H-B Woodlawn

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The current program is a combination of two earlier programs, Hoffman-Boston, a 7th through 9th grade school founded in 1972 and Woodlawn, a 10th through 12th grade program founded in 1971 by Ray Anderson, Jeffrey Kallen, and others who felt a pressing need to provide a more individualized, caring environment to students.

H-B Woodlawn was dubbed "Hippie High" by the Washington Post because of its laid-back style and reputation for attracting liberal students in large numbers. The program is often ranked very high on lists of "best schools" because of the high percentage of students taking AP courses. The program is actually not a school as it is not "certified", but rather, students enrolled are actually members of their "home schools" in the county. The program currently houses almost 600 students in grades 6 through 12, including a group of young adult immigrants who take classes in the school through the HILT (High Intensity Language Training) program in their quest for high school diplomas or GEDs. The building also houses a small program for severely mentally disabled students, although this program is administered separately, and called "Stratford". The H-B Woodlawn Program is often rated the most challenging high school in the Washington, DC area.

History

Two Schools Become One

Changes

Ray was continuously involved in the program from Woodlawn's initial planning and inception, first as head teacher at Woodlawn and then at H-B Woodlawn, and later as Principal upon Margery's retirement. Mary McBride became Head Teacher; Ray remained at H-B Woodlawn until his retirement in 2004 after 33 years of service to Arlington Schools. Ray was succeeded by Frank Haltiwanger, who has a long history of involvement with H-B Woodlawn, and Haltiwanger remains the current Principal of the school.

In the early years of the programs, anyone in Arlington Public Schools who wished to attend would simply apply and usually got in; short waiting lists were common, and Woodlawn used a lottery for several years, but the majority of students who applied were eventually offered admission. After the schools combined, the popularity of the program increased in the 1980s, as test scores and college admission rates were often higher than that of the county average. A "first-come, first-serve" admission was then put in place, but this became problematic when parents began to camp out for days to get their children admitted. The lottery was reinstated. This, too, became a challenge, as the numbers of minorities dropped dramatically and the socio-economic balance of the school became skewed. A new lottery was developed in which minorities were double-weighted to ensure ethnic diversity in the program.

In 1997, the "weighted" lottery came under fire when several parents filed suit against Arlington Public Schools, stating that these affirmative action lotteries for The H-B Woodlawn Program and Page Elementary School (now known as Arlington Traditional) were, in fact, reverse discrimination. The case went through several courts, ending in the 3rd Circuit Court, where the school system lost its battle. The lotteries for both schools were "unweighted" and extra students were added to each program retroactively. Again, the ethnicity and socio-economic balance of the school began to be affected, and other attempts to create balance were proposed, including taking economic factors and/or home address into account for admission. All of these proposals were struck down by the courts. When Montgomery County Public Schools (a neighboring jurisdiction) lost a similar battle at the Supreme Court regarding the admission to their magnet schools, it was decided that further legal battles would most probably not succeed. A committee studying the issue came up with a solution, however. They proposed that the lottery slots be given out in proportion to the home elementary school populations. Each elementary school in the county would receive a percentage of slots based on the number of students they had. This admissions policy was not challenged legally, and resulted in a doubling of minorities in the first and second years of its use.

Admission to the H-B Woodlawn program remains controversial. Some feel that students applying to the program should pass some sort of test indicating their affinity for the school and its social system, while others maintain that the only way to keep the unique philosophy in place is to admit a wide range of individuals. In recent years, only one out of four students who apply is likely to get admitted through the lottery. This has created a large number of families who are unhappy that their child was not admitted.

According to a Washington Post transcript of a 2001 Q&A with then-Principal Ray Anderson, the student population was 55% female and 45% male students. This same year, the school's budget, based upon Arlington County's School Budget Planning Factors and tied to enrollment, was $3,735,466.00 for 607 students. The H-B Woodlawn Program, while not officially a "school", does not receive any special funds for operation, but, rather, gets the same "per student funding" that is received by all Arlington Public Schools.

Philosophy

• Town Meeting, a weekly legislative forum in which every student, teacher, staff member, parent or alumni who chooses to attend gets one vote. Town Meeting is the core government of the school, and has purview over everything except curriculum. Announcements, motions and discussions can have a wide range -- everything from approving budgets, teacher allocation and dances to issues surrounding the implementation of school board policies or scheduling. Town Meeting is almost always chaired by a student. During the Town Meeting, Roberts Rules of Order are followed. The votes of students, teachers, and anyone else in attendance are of equal value, meaning that a sixth grader has just as much say as their teacher.
• A teacher/advisor (TA) system where students choose their own "guidance counselors" from the faculty. Choosing a TA does not guarantee the student will get said desired TA, however. The school has no established "guidance department".
• Student representatives on all committees, including those that do the teacher hiring and the group who worked to plan a new music wing.
• Flexible instructional options, including independent studies and student-designed classes (which must fulfill the minimum state and local accreditation requirements).
• The school is known for its "Free Blocks", unstructured time which may be filled by extracurricular activities, sports, or just goofing off.

Outside of the immediate academic environment, students often develop their own activities and school organizations. The yearbook, for example, is entirely student-run. Other examples include prom, and some fieldtrips. Students will generally work on these activities during their Free Blocks or after school. Teachers will usually intervene only if one is needed. For example, because most of the students at H-B Woodlawn are not eighteen years old, for example, a teacher is still needed to purchase items for the prom, yearbook, etc.

