Anyone know anything about the following schools: Lane Elementary, Mark Twain, and/or Edison High?

[Anonymous]

We just moved to the Kingstowne area and these are the public schools our children will be directed to. Can anyone give me any information on how these schools are. I have heard that the elementary school is not bad but that Edison is terrible. I have no idea if that is true or not, and I wanted to see if any of you had experiences or had heard of others' experiences there.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

We live in Kingstowne, too, Manchester Lakes area. Are you sure those are the schools you are slated for? We are slated for Lane but then Hayfield Secondary (middle and high school in one building). Lane is in Cluster 4 with Hayfield, and Twain/Edison are in Cluster 5. My kids are toddlers so I don't know for sure, but you might want to double check. Here is a link for the boundary locator:
http://boundary.fcps.edu/boundary/

Since we are slated for Lane, I can tell you that I have heard decent things about it, although not a lot of details as most of the school age kids in my neighborhood seem to go to parochial school. I tend to think that if you're an involved parent, your child can get a good education in any Fairfax County school, but honestly we hope to move to a better pyramid before our kids get to middle school.

[Anonymous]

Hi PP, thank you so much for your response. I checked on the site you sent (which is great, thank you) and we are in the Lane, Twain, Edison cluster. I wish we could afford parochial school but we have 3 kids and it would bankrupt us. Ugh. So, I guess we are stuck with these, since moving anytime soon in this economy would also be a tough financial blow. Too bad there aren't more middle tier private schools around here that are not 28 k a year.

[Anonymous]

7:30 here. Interesting. Learn something new everyday; I didn't know that some people crossed clusters. We have lived in Kingstowne for 7 years and love it. It's such a great area, and we actually would hate to leave it. Our oldest is 3, and we've looked into the nearby private schools (Burgundy, Browne) and have definitely ruled them out due to $$, but may still consider parochial. We bought our house at the top of the market in 2005 so we won't be moving for several more years even if that is what we decide to do. I'm hoping that if my oldest starts at Lane and I get a better feel for the schools (aside from what I read here and there on this site), that I'll be more comfortable with them because we would like to stay in Kingstowne.

[Anonymous]

7:30,OP again, your story sounds very similar to ours. We would love to stay here too, but for the school issue. We have 3 boys under 4. We love the proximity to DC as well as the convenience of the area. We will be so bummed to leave for schools if we have too. There is always the lottery. A girl can dream right.

[Anonymous]

My children went to Lane K-6, we had a great experience there. My girls are now in 7th grade at Hayfield, but some of their friends are at Twain/Edison (only a small percentage of the Lane families feed into Twain, the majority go to Hayfield) and my stepson went to Edison. Twain actually has the GT kids there as well (Gifted and Talented, but they call it something else now) -- it is considered a good school. I don't know too much about Edison, but I don't think it is bad. I think Hayfield is a bit better since they opened the South County school and got rid of the overcrowding. Edison is undergoing a significant renovation right now, so it looks messy and has trailers outside, but that should be finished within the next year or so.

[Anonymous]

And let me add more on Lane: they have some really GREAT teachers there that have been there since the school opened. There is a lot of parent involvement and they have many after school enrichment programs for kids to participate in. If your kids need any extra help, teachers will come in early to meet with them. Also, the ladies in the office and the principal/vice principal pretty much know ALL the kids. My girls are in honors classes at Hayfield, and have been transitioning well. Hayfield is big (7-12), but they separate the middle schoolers from the high schoolers and it seems to work well. The smaller school size/separation of middle and high school is a plus for the Twain/Edison side.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for posting this. This is a great comfort to me. Much more positive than other remarks I had heard about Lane, Twain and Edison. Good luck to your girls! It sounds like they are very smart!

[Anonymous]

My child is in one of the previously mentioned independent schools, and we will not be moving bc of when we bought our house. Have heard many good things about the IB program at Edison, and that is where we plan to send her.

[Anonymous]

Our kids go to Rose Hill but will then go to Twain and then Edison. The neighbor kids and our babysitters all go to Twain/Edison and they and their parents are very happy with the schools. As a PP said, as long as your an involved parent, your child will have ample educational opporutnities at any Fairfax County High School. Sure, your kids will be going to school with kids who don't have amazing parents, who make poor choices and may drop out at some point but that's life. That happens at rich schools, too. We love the diversity of the area, it's affordability and the opportunities our kids have. I see no need to shell out money for private school.

[Anonymous]

Twain is a bit large, but it does include the GT kids, and I think it is not so bad. Remember, none of the public middle schools are all that great primarily because they contain middle school aged kids ... kind of a hard time in general for most kids. Edison is a pretty decent school ... I have several nephews there now. It is one of the smaller Fairfax schools, has a good IB program, an excellent vocational program (particularly its automotive classes, which are really great and sponsored by Ford) ... it is a school with a pretty active PTA that works hard to ensure the kids get the support they need in lots of ways. They sponsor an all night grad party over at the Lee Rec Center that is really fantastic and gives the kids a really fun but also safe way to celebrate the night away. And the top kids from Edison get into excellent schools, including Ivies. Lots of diversity and very few incidents that would make the police blotter. Really. It's a decent school that serves lots of different types of students very well.

[Anonymous]

My husband graduated from Edison and was accepted at UVA, Dartmouth and Harvard. He was always tracked with the AP kids so even though it had a not-great reputation, he got a good education.

[Anonymous]

OP, don't fear. How good the school is will depend on who you're talking to and what their idea of 'good' is. Fairfax County has a great curriculum and lots of excellent teachers. I live near you, in Springfield, and I am not worried at all about the schools. I went to a local elementary in Springfield that fed into Key and had a great experience at both schools. If you are looking for schools that have only rich kids, then you will be disappointed. Otherwise, why don't you give it a chance? I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Anonymous]

Edison is very, very average. If that's OK with you, you'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Edison IS average in the sense that it has both high achieving kids and middle achieving kids and low achieving kids. I presume we all hope our kids are high achieving and if so they will be fine at any FCPS. It really doesn't matter that two classrooms down, the kids are not so motivated and don't wish to go to any college, much less the Ivies, because YOUR child is not in that room.