost cause.

We are generally happy with our S. Arl elementary. We are solidly middle class (with all the enrichment opportunities that offers), eat meals together, and read and talk every night.

Our zoned middle school includes N. Arl neighborhoods, and we have heard from our neighbors that the transition from elementary to middle is fine. True, our child may no longer be at the top of the class and may have to learn good study skills and work harder to "catch up" or "get ahead", but I don't think that experience is necessarily bad. In fact, it might be good for DC to learn that hard work is just as important, if not more, than innate intellect.

All that said, we will still stay vigilant and take it year by year.

Yep. I don't get where all this fear is coming from. If your kid is zoned TJ and keeping up with kids who went to "better" schools, why the panic?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South Arlington schools aren't good at all, but it's heartwarming to see people hype them in the hopes of gentrifying the area. Unfortunately, there are just too many crappy apartment buildings in South Arlington to make that happen without a major dislocation of the poors. At some point, the bohos who bought there on the cheap will just have to come to terms with the mediocrity of schools like Kenmore, Jefferson and Wakefield.

"dislocation of the poors"?? Is this what people in N Arlington really think? If so, it is shameful hate speech.

Nah-
It's the same troll who shows up everytime. Sometimes they live in north Arlington, sometimes they live in south Arlington. Next, they'll start talking about diversity, Benetton and craft beers. It's tedious.
I'm sure the shiny super star students of north Arlington are leaps and bounds ahead of the unwashed masses of south arl. I'll be sure to tell my neighbors that. They'll keep that in mind when visiting their kids at UVA, Duke etc etc...

I can't follow what you are trying to say in the paragraph beginning "I'm sure the ...."

Anonymous wrote:The PP who mentioned that the real difference starts in 2nd grade is spot on. And, to the people who doubt that if one waits too long to leave an under performing SA school, kids will be behind in a high performing school - don't opine unless you have seen it. I know 8 families from my kid's school that left for NA or falls church over the last 5 years. Each kid was behind, lacked the requisite study skills and was no longer the star of,the class in the New school. Yes, same curriculum, but the kids are expected to master the material at different times. The depth of instruction is much different in NA schools because the kids are prepared to learn it. Kids do homework and have additional help at home so more advanced instruction in class. This is generally not the case in SA schools. And the schools I am talking about are not Henry and Oakridge.

Some parts of SA will continue to gentrify, others will not. West of George Mason and the area just to its east is a lost cause.

We are generally happy with our S. Arl elementary. We are solidly middle class (with all the enrichment opportunities that offers), eat meals together, and read and talk every night.

Our zoned middle school includes N. Arl neighborhoods, and we have heard from our neighbors that the transition from elementary to middle is fine. True, our child may no longer be at the top of the class and may have to learn good study skills and work harder to "catch up" or "get ahead", but I don't think that experience is necessarily bad. In fact, it might be good for DC to learn that hard work is just as important, if not more, than innate intellect.

All that said, we will still stay vigilant and take it year by year.

Anonymous wrote:^^ ok, this I think really nails it.
It's the type A North Arlington helicopter parent neurosis. Frankly, I'm glad my kid won't be apart of that. The kids on my street who went to south Arlington schools K-12 are at great colleges. I'm not going to get caught up in some pearl clutching rat race over whether or not my kid is ahead in third grade. They are learning other valuable life skills in their neighborhood school. They are learning that not everyone is privledged, and looks like them. They are learning patience. They are learning empathy.
Sitting down at the table together, talking every night, and reading to and with my kid will do more than anything else.

+1

^^ ok, this I think really nails it.
It's the type A North Arlington helicopter parent neurosis. Frankly, I'm glad my kid won't be apart of that. The kids on my street who went to south Arlington schools K-12 are at great colleges. I'm not going to get caught up in some pearl clutching rat race over whether or not my kid is ahead in third grade. They are learning other valuable life skills in their neighborhood school. They are learning that not everyone is privledged, and looks like them. They are learning patience. They are learning empathy.
Sitting down at the table together, talking every night, and reading to and with my kid will do more than anything else.

Anonymous wrote:Meh
Curriculum is the same through out the county. Either your kid is hitting benchmarks or not. I seriously doubt a superstar south Arlington kid is going to be a year behind if they transfer to Nottingham.

