Best FCPS Middle and Hugh Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best are Langley, McLean, Madison pyramids

Marshall is recently almost mediocre but fell again so I wouldn't count on it

Fell how? You mean with GS’s new system that doesn’t take it into account it’s a IB school?

That, and penalizes diversity.

For crying out, people, if you want to really understand the quality of the school, stop looking on anonymous boards, or at least apply some critical thinking to what metrics to pay attention to (hint: not SAT scores, or dubious rankings that have obscure methodologies with hidden biases). But if you are looking for richest/whitest/most Asian, by all means come here and listen to the advice.

An interesting article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/no-one-likes-the-sat-its-still-the-fairest-thing-about-admissions/2019/03/22/5fa67a16-4c00-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html?utm_term=.a47684513d02

Some posters are more than happy to equate any measure of academic aptitude or achievement with socio-economics, or tar them with labels like "dubious," "obscure" and "biased." They rarely, if ever, offer a meaningful alternative, which suggests that they simply oppose any attempts to measure aptitude or achievement altogether.

Happy to offer you alternatives, a bit short on time though:

Best: Predicted performance by school vs actual performance, controlling for demographic and SE factors. "Performance" can be anything that the school impacts: SOL pass rates, participation/results on advanced exams (AP and IB). To my knowledge, there was only one such study years back, I don't have a link to it.

Next best: Look at SOL scores by race/SES status, and specifically the magnitude of difference between the advantaged and disadvantaged populations - that will tell you how well the school serves its core mission - to educate its full population. Then look at the participation rate for advanced classes (AP/IB) (e.g. # classes taken/eligible students), and the success rate overall and for each subject (#pass with grade 3+/#tests taken) - this information is not available by race/SES, but even without it, this will tell you how the school serves its advanced population. You want both metrics to be high. If participation is high, but pass rate is low, the school is either not effective at teaching advanced curriculum, or it advises students inappropriately (e.g. pushes students into classes that are too advanced for them.) Low participation is generally reflective of lower SES, so it is useful to look at this metric against some SES/racial profile for the schools you are comparing.

Generally, companies that are interested in mass marketing "indices" (hello, Great Schools) don't want to bother with appropriate treatment of the data to ensure comparability of their results (e.g. not including IB metrics because it is very inconvenient to have to deal with multiple data sources.) Like I said, if someone is interested in understanding school quality (i.e. how the school would affect the outcomes of a given kid), they should go a little deeper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best are Langley, McLean, Madison pyramids

Marshall is recently almost mediocre but fell again so I wouldn't count on it

Fell how? You mean with GS’s new system that doesn’t take it into account it’s a IB school?

That, and penalizes diversity.

For crying out, people, if you want to really understand the quality of the school, stop looking on anonymous boards, or at least apply some critical thinking to what metrics to pay attention to (hint: not SAT scores, or dubious rankings that have obscure methodologies with hidden biases). But if you are looking for richest/whitest/most Asian, by all means come here and listen to the advice.

An interesting article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/no-one-likes-the-sat-its-still-the-fairest-thing-about-admissions/2019/03/22/5fa67a16-4c00-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html?utm_term=.a47684513d02

Some posters are more than happy to equate any measure of academic aptitude or achievement with socio-economics, or tar them with labels like "dubious," "obscure" and "biased." They rarely, if ever, offer a meaningful alternative, which suggests that they simply oppose any attempts to measure aptitude or achievement altogether.

Happy to offer you alternatives, a bit short on time though:

Best: Predicted performance by school vs actual performance, controlling for demographic and SE factors. "Performance" can be anything that the school impacts: SOL pass rates, participation/results on advanced exams (AP and IB). To my knowledge, there was only one such study years back, I don't have a link to it.

Next best: Look at SOL scores by race/SES status, and specifically the magnitude of difference between the advantaged and disadvantaged populations - that will tell you how well the school serves its core mission - to educate its full population. Then look at the participation rate for advanced classes (AP/IB) (e.g. # classes taken/eligible students), and the success rate overall and for each subject (#pass with grade 3+/#tests taken) - this information is not available by race/SES, but even without it, this will tell you how the school serves its advanced population. You want both metrics to be high. If participation is high, but pass rate is low, the school is either not effective at teaching advanced curriculum, or it advises students inappropriately (e.g. pushes students into classes that are too advanced for them.) Low participation is generally reflective of lower SES, so it is useful to look at this metric against some SES/racial profile for the schools you are comparing.

Generally, companies that are interested in mass marketing "indices" (hello, Great Schools) don't want to bother with appropriate treatment of the data to ensure comparability of their results (e.g. not including IB metrics because it is very inconvenient to have to deal with multiple data sources.) Like I said, if someone is interested in understanding school quality (i.e. how the school would affect the outcomes of a given kid), they should go a little deeper.

