African-Americans Families in FCPS

[Anonymous]

I would love to hear from families who have an African American son in a higher ranked Elementary FCPS. Are very happy with your choice of school. I recognize that as I begin to consider the various schools in this area, he will most likely be a minority in his classes. I am looking to see which schools have made the family feel welcome while helping to instill a strong self esteem and good academic foundation in their son. Would love to hear from some happy families with your happy school experience. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

It used to be that Kent Gardens in McLean had a growing AA community, but I think that stopped when the AA Principal left.

[Anonymous]

You can look at each school’s profile on their website to see the demographics, but they don’t always tell the full story. A lot of schools with high % Black/African Americans have many students with various African immigrant backgrounds, some Christians and some Muslims, and high percentages of multi-racial kids as well especially in the more military heavy areas. This area is pretty diverse and I don’t think your kids will feel unwelcomed anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Halley ES is very welcoming to all and has a local Level 4 AAP program. Kings Glen ES is also excellent for upper elementary and very diverse.

[Anonymous]

Freedom Hill in Vienna. Super diverse and welcoming!

[Anonymous]

I believe if you feel comfortable living in the community, your kids will most likely do well in the school.

[Anonymous]

The unfortunate thing about threads like this one - and they pop up on this forum with some frequency - is they elicit relatively few responses that are responsive to the OP's question and a lot of posts from people who take it upon themselves to lecture the OP.

[Anonymous]

We are a black family. We live in a wealthy pyramid and chose this area due to commutes like most people.

The people are generally fine but here is the issue. You will inevitably run into racism. Like crazy racism. And you will be told, repeatedly, it's not real, there's nothing happening, it's all in your head, etc. Basically, you end up questioning whether anything is indeed what it appears and choose to pull back and protect your own safety and mental health.

What it does on a community/school level is that our five kids all did incredibly well, got great grades and went to awesome colleges, grad schools, medical schools, law schools etc. But we were all very slow to trust because you just can't tell if someone is indeed a safe person. They played sports, starred in plays, cheered, etc. But we kept ourselves...protected?

Academically, we did not rely on the school for much. I supplemented at home in math and writing. They were all in AAP and I got those books at an Asian grocery store with the logic games and we spent the summer before second going through them and reading, etc.

But again, it's really difficult. Black friends were also hard to come by because being black wasn't enough -- beyond a few here and there, there weren't many that clicked with my kids.

[Anonymous]

What areas are you considering? We try to connect when we find families similar to ours. My kids never have a problem fitting in. We make sure they know to be proud of who they are.

[Anonymous]

I had polar opposite experiences with my AA sons (who are now 17 and 20) in a highly-ranked FCPS elementary school. Both ended up qualifying for AAP, but I was really turned off my by my older son’s second grade teacher who told us they were concerned about our son falling through the cracks.

I’m sorry. What?!? I guess since he was quiet and well-behaved? Who knows.

At that point, we knew we had to be our son’s biggest advocate (not that we weren’t already planning to do so, but that comment was eye-opening because it told us the teacher wasn’t looking out for him). That son had very high standardized test scores and great report cards, yet was not included in the pull-outs for high-performing kids (not sure if they even still do these with the cuts to AAP coordinators or whatever they’re called). He was admitted into AAP without an appeal and after we moved him to the Center, we never looked back. He graduated in 2023 and is now at a well regarded university.

Our second son had a completely different experience as his second grade teacher was pushing AAP for him at the fall conference. He was pulled out for services by the AAP Coordinator and was also admitted without an appeal. Ironically, we ended up moving him to private school in fifth grade even though I had zero complaints with his FCPS experience. He will be a senior in high school this year and I can’t believe we’ll be empty-nesters soon. Best wishes to you, OP.

[Anonymous]

We are at Woodson now and my son is very happy there. He went from Canterbury woods, to Frost and then Woodson and I haven't gotten the impression that his race makes a difference at all, which I prefer.

[Anonymous]

OP, I am white so can’t speak to your concern, but it’s completely valid and not racist.

[Anonymous]

My mixed AA/POC family lives in a relatively well off part of fcps. My kid's school are 5-8 percent AA. What can I say? It's like working in corporate America. You find your people. Some are welcoming, many others are not. Even people who think they are progressive say and do dumb stuff. You teach your kid how to show up in this world. You can see from the responses here that the majority of people we come across are actually not truly inclusive or understanding of our situation.

[Anonymous]

I’m not AA, but I can say that most of the AA families in our ES found each other and support one another. I think it’s great. My son is in their children’s social circle and I’ve found all the parents lovely and welcoming as well. I hope you are able to create a similar community wherever you land. From my outside perspective it looks like great friendships between the parents have been forged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am white so can’t speak to your concern, but it’s completely valid and not racist.

This!