Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear so much about what a great school system Arlington has, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I checked out the college choices of a recent graduating class (Arlington Magazine maybe did this?). I went to a small private high school with a graduating class under 100 students and we had 8 national merit scholar semi finalists. Arlington with its huge numbers should be churning out more of these if they are really amazing, and should be doing better than party schools and community colleges for 70% of it's college bound graduates, really expensive liberal arts schools for another 20%, and the remaining 5% at top ~30 schools with great reputations. It's just weird that APS's rep does not at all seem to correspond with college placement for all but like 10 kids total.

I have 2 in college and a high school senior who all went thru APS in the last 4 years. Each ranked in the top 10% of their class and had a range of perfect to excellent SAT and ACT scores, as well as excellent ECs and most likely teacher recs. Our DCs attend/will attend either the ins-state flagship or an out of state SLAC that I'm sure would be an "unpleasant surprise" to you. When they each decided which colleges to apply to one of the biggest factors was if they were picking a SLAC it needed to be one that provided merit scholarships. Some of their college acceptances were from top 20 SLACs with decent merit aid.

My husband and I both graduated from Ivies and both of us wholeheartedly agree that our DC at the "unpleasant surprise" is getting a far better education than either of us did at our Ivies.

I don't give a sh_t if you and other DCUMers don't approve of our families' choices for college.

My guess is that you have young kids and are years away from the college application cycle.

Yeah you're right, my kids are young and what I know about college is what I learned when I went ages ago. Apologies to you for painting your choices with my bleak and biased paintbrush. It's good that your kids are getting scholarships to these expensive schools and I hope they are well served there.

I too went to an Ivy and it co to used to open doors for me for years, probably decades, after I graduated as I moved to different jobs. Smaller schools can provide other things that may be better for individual kids, but Arlington should still be getting a larger share of kids into ivied and the like if the school's really are as good as they say. The results don't seem to match up (though maybe, as an earlier poster suggested, I'm not seeing all the data).

I'm just worried I'm going to wind up like my cousin in New Jersey who was always boasting about how her kids were doing GREAT in school and reading above grade level and then they went to community college and almost flunked out. I mean, that could happen to anyone depending on circumstances, but if our schools are actually kind of sucky, I want to know NOW and not ten years from now when my kids are applying to college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear so much about what a great school system Arlington has, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I checked out the college choices of a recent graduating class (Arlington Magazine maybe did this?). I went to a small private high school with a graduating class under 100 students and we had 8 national merit scholar semi finalists. Arlington with its huge numbers should be churning out more of these if they are really amazing, and should be doing better than party schools and community colleges for 70% of it's college bound graduates, really expensive liberal arts schools for another 20%, and the remaining 5% at top ~30 schools with great reputations. It's just weird that APS's rep does not at all seem to correspond with college placement for all but like 10 kids total.

I have 2 in college and a high school senior who all went thru APS in the last 4 years. Each ranked in the top 10% of their class and had a range of perfect to excellent SAT and ACT scores, as well as excellent ECs and most likely teacher recs. Our DCs attend/will attend either the ins-state flagship or an out of state SLAC that I'm sure would be an "unpleasant surprise" to you. When they each decided which colleges to apply to one of the biggest factors was if they were picking a SLAC it needed to be one that provided merit scholarships. Some of their college acceptances were from top 20 SLACs with decent merit aid.

My husband and I both graduated from Ivies and both of us wholeheartedly agree that our DC at the "unpleasant surprise" is getting a far better education than either of us did at our Ivies.

I don't give a sh_t if you and other DCUMers don't approve of our families' choices for college.

My guess is that you have young kids and are years away from the college application cycle.

np here. Don't know what hs your kids all attended but we are zoned for wl and we're happy with that choice until we heard about the possible 1300 extra students on campus. I feel it could be more because who knows if they'll get enough at Arlington Tech. Anyway, having your kids already go through should we be concerned about the size of this new hs? Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:I hear so much about what a great school system Arlington has, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I checked out the college choices of a recent graduating class (Arlington Magazine maybe did this?). I went to a small private high school with a graduating class under 100 students and we had 8 national merit scholar semi finalists. Arlington with its huge numbers should be churning out more of these if they are really amazing, and should be doing better than party schools and community colleges for 70% of it's college bound graduates, really expensive liberal arts schools for another 20%, and the remaining 5% at top ~30 schools with great reputations. It's just weird that APS's rep does not at all seem to correspond with college placement for all but like 10 kids total.

