Arlington or Kingstowne

[Annabanananicole]

Originally Posted by The Dissenter

I live in Arlington and go to Kingstowne a lot. It is really a matter of whether you want a more urban environment (Arlington) or more a planned HOA environment (Kingstowne). I will add in one thing to consider. The schools in South Arlington can leave some to be desired by some folks. A lot of them have a high ESL population as well as Alexandria City Public Schools. Also, Kingstowne is not in the top cluster of Fairfax County Public Schools. But I have many friends who attended all three and have been satisfied with them all. I think it is hard NOT to get a solid at any school in Northern VA however.

Why would the high rate of ESL negatively impact the school?

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Annabanananicole

Why would the high rate of ESL negatively impact the school?

I didn't make that statement but, when my kids were in elementary school many years ago, they spent some time in a school that had a very high rate of ESL and it make a big difference in their instruction compared to when they were not in that type of school. Due to some of the language issues, their classes tended to run slower and less advanced. The only way it didn't matter was if they were pulled out and put in a class of kids that were not ESL. Now, maybe things are run differently/better.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by Annabanananicole

Why would the high rate of ESL negatively impact the school?

High rate of ESL students in a school comes up fairly often on this board when comparing areas/school districts.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

I didn't make that statement but, when my kids were in elementary school many years ago, they spent some time in a school that had a very high rate of ESL and it make a big difference in their instruction compared to when they were not in that type of school. Due to some of the language issues, their classes tended to run slower and less advanced. The only way it didn't matter was if they were pulled out and put in a class of kids that were not ESL. Now, maybe things are run differently/better.

That would be the first thing I think of anytime schools get talked about for having high ESL populations. From my experience in ACPS the ones who have the ESL need tend to "suffer in silence" when they don't understand instruction in English.

[Annabanananicole]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

High rate of ESL students in a school comes up fairly often on this board when comparing areas/school districts.

Seems odd to me, I would have expected in this area you would have a significant number of ESL learners....I was also under the impression that children who become fluent in more than one language statistically score higher....

Or are we saying ESL as a dog whistle code for less educated immigrants of the brownish complexion?

[gomason]

Originally Posted by Annabanananicole

Seems odd to me, I would have expected in this area you would have a significant number of ESL learners....I was also under the impression that children who become fluent in more than one language statistically score higher....

Or are we saying ESL as a dog whistle code for less educated immigrants of the brownish complexion?

A lot of it is just probably the fact that ESL students tend to be less well off and probably more likely to have a less stable home environment.

So much of test scores is just a school's demographics. It's a real shocker that the wealthy neighborhoods in say Burke or North Arlington have high test scores.

I would be interested to see a study of NOVA test scores when accounting for these different demographics.

[Annabanananicole]

Originally Posted by gomason

A lot of it is just probably the fact that ESL students tend to be less well off and probably more likely to have a less stable home environment.

So much of test scores is just a school's demographics. It's a real shocker that the wealthy neighborhoods in say Burke or North Arlington have high test scores.

I would be interested to see a study of NOVA test scores when accounting for these different demographics.

Anytime you have a group struggling financially you are correct test scores reflect, enrichment is unfortunately a luxury. I was reading on niche.com it ranks TC Williams as an A school.