Yorktown High School

Posted: August 4, 2025

Phenomenal school. My third child is there now. Rising sophomore. 2/3 with iep/504. Amazing support. Love that many of the teachers are young males who can relate to my kids. (Who also went to Yorktown). The level of classes they offer really are better than some of the private schools in the area. The communication is good But you do need to reach out. It is NOT A private school are there are many students so I formally don’t expect them to hold my hand.

Posted: August 4, 2025

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Posted: October 28, 2023

No complaints. Great support system and educational experience.

Posted: October 28, 2023

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Posted: April 25, 2023

Usually, I am not particularly eager to write reviews. However, I am going to make an exception for the betterment of our children's education. The school has multiple issues, such as teachers needing to be more cooperative with students and their unempathetic stance in seeing their students succeed. That results in students giving up on studying or advancing their academic performance. I raised multiple concerns that were not taken seriously, and nothing was done regarding them. Of course, regarding disciplinary action, there seems to be a racial bias in the school that only targets minorities. Even the senior staff of the Superintendent's office did not follow with their word. The Arlington County school system should undergo an overhaul to prepare our children for the future better.

Posted: April 25, 2023

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Posted: November 10, 2021

Excellent school. Strong academics, activities, and sports. Comprehensive support of the whole student. Many opportunities to pursue areas of interest.

Posted: November 10, 2021

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Posted: April 10, 2021

APS has not been open for well over a year. No guarantee they will go back in person for an full school day in the fall. The online classes are not challenging. Kids will not be prepared anyone for college. The failure rate over last year is almost 30%. Go private.

Posted: April 10, 2021

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Posted: August 15, 2020

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Posted: August 15, 2020

I had two kids attending this school. My experience has been great so far except the lack of diversity.

Posted: February 5, 2020

10/10. Too many people nowadays expect things to be handed to them or given a fast track to succeed. Like all schools, there are much needed improvements but if you put in the effort to build good working habits and truly try to learn then this school is going to set you up extremely well for college.

Posted: February 5, 2020

If you put in the effort, it will prepare you very well for college, especially the higher level AP classes.

Posted: February 5, 2020

I never had a teacher that I strongly disliked. There were quite a few that I absolutely loved and were very intelligent.

Posted: February 5, 2020

When I was there I would agree with this. However, it’s high school and that comes with some jerks.

Posted: February 5, 2020

I never saw a clear vision for the school.

Posted: February 5, 2020

Posted: February 5, 2020

I’m not sure about girl bullying because that can be a totally different ball game. But the general consensus was that bullying had a 0 tolerance policy and people were generally respectful to each other.

Posted: December 31, 2019

It's a business, not a school. Teachers are not here to help your students, they are your kids bad bosses. Very toxic school culture. This school is not for the weak. There were only a few good teachers I had while attending.

Posted: December 31, 2019

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Posted: June 28, 2019

Posted: June 28, 2019

Wonderful staff. The teachers are very helpful.

Posted: June 28, 2019

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Posted: June 28, 2019

Great school! They do their best to help my kids. Mr. Cardenas at Life Skills is an amazing teacher. He will go extra mile to help his students.
Wonderful counselors. The school vice principal is amazing, kind , understanding, and very helpful. One of my child is graduating next year, her teachers are so wonderful. They give all the help she needs.

Posted: May 24, 2018

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Posted: May 24, 2018

Great school! Good academic programs, lots of great teachers.

Posted: February 20, 2018

Teachers, facility and students are good. Not enough sports, they don't reach out to individual students, not enough counselors, overcrowded. They treat kids like criminals and have dogs and police in the school. Uncaring, and understaffed.

Posted: February 20, 2018

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Posted: February 20, 2018

They don't even know what ADHD is. Not one program for organizational help. Challenges are problems, and they deal with it by punishing kids. Very 19th Century The lady who lived in the shoe.

Posted: February 20, 2018

Posted: February 9, 2018

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Posted: February 9, 2018

Well it’s been good so far. My teachers don’t give any homework and if you want to take an elective I strongly suggest taking photo I with Monica Storik she is fantastic. The school is fantastic for kids who have special needs. Diversity at Yorktown is good The majority is CAUCASIAN, Black and Asian

Posted: July 3, 2016

With the building of the new school Yorktown has quickly become less and less diverse. The personality of the school is dominated by uppity white kids, and if you're a minority or a less privileged white kid it is easy to feel out of place. I started at Yorktown in 2010-11 and each year I was there it got worse. The AP classes are extremely intense and there are no honors classes for kids that are just slightly above average. If you have an IEP it can be very hard convincing some of the counselors to let you take AP classes. They really don't do good with students with IEP's and put them all in the "stupid" boat.There are some good teachers but a lot of them are rude and unhelpful, and I would say the majority of them are pretty harsh graders. The grade deflation at Yorktown is crazy. I had a 3.0 at Yortown but when I spent my senior year at another Northern VA school my GPA was a 4.0. It's an extremely cliquey place where it is very hard to make new friends after Freshman year. The new school is depressing and very overcrowded I have heard from current students that many of their classes have over 30 students. Dr. Pasi is a nice guy but a very weak principal, he gives some of the teachers way too much leeway and has allocated way too much power to Ms. Meadows. If you live in Arlington you should just go to Wakefield for high school, it's smaller and less cliquey than Yorktown or Washington-Lee and has more or less the same level of education from what I have heard.

Posted: July 3, 2016

Way too many bad teachers for a self proclaimed "Amazing" school, they think they're the bees knees because they have a lot of smart kids.

