Churchill rd AAp vs st Luke’s

[Anonymous]

Can anyone with experience at an AAp public vs st Lukes help me understand what the differences might be in academic rigor? DD is currently in first grade and at this time I don’t think the curriculum is challenging and is very basic. I don’t know how aap academics are but so far not impressed with FCPS. I’m asking here rather than the AAP forum because I think more people here will have some experience with St Liukes. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I have friends at many of the local parochial schools. The ones at St Luke’s are happy in the early grades (K-3) Not sure about 4th grade and beyond. Maybe someone here can speak to that.
Is Churchill using a lot of tech and those chrome books?
That’s what gets me is all the technology for the little kids. All they need books and worksheets which the Catholic schools do a GREAT job with. They don’t get into these fads and contracts from these tech companies. They stick to the basics and it works!

[Anonymous]

St Luke’s lost its head of the school to Bullis and the new one is awful. Stay away.

[Anonymous]

Bump. I’ve heard that the school has been in a difficult transition

[Anonymous]

Please say more more about Churchill. We are thinking about moving into that pyramid.

[Anonymous]

As someone who sent kids through St. Luke's, we've been super happy with the academic rigor. It's true they have a new principal that isn't as beloved as the last one, but our friends there still have a positive opinion overall.

[Anonymous]

I have experience with FCPS AAP, though not at Churchill. The academic rigor for math only got a lot better once my kids were in the full-time program. My oldest especially, to whom math comes especially easily, was bored out of her mind through second grade. Starting in third it was a lot better.

That said, the language arts, science, and social studies education isn't really better than general education in AAP. They theoretically do a little more vocabulary, but that's highly teacher dependent. Grammar, spelling, handwriting, and reading comprehension education are also highly school/teacher dependent. Our school does cursive, but many FCPS schools barely do. Our school does not do spelling at all while I have heard there exist a few unicorn FCPS schools that still do. Don't know if Churchill is one of them, but if you don't have it by now you probably won't get it. There's next to no hands-on science and the science units are incredibly scattered without providing a framework for the kids to build on in the upper grades. Social studies is somewhat similar, except in 4th and 6th. In 3rd they do a bunch of ancient cultures, which is cool but they don't necessarily do them in order or show how they influence each other. 4th grade is Virginia Studies with an SOL so they put some effort in there. 6th grade starts US history and since it the second half of that is in middle school it seems a little more structured. But all the above for AAP are merely supposed to be "deeper" than general education. They aren't faster or more complex.

Like a PP said, there is a lot of technology usage, though again that is school and teacher dependent. What little grammar there is comes from Lexia not from a human being. Much of social studies and science is taught via Brain Pop or YouTube videos on the smart board. Teachers still avidly use the slide decks they made during the pandemic for assignments over worksheets. I regularly have to remind my 2nd grader (!) who can barely type to turn in a slide deck (!).

We're headed to a Protestant private next year and expect more rigor in everything but math, which we are hoping will at least not be worse. New private uses Singapore math and we've been assured by friends who have gone from AAP to Singapore that the rigor is similar. I do expect we'll miss some opportunities in high school that an FCPS high school will provide, but if it's significant enough I believe we can always change back.

[Anonymous]

Can someone give me real info on what the school culture is like at St Luke in Mclean. I tend to get the run around when I ask people or go there for church. Some people LOVE it and some people really are not happy and are leaving?!?
What are the academics like? The teachers? The parents and the culture? Is it very cliquey?
Please accurate and honest assessment. I don't want to take my kid out of their PS and then have to switch again

[Anonymous]

Good luck with that. I am very sure I would not trust DCUM to give me a truthful unbiased view of anything.