Is Falls Church High School bad?

[Anonymous]

I know Falls Church is known for good schools. We found a house we like, but it's zoned for Falls Church High School. My son is only 2. Would you stay away?

[Anonymous]

It's not part of the falls church schools - it is fcps

People bad mouth it, but I think you have to dig deeper. It has a diverse population and a lower ses than most other fcps high schools.

Might be worry doing a search here to see if you can find honest opinions from people with actual experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Falls Church is known for good schools. We found a house we like, but it's zoned for Falls Church High School. My son is only 2. Would you stay away?

City of FC is known for good schools and different from FC. Different tax different school systems. Falls Church High is for Falls Church, VA, which is part of Fairfax County school system. 22046 is the zip with good schools.

[Anonymous]

Falls Church High is in terrible physical condition right now; will be gutted and renovated in about 7 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Falls Church is known for good schools. We found a house we like, but it's zoned for Falls Church High School. My son is only 2. Would you stay away?

Yes if you can afford nearby George Mason, Woodson, Marshall, Madison. No if you want your kid to have a better chance of being the big fish in the pond rather than the small fish in the lake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Falls Church High is in terrible physical condition right now; will be gutted and renovated in about 7 years.

scores are pretty bad (all of them, sol, sats, gs etc...)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Falls Church is known for good schools. We found a house we like, but it's zoned for Falls Church High School. My son is only 2. Would you stay away?

Yes if you can afford nearby George Mason, Woodson, Marshall, Madison. No if you want your kid to have a better chance of being the big fish in the pond rather than the small fish in the lake.

Don't forget the environment of the pond could poison and kill your fish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Falls Church is known for good schools. We found a house we like, but it's zoned for Falls Church High School. My son is only 2. Would you stay away?

City of FC is known for good schools and different from FC. Different tax different school systems. Falls Church High is for Falls Church, VA, which is part of Fairfax County school system. 22046 is the zip with good schools.

Please keep in mind that when house hunting in Falls Church City, you cannot go off of zip code alone. There are homes in 22046 that are not in FCC and there are homes with 22042 and 22043 that are in the city.

[Anonymous]

I've heard decent reviews on the school from parents with kids there now. It has improved in recent years and has fairly strong support from the middle income neighborhoods that feed into it.

Falls Church HS has not had the administrative and academic problems that have plagued nearby JEB Stuart HS in recent years. Stuart has a new principal now, so hopefully things improve there.

With the new development at The Mosaic, and the fact that Falls Church HS will have a brand new facility in about 7 years, the school and the socio-economic mix can only get better.

As others have said, keep in mind that Falls Church HS is not in the City of Falls Church; it is in the Falls Church portion of Fairfax County. George Mason HS is the City of Falls Church's only HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard decent reviews on the school from parents with kids there now. It has improved in recent years and has fairly strong support from the middle income neighborhoods that feed into it.

Falls Church HS has not had the administrative and academic problems that have plagued nearby JEB Stuart HS in recent years. Stuart has a new principal now, so hopefully things improve there.

With the new development at The Mosaic, and the fact that Falls Church HS will have a brand new facility in about 7 years, the school and the socio-economic mix can only get better.

As others have said, keep in mind that Falls Church HS is not in the City of Falls Church; it is in the Falls Church portion of Fairfax County. George Mason HS is the City of Falls Church's only HS.

Most people in mosaic don't have kids of school age if any at all. A new or renovated facility doesn't make a school sought after or good. Look at TC williams, Wakefield or Bailey's. Most of the upper middle or higher income residents use one of the many private schools located in that area.

[Anonymous]

The Commonwealth of Virginia has school districts by county OR city. You will in a county OR a city. This is different from other jurisdictions. Falls Church, Fairfax City and Alexandria are all designated cities in Virginia. They run their own school systems apart from Fairfax county. Although City of Fairfax contract's with Fairfax County Public Schools to provide services- it has its own school board.

City of Falls Church HS is George Mason. It has only one HS.
County of Fairfax has 25 HS/Secondary schools and one of them is Falls Church High School.

The post office does things differently. SO, you could have a postal address that says Falls Church, but live outside of the city limits and in fairfax County. Same for Fairfax and Alexandria. Vienna is a town and not a city. However, you could live outside the town limits and still have a Vienna address. There are even parts of McLean (Fairfax County) that have Arlington addresses.

Falls Church High School does not have a great reputation within Fairfax HS, but IME experience there is a large enough cohort of college bound students in every HS. The school with the best scores have the largest cohort as a % of the total student population. One of the benefits is that the competition for some leadership roles is less and thus easier to attain.

[Anonymous]

We are zoned for a nearby IB school, and I don't think I'd have much problem sending my kid to FCHS for AP. So, that is one thing that it has in its favor - AP Classes. I'll have to think about it - I have some time. I don't think that FCHS is trending upward in many ways. Maybe if the FCPS renovation queue for schools wasn't so jacked up, FCHS would be better, but perhaps not.

Falls Church is just highly Hispanic and lower SES, or "diverse", as FCPS likes to call it. There was a time when the neighborhoods around it were more economically and racially balanced, but those days are long gone. It is smaller school, and for the "lesser" pyramids in FCPS, that probably works in its favor.

All the Mosaic Center did was increase traffic greatly. The traffic on Gallows, 50, etc. around Falls Church High School is unreal as compared to years' past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are zoned for a nearby IB school, and I don't think I'd have much problem sending my kid to FCHS for AP. So, that is one thing that it has in its favor - AP Classes. I'll have to think about it - I have some time. I don't think that FCHS is trending upward in many ways. Maybe if the FCPS renovation queue for schools wasn't so jacked up, FCHS would be better, but perhaps not.

Falls Church is just highly Hispanic and lower SES, or "diverse", as FCPS likes to call it. There was a time when the neighborhoods around it were more economically and racially balanced, but those days are long gone. It is smaller school, and for the "lesser" pyramids in FCPS, that probably works in its favor.

All the Mosaic Center did was increase traffic greatly. The traffic on Gallows, 50, etc. around Falls Church High School is unreal as compared to years' past.

That haas been an issue for decades. It is ridiculous. When my son was born, our MS was listed as the worst MS facility in the county (out of 25 or so). The year he started MS was the year they started the renovation/addition- 11 years later- he never experienced the renovated space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard decent reviews on the school from parents with kids there now. It has improved in recent years and has fairly strong support from the middle income neighborhoods that feed into it.

Falls Church HS has not had the administrative and academic problems that have plagued nearby JEB Stuart HS in recent years. Stuart has a new principal now, so hopefully things improve there.

With the new development at The Mosaic, and the fact that Falls Church HS will have a brand new facility in about 7 years, the school and the socio-economic mix can only get better.

As others have said, keep in mind that Falls Church HS is not in the City of Falls Church; it is in the Falls Church portion of Fairfax County. George Mason HS is the City of Falls Church's only HS.

Just to be clear, there are no plans to build a new school to replace Falls Church HS. The goal is to do a major renovation within the next seven years or so.

There are some decent areas that feed into FCHS, including Camelot, Greenway Downs, City Park Homes, Columbia Pines and Holmes Run. Homes in those areas often get snapped up very quickly. There's a big world out there that doesn't hang on what a handful of DCUM posters have to say about NoVa schools.

[Anonymous]

We live in a part of Falls Church that feeds into McLean HS, and we're thinking about applying to send our daughter to Falls Church HS. They still offer a challenging academic environment (AP classes) without the psycho pressure-cooker atmosphere of McLean.