I have 2 in college and a high school senior who all went thru APS in the last 4 years. Each ranked in the top 10% of their class and had a range of perfect to excellent SAT and ACT scores, as well as excellent ECs and most likely teacher recs. Our DCs attend/will attend either the ins-state flagship or an out of state SLAC that I'm sure would be an "unpleasant surprise" to you. When they each decided which colleges to apply to one of the biggest factors was if they were picking a SLAC it needed to be one that provided merit scholarships. Some of their college acceptances were from top 20 SLACs with decent merit aid.

My husband and I both graduated from Ivies and both of us wholeheartedly agree that our DC at the "unpleasant surprise" is getting a far better education than either of us did at our Ivies.

I don't give a sh_t if you and other DCUMers don't approve of our families' choices for college.

My guess is that you have young kids and are years away from the college application cycle.

Anonymous wrote:For those who don't know, URM = Unreinforced Masonry

No, you mean Universal Router Module. I can understand the confusion though, common mistake.

ORLY? Maybe you should educate yourself on the soft bigotry of low expectations or separate but equal, because that's what's going on here. "But they like their school!" is no excuse for consistently lower performance when it's been shown that integration and spreading out the FARMS achieves better results. But please teach me more about what's best for the future of the kids in South Arlington. I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Anonymous wrote:Here in North Arlington we should maybe consider that one of the reasons that immigrant parents prefer to have their kids clumped together in the same school for the value of the community is the racism and the classicism that these parents and kids face from people and schools in North Arlington. WTF Yorktown? I'm just saying.

For many immigrants s Arlington is what they know and what's convenient, and they like it. The immigrants move to an affordable community with lots of people that they can understand and who can understand them, and they want to keep their kids nearby. If there were an identical Wakefield in far north Arlington they still wouldn't ship their kids across town to go there (because why?) and they can't afford to live there, and life is easier for them where they are, so what's the point?

It's pretty obnoxious for a n Arlingtonian to view what she has as something better and pity those who don't have it, when the people they are pitying are pretty damn content with their schools.

Anonymous wrote:I hear so much about what a great school system Arlington has, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I checked out the college choices of a recent graduating class (Arlington Magazine maybe did this?). I went to a small private high school with a graduating class under 100 students and we had 8 national merit scholar semi finalists. Arlington with its huge numbers should be churning out more of these if they are really amazing, and should be doing better than party schools and community colleges for 70% of it's college bound graduates, really expensive liberal arts schools for another 20%, and the remaining 5% at top ~30 schools with great reputations. It's just weird that APS's rep does not at all seem to correspond with college placement for all but like 10 kids total.

Well, the really talented Arlington students go to TJ. Look how many National Merit semifinalists go to TJ.

Here in North Arlington we should maybe consider that one of the reasons that immigrant parents prefer to have their kids clumped together in the same school for the value of the community is the racism and the classicism that these parents and kids face from people and schools in North Arlington. WTF Yorktown? I'm just saying.

Anonymous wrote:Look beyond the last year. Look at the last 10 years. The test prep suggestion is a great one. Denying it (like PP) will perpetuate the division. If the problem is highly educated parents don't send their kids--how can we get them to do so . . . If the problem is something else, then how can we address it? If there are so many committed, educated middle class S. Arl families sending their kids to William and Mary and UVA from Wakefield, why does this academic divide continue?

Really?
Come on. Wake up. Or maybe look at a map and drive through south Arlington sometime. There are 1,000's of low income apts. They are filled with recent immigrants. Those kids are lucky to graduate and head off the Nova. They aren't winning awards for the SAT.
We've shoved all of them in the same school, so that school has sucky scores. It's not complicated people.

