Reston? Need quick advice.

[Anonymous]

We found our dream home in Reston and are seriously thinking about putting in an offer within the next couple of days. It is in the Forest Edge/Hughes/South Lakes zone. Reston seems so nice in so many respects, but why do the schools seem so mediocre? That is our only reservation. I'm just going by online ratings, so I don't know if there's more to the story than just the numbers. I'd love to hear personal accounts of what it's like to live in Reston and also your experience with the public schools. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Reston schools are perfectly fine. They'll never get the best scores in the county because Reston has a diverse population, by design. ~30% of the housing is low income, by design. Reston is a master-planned community. Your kid will go to school with kids of all races and SES backgrounds. This is a good thing because it teaches them tolerance, compassion, gratitude and gives them a more realistic perspective of the world. You'll notice that the FARMS percentage in most Reston schools is between 20-30%. This is a stable figure. Some people erroneously visualize an inner city school plagued with social ills that you see in the movies because they see a certain amount of black and hispanic kids and are afraid that the school will become a ghetto school or something like that. Reston is unique in that the SES balance is set into the infrastructure, so it won't become a ghetto. People who move here choose to live here because of the diversity, not in spite of it. This is the first place I've ever lived where different races actually live and interact together and it's not just a visual illusion or lip service (I'm from NYC by the way, where there's a lot of diversity, but people stay with their own kind).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reston schools are perfectly fine. They'll never get the best scores in the county because Reston has a diverse population, by design. ~30% of the housing is low income, by design. Reston is a master-planned community. Your kid will go to school with kids of all races and SES backgrounds. This is a good thing because it teaches them tolerance, compassion, gratitude and gives them a more realistic perspective of the world. You'll notice that the FARMS percentage in most Reston schools is between 20-30%. This is a stable figure. Some people erroneously visualize an inner city school plagued with social ills that you see in the movies because they see a certain amount of black and hispanic kids and are afraid that the school will become a ghetto school or something like that. Reston is unique in that the SES balance is set into the infrastructure, so it won't become a ghetto. People who move here choose to live here because of the diversity, not in spite of it. This is the first place I've ever lived where different races actually live and interact together and it's not just a visual illusion or lip service (I'm from NYC by the way, where there's a lot of diversity, but people stay with their own kind).

It is more complicated than that. Because Reston incorporated low and moderate-income housing by design, the county got the idea that it could also put in more subsidized housing in Reston and no one would object. In fact, parts of South Reston did develop a bad reputation due to their concentration of low-income housing. When the percentages of low-income kids at Hughes and South Lakes started to spike about 6-7 years ago, parents in Reston convinced the School Board to redistrict some higher-income neighborhoods outside Reston to Hughes and South Lakes to bring down those percentages and improve the test scores. That seems to have worked out fine, although it's now led to overcrowding at South Lakes.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't buy in south lakes. If you are going to live out there I would look at Chantilly High School.

[Anonymous]

How old are your kids? If they are still young I would buy. Who know what south lakes will look like in 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't buy in south lakes. If you are going to live out there I would look at Chantilly High School.

Really? These are very different locations.

[Anonymous]

Check out Sterling in the Cascades. It's just as close as Reston (depending on where you're commuting to) and the schools are better and we liked the housing stock more. We seriously have some amazing neighbors, shops and area.

[Anonymous]

Sterling is Loudoun county schools. Generally considered inferior to FCPS.

I have heard Forest Edge is a great school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reston schools are perfectly fine. They'll never get the best scores in the county because Reston has a diverse population, by design. ~30% of the housing is low income, by design. Reston is a master-planned community. Your kid will go to school with kids of all races and SES backgrounds. This is a good thing because it teaches them tolerance, compassion, gratitude and gives them a more realistic perspective of the world. You'll notice that the FARMS percentage in most Reston schools is between 20-30%. This is a stable figure. Some people erroneously visualize an inner city school plagued with social ills that you see in the movies because they see a certain amount of black and hispanic kids and are afraid that the school will become a ghetto school or something like that. Reston is unique in that the SES balance is set into the infrastructure, so it won't become a ghetto. People who move here choose to live here because of the diversity, not in spite of it. This is the first place I've ever lived where different races actually live and interact together and it's not just a visual illusion or lip service (I'm from NYC by the way, where there's a lot of diversity, but people stay with their own kind).

It is more complicated than that. Because Reston incorporated low and moderate-income housing by design, the county got the idea that it could also put in more subsidized housing in Reston and no one would object. In fact, parts of South Reston did develop a bad reputation due to their concentration of low-income housing. When the percentages of low-income kids at Hughes and South Lakes started to spike about 6-7 years ago, parents in Reston convinced the School Board to redistrict some higher-income neighborhoods outside Reston to Hughes and South Lakes to bring down those percentages and improve the test scores. That seems to have worked out fine, although it's now led to overcrowding at South Lakes.

