Next year’s Arlington 8th-graders with a passion for geography won’t have the chance to take intensified coursework in the subject.
But those arriving after the 2025-26 school year likely will.
Arlington school leaders opted to hold off on adding intensified geography coursework to the middle-school curriculum next school year.
The hold-up, school officials say, is that Virginia Department of Education officials had not by early December set the standards that local districts must meet for the course.
As a result, the school system will wait until 2026 to add it to the middle-school course catalog, said Gerald Mann, chief academic officer for the county school system.
“We want to do this right … [by] taking our time and getting feedback and involving staff,” he told School Board members at their last meeting of 2024.
Intensified courses offered to middle-school students provide more depth than traditional coursework, but do not go beyond grade-level content.
Arlington middle-school students at all three grades — six, seven and eight — already can opt for either regular or intensive courses in English and science. Intensive social-studies options currently are available to 6th-graders (U.S. history) and 7th-graders (civics/economics).
School Board member Miranda Turner had hoped intensive geography could be an option for 8th graders in the coming year. Other intensive courses have received “positive feedback,” she said.
Superintendent Francisco Durán told Board members plans are in the works to add the course to the 2026-27 school year.
The discussion came as Board members voted to approve the overall 2025-26 slate of classes for middle and high schools, including several new additions.
New Board Members on the Job: Jan. 1 marked the first day in office for new School Board members Kathleen Clark and Zuraya Tapia-Hadley.
They were elected in November, emerging from a four-way field to succeed one-term incumbents David Priddy and Cristina Diaz-Torres, who did not seek re-election.
Like all Board members over the past two decades, Clark and Tapia-Hadley first won the Democratic endorsement for the post before garnering general-election victories.
The first formal Board meeting of the new year is slated for Thursday, Jan. 16. In addition to the new arrivals, Board members are Bethany Sutton, Miranda Turner and chair Mary Kadera.
Photo via Chuttersnap/Unsplash