Anonymous wrote:I hear so much about what a great school system Arlington has, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I checked out the college choices of a recent graduating class (Arlington Magazine maybe did this?). I went to a small private high school with a graduating class under 100 students and we had 8 national merit scholar semi finalists. Arlington with its huge numbers should be churning out more of these if they are really amazing, and should be doing better than party schools and community colleges for 70% of it's college bound graduates, really expensive liberal arts schools for another 20%, and the remaining 5% at top ~30 schools with great reputations. It's just weird that APS's rep does not at all seem to correspond with college placement for all but like 10 kids total.

I originally did that, too. What I didn't realize is that the magazine list is based on self-reporting from kids or their families, it's not like they pulled it from APS. The schools maintain more official lists of where kids apply and attend.

Look beyond the last year. Look at the last 10 years. The test prep suggestion is a great one. Denying it (like PP) will perpetuate the division. If the problem is highly educated parents don't send their kids--how can we get them to do so . . . If the problem is something else, then how can we address it? If there are so many committed, educated middle class S. Arl families sending their kids to William and Mary and UVA from Wakefield, why does this academic divide continue?

I hear so much about what a great school system Arlington has, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I checked out the college choices of a recent graduating class (Arlington Magazine maybe did this?). I went to a small private high school with a graduating class under 100 students and we had 8 national merit scholar semi finalists. Arlington with its huge numbers should be churning out more of these if they are really amazing, and should be doing better than party schools and community colleges for 70% of it's college bound graduates, really expensive liberal arts schools for another 20%, and the remaining 5% at top ~30 schools with great reputations. It's just weird that APS's rep does not at all seem to correspond with college placement for all but like 10 kids total.

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't WF have Nat'l Merit Scholars? Why don't their students represent AT ALL (forget proportionally) in national, state, even countywide academic awards? Why can't we look at the numbers and work to improve that school rather than denying or rationalizing? Why does S. Arl. put up with (or actively encourage) this?

Didn't Yorktown have 1?

It's not like Arlington is killing it in regards to national merit scholarship.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't WF have Nat'l Merit Scholars? Why don't their students represent AT ALL (forget proportionally) in national, state, even countywide academic awards? Why can't we look at the numbers and work to improve that school rather than denying or rationalizing? Why does S. Arl. put up with (or actively encourage) this?

NMSF correlates with the education level of the parents. If WF doesn't have NMSF, it's because educated parents are sending their kids elsewhere. WF could be doing an incredible job and it wouldn't matter...if educated parents send their kids elsewhere, WF won't have NMSF.

It might help if WF would provide an SAT tutoring program at the school, the type of thing more affluent families routinely pay for. As the recent NYT article pointed out, affluent families approach the SAT a lot differently than less affluent families who often don't know what they are missing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/opinion/how-i-learned-to-take-the-sat-like-a-rich-kid.html?_r=0

How expensive would it be to provide an SAT tutoring program?

I wonder if we could create an overarching PTA program that can help close the gaps for our schools. Our PTA raised a lot of money - exceeding budget needs - and IMO I'd love to see some of that wealth shared across the county.

There already is some of that. Well-funded PTAs can make donations to the County Council of PTAs and schools that need funds can request grants from that.

That's great. Thank you for sharing that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't WF have Nat'l Merit Scholars? Why don't their students represent AT ALL (forget proportionally) in national, state, even countywide academic awards? Why can't we look at the numbers and work to improve that school rather than denying or rationalizing? Why does S. Arl. put up with (or actively encourage) this?

NMSF correlates with the education level of the parents. If WF doesn't have NMSF, it's because educated parents are sending their kids elsewhere. WF could be doing an incredible job and it wouldn't matter...if educated parents send their kids elsewhere, WF won't have NMSF.

It might help if WF would provide an SAT tutoring program at the school, the type of thing more affluent families routinely pay for. As the recent NYT article pointed out, affluent families approach the SAT a lot differently than less affluent families who often don't know what they are missing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/opinion/how-i-learned-to-take-the-sat-like-a-rich-kid.html?_r=0

How expensive would it be to provide an SAT tutoring program?

I wonder if we could create an overarching PTA program that can help close the gaps for our schools. Our PTA raised a lot of money - exceeding budget needs - and IMO I'd love to see some of that wealth shared across the county.

There already is some of that. Well-funded PTAs can make donations to the County Council of PTAs and schools that need funds can request grants from that.