Best elementary schools in Fairfax
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Anonymous
Every ES has a basal system for Language Arts. Very little tech use besides Lexia is happening in LA at our ES. |
Anonymous
I’ve heard Fox Mill ES is like this. |
Anonymous
Agree with the above. If you’re looking for specific school recommendations, you can also consider Waples Mill ES, Crossfield ES, and Hunters Woods ES. Anecdotally, I’ve heard Waples parents complain about the principal, but it’s a strong school and good community. Hunters Woods has an amazing principal and is both an AAP center and a magnet school so there are a lot of good programs and resources there. |
Anonymous
+1 This is what I’m seeing as a former teacher, now substitute. I was in a 4th grade class and they were starting a Benchmark assessment. They had two passages on paper that they first had to read and annotate. They do the same with the passages in their Benchmark consumable books. I was impressed with how quickly and without question they got started on annotating the texts before answering questions. |
Anonymous
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I can tell you from experience that having a non-AAP child at certain AAP centers is awful.
I had four children attend one of the frequently-praised elementary schools. Two were in AAP and two were in general education. It was miserable for my general ed children. They were ruthlessly teased on the playground for being in gen ed, and both the counselor and administrators laughed about the teasing, sending the message that teasing is a normal part of childhood and that the "sweet AAP students" would never be cruel.  My daughter was told, by an administrator, that she might not understand the words the AAP students were using because they were more advanced than her. I was very angry about that statement
We chose to send three of our children to the base middle school, which has AAP sections, rather than the center, and we were much more impressed with the education and overall experience at the base middle school. I wish we had sent our oldest to the base rather than the center for middle school. Both our child who took AAP classes in MS, as well as our "general ed" children who took all honors classes, had excellent teachers at the base middle school. |
Anonymous
+1 Very similar experiences with my Gen Ed kids who had to attend an AAP center. Everything was fine until the end of 2nd grade when kids found out they were getting into AAP. It went downhill very fast from there. Such incredibly patronizing attitudes on the part of admin and various AAP parents - not to mention, their kids, who had previously been friends with my kids and the other Gen Ed students. Looking back, I honestly wish we had just pulled them out for private school, at least through elementary. Middle was a bit better, and high school was wonderful - no division whatsoever, AP classes available to all, etc. FCPS has ruined the elementary and middle school experience by choosing to segregate kids who are far more similar than different, and at a ridiculously early age. Many of the Gen Ed kids went on to surpass former AAP kids in high school (not to mention, college acceptances). AAP means nothing, yet it has become this monster that divides friends and falsely labels young kids. Flexible grouping, with advanced groups that *everyone* can move into as necessary, is what's needed. I sincerely hope FCPS ends AAP centers once and for all. It was a terrible experiment that has gone on way too long. |
Anonymous
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Here are the best elementary schools in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) with their respective key statistics and average SOL scores for each:
Sangster Elementary Enrollment: 899 Student-Teacher Ratio: 17.5 Economically Disadvantaged: 4.0% Average SOL Score: 90% Wolftrap Elementary Enrollment: 550 Student-Teacher Ratio: 16.6 Economically Disadvantaged: 2.7% Average SOL Score: 91% Haycock Elementary Enrollment: 829 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.4 Economically Disadvantaged: 4.2% Average SOL Score: 89% Colvin Run Elementary Enrollment: 766 Student-Teacher Ratio: 14.7 Economically Disadvantaged: 2.1% Average SOL Score: 92% Churchill Road Elementary Enrollment: 600 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.7 Economically Disadvantaged: 3.0% Average SOL Score: 90% Forestville Elementary Enrollment: 580 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.1 Economically Disadvantaged: 5.7% Average SOL Score: 88% Navy Elementary Enrollment: 851 Student-Teacher Ratio: 16.2 Economically Disadvantaged: 7.9% Average SOL Score: 89% Spring Hill Elementary Enrollment: 948 Student-Teacher Ratio: 18.2 Economically Disadvantaged: 11.5% Average SOL Score: 87% Kent Gardens Elementary Enrollment: 1,006 Student-Teacher Ratio: 16.4 Economically Disadvantaged: 4.1% Average SOL Score: 91% Wakefield Forest Elementary Enrollment: 