I was speaking from the experiences of four different families I have know who have either moved within S. Arlington or to N. Arlington and have said basically the same thing: it's not that kids aren't hitting benchmarks at lower performing schools. It's that some schools are pushing for the kids to be a year above grade level as the benchmark, and others are just pushing to the minimum grade level standard as required by the state. Again, it's not all or even most of the S. Arlington schools that have lower benchmarks for their students, but some of them do (with reason: if the majority of your population is ESL then you can't reasonably expect them to hit the same benchmarks in the same period of time as the children who are fluent in the instructional language out of the gate). When so many kids who are "behind" because they are still learning the language are all clustered in a handful of schools, the benchmarks are going to be different for the school. I am of the opinion that kids aren't really developmentally supposed to be doing a lot of what the standards are requiring, especially at the K level. But as an anxious person by nature, I also understand how easy it is to succumb to the pressure of wanting your child to be getting what their counterparts in other neighborhoods are getting from the public school system. Nobody wants to think their child might be a year behind others in instruction just because of where you live (even if they are "on track," if so many others are being pushed ahead, they are behind in relation).

Anonymous wrote:The PP who mentioned that the real difference starts in 2nd grade is spot on. And, to the people who doubt that if one waits too long to leave an under performing SA school, kids will be behind in a high performing school - don't opine unless you have seen it. I know 8 families from my kid's school that left for NA or falls church over the last 5 years. Each kid was behind, lacked the requisite study skills and was no longer the star of,the class in the New school. Yes, same curriculum, but the kids are expected to master the material at different times. The depth of instruction is much different in NA schools because the kids are prepared to learn it. Kids do homework and have additional help at home so more advanced instruction in class. This is generally not the case in SA schools. And the schools I am talking about are not Henry and Oakridge.

Some parts of SA will continue to gentrify, others will not. West of George Mason and the area just to its east is a lost cause.

Ok---this is a reasonable and specific comment, so thank you for sharing it. However, you seem to imply that S. Arlington scools have no homework. Our school (which is not Henry or Oakridge) certainly assigns homework...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South Arlington schools aren't good at all, but it's heartwarming to see people hype them in the hopes of gentrifying the area. Unfortunately, there are just too many crappy apartment buildings in South Arlington to make that happen without a major dislocation of the poors. At some point, the bohos who bought there on the cheap will just have to come to terms with the mediocrity of schools like Kenmore, Jefferson and Wakefield.

"dislocation of the poors"?? Is this what people in N Arlington really think? If so, it is shameful hate speech.

Nah-
It's the same troll who shows up everytime. Sometimes they live in north Arlington, sometimes they live in south Arlington. Next, they'll start talking about diversity, Benetton and craft beers. It's tedious.
I'm sure the shiny super star students of north Arlington are leaps and bounds ahead of the unwashed masses of south arl. I'll be sure to tell my neighbors that. They'll keep that in mind when visiting their kids at UVA, Duke etc etc...

Anonymous wrote:South Arlington schools aren't good at all, but it's heartwarming to see people hype them in the hopes of gentrifying the area. Unfortunately, there are just too many crappy apartment buildings in South Arlington to make that happen without a major dislocation of the poors. At some point, the bohos who bought there on the cheap will just have to come to terms with the mediocrity of schools like Kenmore, Jefferson and Wakefield.

"dislocation of the poors"?? Is this what people in N Arlington really think? If so, it is shameful hate speech.

Anonymous wrote:South Arlington schools aren't good at all, but it's heartwarming to see people hype them in the hopes of gentrifying the area. Unfortunately, there are just too many crappy apartment buildings in South Arlington to make that happen without a major dislocation of the poors. At some point, the bohos who bought there on the cheap will just have to come to terms with the mediocrity of schools like Kenmore, Jefferson and Wakefield.

Troll post bro


Lost your argument when you mentioned Jefferson. Try again.

South Arlington schools aren't good at all, but it's heartwarming to see people hype them in the hopes of gentrifying the area. Unfortunately, there are just too many crappy apartment buildings in South Arlington to make that happen without a major dislocation of the poors. At some point, the bohos who bought there on the cheap will just have to come to terms with the mediocrity of schools like Kenmore, Jefferson and Wakefield.