I know families who were part of that redistricting and they were furious about it. These are families that were redistricted from Oakton, and then to Westfields, and then to South Lakes. However, after experiencing South Lakes, the overwhelming consensus is that South Lakes was a much better experience than Oakton or Westfields. The overall impression I got is that it has a strong community feel, there is good organization and communication, and the IB program is excellent. I also know 2 Westfields families who pupil placed their kids into South Lakes for the IB program. In my opinion, when people actually have first hand knowledge of the school, rather than just preconcieved notions of poor brown people, they realize that it's a wonderful school.

[Anonymous]

South lakes is a massive schools with a large population of underperforming students.

[Anonymous]

I have heard Forest Edge is a great school.

OP here. Will you please provide a few details? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reston schools are perfectly fine. They'll never get the best scores in the county because Reston has a diverse population, by design. ~30% of the housing is low income, by design. Reston is a master-planned community. Your kid will go to school with kids of all races and SES backgrounds. This is a good thing because it teaches them tolerance, compassion, gratitude and gives them a more realistic perspective of the world. You'll notice that the FARMS percentage in most Reston schools is between 20-30%. This is a stable figure. Some people erroneously visualize an inner city school plagued with social ills that you see in the movies because they see a certain amount of black and hispanic kids and are afraid that the school will become a ghetto school or something like that. Reston is unique in that the SES balance is set into the infrastructure, so it won't become a ghetto. People who move here choose to live here because of the diversity, not in spite of it. This is the first place I've ever lived where different races actually live and interact together and it's not just a visual illusion or lip service (I'm from NYC by the way, where there's a lot of diversity, but people stay with their own kind).

It is more complicated than that. Because Reston incorporated low and moderate-income housing by design, the county got the idea that it could also put in more subsidized housing in Reston and no one would object. In fact, parts of South Reston did develop a bad reputation due to their concentration of low-income housing. When the percentages of low-income kids at Hughes and South Lakes started to spike about 6-7 years ago, parents in Reston convinced the School Board to redistrict some higher-income neighborhoods outside Reston to Hughes and South Lakes to bring down those percentages and improve the test scores. That seems to have worked out fine, although it's now led to overcrowding at South Lakes.

what county housing are you referring to? i am not aware of any such thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out Sterling in the Cascades. It's just as close as Reston (depending on where you're commuting to) and the schools are better and we liked the housing stock more. We seriously have some amazing neighbors, shops and area.

God, no. The schools are no better, plus it's cookie-cutter and not close to anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reston schools are perfectly fine. They'll never get the best scores in the county because Reston has a diverse population, by design. ~30% of the housing is low income, by design. Reston is a master-planned community. Your kid will go to school with kids of all races and SES backgrounds. This is a good thing because it teaches them tolerance, compassion, gratitude and gives them a more realistic perspective of the world. You'll notice that the FARMS percentage in most Reston schools is between 20-30%. This is a stable figure. Some people erroneously visualize an inner city school plagued with social ills that you see in the movies because they see a certain amount of black and hispanic kids and are afraid that the school will become a ghetto school or something like that. Reston is unique in that the SES balance is set into the infrastructure, so it won't become a ghetto. People who move here choose to live here because of the diversity, not in spite of it. This is the first place I've ever lived where different races actually live and interact together and it's not just a visual illusion or lip service (I'm from NYC by the way, where there's a lot of diversity, but people stay with their own kind).

It is more complicated than that. Because Reston incorporated low and moderate-income housing by design, the county got the idea that it could also put in more subsidized housing in Reston and no one would object. In fact, parts of South Reston did develop a bad reputation due to their concentration of low-income housing. When the percentages of low-income kids at Hughes and South Lakes started to spike about 6-7 years ago, parents in Reston convinced the School Board to redistrict some higher-income neighborhoods outside Reston to Hughes and South Lakes to bring down those percentages and improve the test scores. That seems to have worked out fine, although it's now led to overcrowding at South Lakes.

I know families who were part of that redistricting and they were furious about it. These are families that were redistricted from Oakton, and then to Westfields, and then to South Lakes. However, after experiencing South Lakes, the overwhelming consensus is that South Lakes was a much better experience than Oakton or Westfields. The overall impression I got is that it has a strong community feel, there is good organization and communication, and the IB program is excellent. I also know 2 Westfields families who pupil placed their kids into South Lakes for the IB program. In my opinion, when people actually have first hand knowledge of the school, rather than just preconcieved notions of poor brown people, they realize that it's a wonderful school.

People typically adapt to change, but quite a few people moved out of the area redistricted to South Lakes to avoid the school, and pupil placements out of South Lakes back to Oakton, Madison, Westfield for AP remained high for many years thereafter. There's no consensus that South Lakes is a better school than the other schools and Madison and Oakton, in particular, remain higher rated than South Lakes.

[Anonymous]

Forest Edge has the AAP center, so if your child makes it into AAP, then he would not have to switch schools. I think that is one plus for Forest Edge. The minus is that if your kid does not make AAP, then I have heard that gen ed kids are marginalized, are made to feel inferior because they are not in AAP. I am very happy that my dd did not qualify for AAP so that we can stay in the elementary school we are zoned for instead of busing over to Forest Edge.

Here is a thread on AAP. You can probably find more.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/104371.page