648 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.8 Economically Disadvantaged: 7.9% Average SOL Score: 88% Waynewood Elementary Enrollment: 726 Student-Teacher Ratio: 17.0 Economically Disadvantaged: 2.8% Average SOL Score: 90% Poplar Tree Elementary Enrollment: 721 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.4 Economically Disadvantaged: 9.4% Average SOL Score: 89% Chesterbrook Elementary Enrollment: 537 Student-Teacher Ratio: 14.5 Economically Disadvantaged: 2.6% Average SOL Score: 92% Westbriar Elementary Enrollment: 847 Student-Teacher Ratio: 17.6 Economically Disadvantaged: 9.4% Average SOL Score: 88% Flint Hill Elementary Enrollment: 608 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.0 Economically Disadvantaged: 8.6% Average SOL Score: 87% Silverbrook Elementary Enrollment: 814 Student-Teacher Ratio: 14.8 Economically Disadvantaged: 9.2% Average SOL Score: 89% Great Falls Elementary Enrollment: 517 Student-Teacher Ratio: 14.6 Economically Disadvantaged: 5.4% Average SOL Score: 91% Canterbury Woods Elementary Enrollment: 796 Student-Teacher Ratio: 16.2 Economically Disadvantaged: 14.4% Average SOL Score: 86% Vienna Elementary Enrollment: 377 Student-Teacher Ratio: 13.3 Economically Disadvantaged: 5.3% Average SOL Score: 93% Cherry Run Elementary Enrollment: 461 Student-Teacher Ratio: 13.4 Economically Disadvantaged: 6.1% Average SOL Score: 90% Stenwood Elementary Enrollment: 539 Student-Teacher Ratio: 13.9 Economically Disadvantaged: 10.9% Average SOL Score: 87% Hunt Valley Elementary Enrollment: 747 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.2 Economically Disadvantaged: 11.0% Average SOL Score: 86% Willow Springs Elementary Enrollment: 859 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.5 Economically Disadvantaged: 14.2% Average SOL Score: 85% Keene Mill Elementary Enrollment: 801 Student-Teacher Ratio: 17.4 Economically Disadvantaged: 19.9% Average SOL Score: 84% Oak Hill Elementary Enrollment: 657 Student-Teacher Ratio: 14.5 Economically Disadvantaged: 8.4% Average SOL Score: 88% Fox Mill Elementary Enrollment: 645 Student-Teacher Ratio: 15.0 Economically Disadvantaged: 9.3% Average SOL Score: 89% |
Anonymous
Our "outstanding" local elementary school was an AAP center - my AAP child had an outstanding experience. REALLY good teachers, interesting assignments, excellent experience all around. My special needs child had an absolutely miserable experience and was pulled from the school before they finished. (Bright kid, came to the school in second grade well above grade level in math and reading, loved science - but learning disabilities that were not a fit with AAP.) Worst teachers I've ever experienced, save one that was excellent - otherwise, one was so incompetent her contract was not renewed, and the other felt that my child's disabilities should be dealt with via public shaming and passive-aggressive comments. I'm sure it would have been worse if my kid wasn't quiet and compliant. Principal was completely useless and left her poor AP to handle everything. Most of the snobbery about AAP came from the adults; many of the kids had known each other through the local sports league, and few of them gave a shit that their soccer team's goalie was in gen ed. The one thing that I will give them is that they did offer local Level IV very liberally. The kids switched classes from 4th grade on, and they had kids in and out for AAP language arts and math who were not part of the full-time program. |
Anonymous
| Chesterbrook, Longfellow, McLean |
Anonymous
The best??? All you’ve done is prove that children who come from upper middle class home where parents are college educated will score well on standardized tests. Doesn’t say a word about the learning experiences of the students. The kids at these schools would score exactly the same if they were placed in a Title 1 school. |
Anonymous
Some of those schools have 10-15% economically disadvantaged students. That's not poor enough for you? |
Anonymous
Hell no. 30% or higher. |
Anonymous
| You can’t look at test scores. They don’t report AAP and gen ed separately. |
Anonymous
OMG. Not even close. What planet are you from? |
Anonymous
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Here’s the secret. Want your DC to attend UVA? Send them to WestPo where they reap the college admission benefits of attending an economically disadvantaged high school while never interacting with any students who aren’t UMC. These are hard working WestPo students, not just skating by and are challenged with rigor, and the benefit of attending a disadvantaged school is they get into UVA (or UGA or Vanderbilt, etc). My neighbors swear it’s a win-win situation and they have the college acceptances to back it up.
There are probably other ES in not-highly sought after pyramids with the same success stories. My point is that if college is the end game, the road map is not just Langley/ McLean/Oakton or bust! If you know these gems — share them! |