I think I'll stick with actual performance, which includes AP/IB participation and success rates, SOL scores, and SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Wondering why you think SAT scores are a good indicator of school quality? The school certainly doesn't work towards any SAT goal, and not everyone in a school takes the SAT. It is the one metric that's been sown to be more highly correlated with household income and SES factors, and not necessarily predictive of college performance. High school GPA, OTOH, is the factor most predictive of college performance (which seems to be taking priority in college admissions in the years after the study.)

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/19/study-finds-little-difference-academic-success-students-who-do-and-dont-submit-sat

[Anonymous]

Longfellow MS

McLean HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Longfellow MS

McLean HS

Not schools that exactly need more students at the moment, but thanks.

Maybe you could come back in 2-3 years. By then, FCPS may have figured out that having a seriously overcrowded high school three miles from one that's going to have to shed teachers and classes because it's under-enrolled makes the School Board members look unfit for any public office and its Superintendent look like he's incapable of managing anything larger than Lynchburg City Schools.

[Anonymous]

Are Chantilly and Westfield an IB or AP schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are Chantilly and Westfield an IB or AP schools?

Both AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longfellow MS

McLean HS

Not schools that exactly need more students at the moment, but thanks.

Maybe you could come back in 2-3 years. By then, FCPS may have figured out that having a seriously overcrowded high school three miles from one that's going to have to shed teachers and classes because it's under-enrolled makes the School Board members look unfit for any public office and its Superintendent look like he's incapable of managing anything larger than Lynchburg City Schools.

Let's see if, after two years of working on boundary policy, the school board will continue to postpone while they hire a consultant and wait for the results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longfellow MS

McLean HS

Not schools that exactly need more students at the moment, but thanks.

Maybe you could come back in 2-3 years. By then, FCPS may have figured out that having a seriously overcrowded high school three miles from one that's going to have to shed teachers and classes because it's under-enrolled makes the School Board members look unfit for any public office and its Superintendent look like he's incapable of managing anything larger than Lynchburg City Schools.

Let's see if, after two years of working on boundary policy, the school board will continue to postpone while they hire a consultant and wait for the results.

That’s what the current School Board chair, Karen Corbett Sanders, wants. She summarily tried to shut down the new Dranesville representative, Elaine Tholen, when Tholen correctly said FCPS needs to start planning now to add capacity at McLean and Chantilly.

Mind you, Corbett Sanders only started with this BS after she’d made sure her school - West Potomac - was getting a huge addition that we are all now paying for. She is a despicable phony.

[Anonymous]

I am sure there are people who will spew all the metrics and ratings. And, I'm not going to read through 8 pages of that.

But, I will say that we are having a great experience in the Lanier/Fairfax pyramid. It's big enough to offer opportunities for excellence, and small(er) to have a great community of people. There are a lot of really bright kids and great faculty. Lots of families with kids in this pyramid will say the same.

[Anonymous]

Lanier and Fairfax parents are fortunate in that Fairfax City owns and invests in the upkeep of those two schools, along with Daniels Run and Providence. They are not at the mercy of an incompetent county-wide facilities department and School Board like Chantilly HS and McLean HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lanier and Fairfax parents are fortunate in that Fairfax City owns and invests in the upkeep of those two schools, along with Daniels Run and Providence. They are not at the mercy of an incompetent county-wide facilities department and School Board like Chantilly HS and McLean HS.

That may be. But that makes it one of "best" maybe? Which is the topic of the thread. And we are subject to the transportation, for example.

Also, there are ES no in the "city" which are zoned for Lanier/Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lanier and Fairfax parents are fortunate in that Fairfax City owns and invests in the upkeep of those two schools, along with Daniels Run and Providence. They are not at the mercy of an incompetent county-wide facilities department and School Board like Chantilly HS and McLean HS.

That may be. But that makes it one of "best" maybe? Which is the topic of the thread. And we are subject to the transportation, for example.

Also, there are ES no in the "city" which are zoned for Lanier/Fairfax.

Both Providence and Daniels Run feed to Lanier/Fairfax. If you live in City if Fairfax and attend public school that is your path. If you are thinking of Mosby Woods Or Fairfax Villa both are outside city borders and are not City of Fairfax schools.

[Anonymous]

There are some students over by fair lakes zoned to Lanier

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lanier and Fairfax parents are fortunate in that Fairfax City owns and invests in the upkeep of those two schools, along with Daniels Run and Providence. They are not at the mercy of an incompetent county-wide facilities department and School Board like Chantilly HS and McLean HS.

That may be. But that makes it one of "best" maybe? Which is the topic of the thread. And we are subject to the transportation, for example.

Also, there are ES no in the "city" which are zoned for Lanier/Fairfax.

Both Providence and Daniels Run feed to Lanier/Fairfax. If you live in City if Fairfax and attend public school that is your path. If you are thinking of Mosby Woods Or Fairfax Villa both are outside city borders and are not City of Fairfax schools.

Sorry, my phone was helping me out and butchered my PP and I didn't check it. "They are the only ES not in the city." It was my understanding the other two were in the city but maybe they technically are not. THey are def much closer to Lanier/Fairfax than Willow.