The philosophy does not work for all students. Since "choice" and "freedom" are prized above all else, there are concerns that students will choose to take advantage of the free time rather than the educational opportunities. Since the environment is unstructured, it can be loud and distracting, and has been noted as a difficult place for some students to stay focused. Ultimately, a student's path is one of their own making, and they are free to follow whatever road they wish during their short time at H-B Woodlawn.

Academics

In reality, H-B Woodlawn is not a school, but a program. Every class that a student takes does not go in their transcript at H-B, but at their home high school.

Because of the small size of the school and the approximately forty teachers at H-B, most classes tend to be small, usually around 20 to 25 students for each class, though there are usually fewer people per class in some electives, English, and social studies. The small amount of students at H-B does have some negative effects, though. Because the school only has a budget allocated for forty full-time teaching positions, there are a limited number of electives. Electives include Art, Photography, Drama, Chorus, Band, Orchestra, Journalism, Creative Writing, and Computer Science. This is actually a relatively small selection considering the number of electives available at other High Schools in Arlington. To remedy this, students are allowed to take classes at their home high school if they wish, or can otherwise take them at Arlington County's Career Center, where students can take a variety of elective courses.

Academics at H-B tend to be focused on the student's own desire to determine what they want to study, and as such student's usually have a say in the direction of the course. Going through the school, students will encounter numerous projects for each of their classes. Before students can graduate, they have a choice to do a senior project which can substitute for some of their classes or all of their classes depending on what the project is. Students usually conduct this project the last semester of their senior year and can spend time at school doing their senior project or do their senior project at home, not needing to go to the classes they are supplementing their senior project with.

In the second semester of their Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years, students participating in non-AP English and Social Studies participate in electives rather than their regular course. Students design these electives themselves and choose which ones to take. Any elective is possible as long as a teacher is willing to teach it and it fits into a general English or Social Studies theme.

At the end of the year, students in grades 7-11 select their own schedule for the next year. This is usually done in May and is known as "Arena Scheduling". At Arena Scheduling, a student is randomly assigned a number and this determines when they enter the gym to sign up for their classes. Students are free to choose when their classes will be, as opposed to a school administrator determining when their class will be.

Sports

H-B does have some unofficial sports teams, such as a frisbee team, but this is not a school-sponsored activity.

What Has Changed

Because of the recent changes in the lottery process, H-B is now more diverse than at any time in its 35 year history. It is 65% white, and each year the mix increases to reflect Arlington School's rich diversity.

The increased emphasis on AP exams has also had an effect on H-B. Students as young as thirteen can be seen taking AP exams, often just because this could look good on their academic transcript. Only a few years ago the idea of taking AP courses just because they would look good on one's transcript was not a common occurrence. For many classes, there are often more AP sections of a class than regular ones. In the 2002 - 2003 school year, for example, there were three sections the AP US Government sections and only two regular US Government sections. For this reason, many argue, H-B looks like a normal high school. It should be noted, though, that because Arlington County Schools will pay the AP exam fee, anyone taking an AP class is required to take the exam accompanying the class.

The school's image of being totally lax when it comes to its students has also had a negative impact on the school. In the November 2004, for example, two students who did not attend H-B were found highly intoxicated drinking a bottle of vodka behind the gym during a high school formal. Pressure from parents and county administrators as a result of this and other incidents has led the administration to put a limit on how many visitors a student could bring to afterschool activities, which goes against one of the original principles of the school of a student deciding what is best.

Still, there is reason to believe that H-B will remain unique. Alumni of the school often return to H-B in order to teach or become an administrator. Newspapers, mostly the Washington Post, will occasionally publish articles praising H-B Woodlawn and a renewed interest in the term "Hippie High" usually results from this. H-B also has one of the highest graduation rates in the country, and the highest in the county, reinforcing its strength in academics. Class sizes remain small and students still have a say in what direction the class should follow. Students still can propose their own electives as long as they have a teacher's signature. Reception towards Frank has also been favorable, further suggesting that H-B will not forget its original philosophy.

Special Rankings

H-B Woodlawn enjoys high rankings both locally and nationally. H-B Woodlawn was rated number one in the 2005 Challenge Index for the area. It received an Equity and Excellence rating of 82.7% that year. The average rating for all U.S. schools is 14.1%. In the [2006 survey] by Newsweek ranking high schools nation-wide, H-B Woodlawn ranked several slots down from where it had been in previous years - 13 (compared with number 5 in the 2005 survey).

Various Traditions

Because H-B Woodlawn is not actually a school, it has no formal graduation ceremony. Rather, there is an organized event at the end of the year when teachers, students, and parents gather together to meet for the last time. TAs and their advisees stand at the front of the ceremony telling stories about each student. Although each graduation class only contains around 70 students, the process can take upwards of four or five hours due to the length of each story. At the end of the ceremony, teachers gather at the front and sing the song "Time of Your Life" by Green Day.

The school's motto is Verbum Sap Sat, short for the Latin Verbum sapienti sat est, meaning "A Word to the Wise is Sufficient."

Every year, before the Winter Break, a volleyball game is held between some teachers and students. Common teachers at this event are Randy McKnight, Mark Dodge, Ray Anderson, Frank Haltiwanger, Bill van Evera, and Dave Soles.

Joe King, a perennial student, has been attending the school since the Fall of '73 or '74. He has been claimed not to exist, yet he is known to receive mail, sign up for elective classes & committees, buy tickets to dances and add his name to some of the graduating Senior walls. The school's yearbook from '79-80 featured a center spread on Joe, his origins and antics, along with several shadowy photographs.

External links

• [The H-B Woodlawn Underground Student Handbook]
• [The Official School Site]

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