Posted: July 3, 2016

The school gives way too much homework, doesn't take into account that people have lives outside of school

Posted: July 3, 2016

The school doesn't grow the students as people, only cares about one thing: test scores.

Posted: January 26, 2016

I've gone to Yorktown for about 2 and a half years, and if there is one thing I can say, it's that the teachers are great. Maybe it was just luck, but all of my teachers were super great and helpful. The extracurricular programs were great as well, a lot of things to choose from. As for my classes, I enjoyed all of them (the theatre program is GREAT, I highly recommend it!!!). However, I find it very sad that the gap between AP or Intensified classes and the regular ones is so great. If you don't want to be in a class where you do absolutely nothing and where people don't care about studying, you're forced to take an AP or Intensified, where you have to work your butt off to get a decent grade. Another flaw is discrimination and racism. Yorktown has a reputation of being a "white school" and this is true because let's face it, it's not very diverse. People judge you by your race and your color, and you can clearly see the segregation of races in the cafeteria: there is a white space, and then there's everyone else. The worst thing is that people just pretend that this issue doesn't exist (or even worse, they truly believe it doesn't). I'm not even going to address the drug issue, because for as long as I was there, I was unaware of it. Nevertheless, four stars, because it was a very good experience of an American high school.

Posted: January 26, 2016

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Posted: December 7, 2015

I went to YHS for most of my high school experience (9th-11th) before moving. I have to say, I had a lot of fun and good experiences here. I was able to have a lot of fun being creative in my elective classes (guitar, art, photography). There are a lot of teachers here who really want to help you succeed and are willing to stay after school or at lunch for extra help. The kids there are alright. There is a bit of a bullying issue, which leads me to the few qualms I have about it. It seems that if you're a star sports player or SGA member, no harm comes your way. It took me multiple attempts and a whole lot of persistence to get the assistant principal to do something about the basketball player who wouldn't stop harassing me. The one other thing I had an issue with was the constant construction. Since I left the school in 2010, I believe it's been completely redone and hopefully no longer under construction. Aside from that, I made some great friends, met some awesome teachers, and really finally was able to develop myself at YHS.

Posted: April 25, 2015

Academically an excellent school. My child wasn't an "A" student and quickly fell through the cracks. Way too much freedom and not many consequences at this school. We ended up transferring.

Posted: May 17, 2014

This isn't a bad school. Some teachers are great, some mediocre, and some are awful. There is a huge drug culture that the administration likes to pretend doesn't exist, but there are plenty of people who don't do drugs, and they're not hard to find. The new library is dark and kind of pathetic, and I expected better from a school system as wealthy as APS. The gym is really nice, and there are extensive gym facilities, like a state of the art weight room and a nice auxiliary gym. There is a team for practically every sport, too, and a ton of clubs for nonathletic people, so the extracurriculars are great.

Posted: April 25, 2014

"You'll find druggies at every school you send your child to." Yes but of all the schools my kids attended while I was in the military- schools in California, Texas, North Carolina and Virginia- the only time I ever witnessed a 40 year old PARENT light up it was when my kid went to Yorktown. If you throw your kids to the wolves there, don't count on the other parents acting like parents.

Posted: February 15, 2014

Yorktown is an okay high school with some great points and some horrible ones. I've had some teachers who changed my life for the better here and others who almost ruined my learning career. Though drinking and drugs are a problem here, I would not suggest sending your kids to private school as an alternative. Yorktown is very diverse in terms of what kids do in their free time. It's possible to avoid illegal activities and still have many friends. YHS has a LOT of school spirit and great theater/music programs. There is a club for everyone. This school is not perfect, but if you look hard enough you can find some wonderful students with ambitions and values to match your own- and that will make up for everything else.

Posted: June 30, 2013

Outstanding languages program (Japanese) and brand new facilities. Yorktown is located in a super affluent section of Arlington but is also diverse.

Posted: May 23, 2013

The irony is that parents send their kids to this school because they feel it will keep them away from drugs when the fact of the matter is the school is composed of mostly rich kids who can afford it. Sending them to private school doesn't help because it's the same situation. And honestly the APS program far surpasses the local private school education and is way more diverse. You'll find druggies at every school you send your child to.

Posted: April 4, 2013

I love this school and the construction is almost done and it looks BEAUTIFUL!!! :) <3

Posted: October 8, 2012

I decided to give it several months before I posted a review of this school. Now that my child has been attending another school in a different state for almost all of 2012, I can safely state that Yorktown is NOT a good place for your child to attend school. As other parents have noted, teh staff is unapproachable and condescending. They do not listen to your concerns. Some teachers are outright incompetent. For instance, in Chemistry my child had a D when he transferred out of there and by the end of the spring semester in the same subject he had an A at his new school. And drugs are a HUGE problem at Yorktown. The kids just have too much time and money on their hands. At all costs, if you have to live in that area, try a private school or home school your kids.

Posted: October 8, 2012

I decided to give it several months before I posted a review of this school. Now that my child has been attending another school in a different state for almost all of 2012, I can safely state that Yorktown is NOT a good place for your child to attend school. As other parents have noted, the staff is unapproachable and condescending. They do not listen to your concerns. Some teachers are outright incompetent. For instance, in Chemistry my child had a D when he transferred out of there and by the end of the spring semester in the same subject he had an A at his new school. And drugs are a HUGE problem at Yorktown. The kids just have too much time and money on their hands. At all costs, if you have to live in that area, try a private school or home school your kids.