So many acronyms!

[Anonymous]

My DS is 8 months and we're just starting to get a feel for schools around here in our search to buy a home. Reading these threads I feel like a total moron. I'm from the midwest originally and we must use different acronyms.

So what is GT? Maybe "gifted track"?
And what about AAP?

And if it has to do with gifted tracking (or the opposite!) can you clue me in on how it works in Fairfax County Public Schools? Is it the same process county wide?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

GT is gifted and talented...it has been replaced by AAP (name change to focus on academics).

Best resource to find out how it works is to look on FCPS web site. the process is the same county wide.

[Anonymous]

"GT" stood for "Gifted & Talented." "AAP" stands for "Advanced Academic Programs." Here's the link to the FCPS web page:

http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/gt/

If you're looking in Fairfax, you'll also often hear reference to terms like the number or percentage of "ESOL" and "FRL" students at a school. "ESOL" stands for "English for Speakers of Other Languages," which used to be "ESL" ("English as a Second Language"). The term "ESOL" is used because English may actually be the third or fourth language for some students rather than the second. Most ESOL students in Fairfax are Hispanic, but there are also students from many other countries. "FRL" stands for "Free/Reduced Lunch" so a school with a high "FRL" percentage will tend to be located in a lower-income area.

There are also some other terms that are often used to describe Fairfax schools. One is "split feeder," which means, for example, an elementary schools whose students go on to attend two or more different middle or high schools. Another is "pyramid," which are really groupings of schools for FCPS administrative purposes. You have to be careful with so-called "school pyramids," since there are a lot of "split feeders" in the system. For example, there is an elementary school in the McLean HS "pyramid" that actually sends a lot of its students to Falls Church HS and a school in the Westfield HS "pyramid" that actually sends a lot of its students to South Lakes HS. I'm sure that's clear as mud, but hopefully you get the point. The only way to be sure about the schools is to check the boundary locator on the FCPS web page (and, of course, even then there might be a redistricting later). The two areas of the county where there surely will be redistrictings within the next five years are Annandale and the "SW Regional" area (Centreville/Chantilly/Clifton).

I'll let others, if they wish, define what a "school snob" is!

[Anonymous]

School snobbery 101 (in terms of general reputation):

Top tier: McLean, Langley, Thomas Jefferson (generally raved about by school snobs everywhere)

Second tier: Madison, Oakton, Woodson, West Springfield, Marshall, Robison, Lake Braddock, Fairfax (generally liked by school snobs, but not quite as raved about as the Big Three)

Third tier: Centreville, Chantilly, Herndon, Westfield, South County, Hayfield (I don't hear the raves I do about the first two tiers, but not the negative feedback about the fourth tier.)

Fourth tier: West Potomac, Mount Vernon, JEB Stuart, Falls Church, Lee, Edison, Annandale, South Lakes (generally I've seen these looked at negatively)

I suspect there's little/no debate about the first tier. Some room for debate about who belongs in 2-3-4 though.

[Anonymous]

It's difficult to compare a school like Thomas Jefferson with a neighborhood high school. For the OP's benefit, it's a county-wide science and technology magnet high school. It is incredibly competitive to get into, involving a TJ specific entrance exam and a time consuming application process. It's consistently recognized nationally as one of the very best public magnet high schools in the country. It's not a traditional neighborhood high school.

[Anonymous]

School snobbery 201 (the intermediate course):

1. McLean parents, having paid extra bucks to be in the McLean school districts, purport to express remorse (Example: "Sometimes I think it would have been better if Megan went to [your child's school], where not every student is rich, smart and beautiful").

2. Parents in selected schools in "Second Tier" argue they should be included in "Top Tier."

3. Parents in selected schools in "Second Tier" are unsuccessful in those efforts and bad-mouth other schools in the "Second Tier" or below to feel better. A variation on explicit bad-mouthing is to pose, with appropriate inflection and compassion, questions to other parents as to how their children are faring in a purportedly lower-Tier school. (Example: "How does Austin l-i-k-e South Lakes so far?" Note that including the phrase "so far" is very important, since it implies that, even if a child is currently having a great time at a lower-Tier school, things can only get worse later.)

4. Parents claim their children were admitted to TJ but decided not to attend, or snipe that TJ has become a school for Asian kids who spend their weekends getting extra tutoring, attending TJ prep courses and playing first-string in regional orchestras.

5. Parents argue that any school in Fairfax County (or Arlington) is better than any school in DC or PG County, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

[Anonymous]

Good course, SS 201 teacher. (I was the SS 101 teacher.)

I suppose I should have mentioned that getting a kid into TJ automatically places you in some sort of elite school snob class, who cannot be wrong on any FCPS-related issues.

1. I see that more among Langley than McLean folks. Plus, I've seen folks who I *know* make the bucks to live in the Langley zone deliberately go to a 2nd or 3rd tier zone.
2. I live in the Madison zone and know that it's not slobbered over the way McLean/Langley are. Any school with the Vienna Park Apartments in its attendance zone automatically gets DQ'd from being in the stratosphere of school snobbery.
3. Good point there. My wife was a pretty bad school snob until she realized she's met some kids from Falls Church, Lee, and Edison, and they weren't playing loud music, seeking to separate us from our money, or otherwise cause problems in our community. Now she's gotten better, but there's reasons to like Vienna aside from the schools. Plus, I think posting on this board makes me a bigger school snob.
4. Good point. I've often wondered about getting a Jefferson sticker to put on my car, but I wonder what my 3 y/o DD would think when she is 14 and (probably) not going to Jefferson. That'd be kinda ... weird.
5. OK, some of the DC charters are good, and I've heard good things about Wilson and Banneker. Some of the Ward 3 elementaries are as white as Waynewood, too. What schools in PG would you place up with the second tier of FCPS schools? (I'm guessing Wootton, Churchill, and Whitman get to be the first tier of MCPS schools.)