Moving from Arlington to Mclean

[Anonymous]

We are thinking of moving from Arlington to McLean. We really love our small neighborhood elementary school - Innovation Elementary in N. Arlington. We are considering Langley/Mclean school district but keep hearing how big the class sizes are in Churchill Elementary and Springhill Elementary. Is that true? What’s the vibe at these schools? My son’s current Kg class at Innovation has 17 kids with 2 teachers and we’re very happy with it. It’s ranked 6/10 but the Mclean schools are ranked 8 and 9 out of 10. There is no AAP in Arlington, so that’s a motivation for us to move to Mclean. Are there any smaller elementary schools in Mclean/Vienna that feed to solid high schools?

[Anonymous]

1. https://www.niche.com/k12/compare

Plug in all the elementary schools you are interested in.

You'll see Innovation ES SOL reading/math passing rate is in the 80s% while both Churchill and spring hill is in the 90s%.

There is nothing wrong with 80s passing rate. But that data shows your kid will be fine.

VA SOL website https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results gives inexhaustable data about SOL in every school. I use niche because it's just easier to get to some ballpark number. The compare tool also gives student/teacher ratio and # of student, you can plug in all elementary schools where you want to buy a home in.

2. All McLean/Vienna schools feeds into top HS in VA, ranked higher than Arlington HSs. But ranking is only part of the story. A student from a family with emotional and financial stability and support is going to do well in most schools, as long as that school passes a threshold of having good teachers and a cohort of hard working students. So your child will be fine in any of the top 10-20 schools in VA because they passed that threshold, like any schools in Vienna/Mclean. There is no need to stress too much.

[Anonymous]

I would not worry about the schools. All are equally top notch. Find a home you love and can see yourself living in the long run. My daughter, nieces and nephews went to different Langley feeder elementary schools. They all had great experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking of moving from Arlington to McLean. We really love our small neighborhood elementary school - Innovation Elementary in N. Arlington. We are considering Langley/Mclean school district but keep hearing how big the class sizes are in Churchill Elementary and Springhill Elementary. Is that true? What’s the vibe at these schools? My son’s current Kg class at Innovation has 17 kids with 2 teachers and we’re very happy with it. It’s ranked 6/10 but the Mclean schools are ranked 8 and 9 out of 10. There is no AAP in Arlington, so that’s a motivation for us to move to Mclean. Are there any smaller elementary schools in Mclean/Vienna that feed to solid high schools?

Franklin Sherman is quite small - less than half the size of Churchill Road or Spring Hill - and has a very good principal. Feeds to Longfellow and McLean.

To be clear, though, there’s a difference between class sizes and school sizes.

[Anonymous]

What about moving to the City of Falls Church?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about moving to the City of Falls Church?

FCCPS is overrated. The kids who do well there do well because they have the family resources and connections to help them do well, not because of the school system itself. Almost all the leadership is either people who’ve never worked anywhere else and have a “we’ve always done it this way!” mentality or FCPS castoffs.

[Anonymous]

Moving for AAP could be a mistake, especially with the schools you are targeting. Those are the schools with far higher scores required to be in pool because so many parents prep for the NNAT and new test and then work hard to curate the perfect work samples and parent referral packet. The number of families that end up on the AAP Forum complaining that their kid with a 140 test score was not selected for AAP in the Langley and McLean pyramids is surprisingly high. Those are the pyramids with the highest number of rejected kids.

Move because you want a different school experience. Move because you want a different community. Move for commute or a bigger house or whatever but moving for AAP is a gamble. Only move if you are going to be happy if your child doesn't get into AAP. If you are hell bent on AAP, move to a different pyramid where the parents are less AAP obsessed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about moving to the City of Falls Church?

FCCPS is overrated. The kids who do well there do well because they have the family resources and connections to help them do well, not because of the school system itself. Almost all the leadership is either people who’ve never worked anywhere else and have a “we’ve always done it this way!” mentality or FCPS castoffs.

That is the same for Langley and McLean.

[Anonymous]

We moved from an average FCPS pyramid into Langley/McLean. The differences in the peer groups and academic expectations were quickly noticeable, and it served our kids very well in terms of college preparedness and developing a solid work ethic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving for AAP could be a mistake, especially with the schools you are targeting. Those are the schools with far higher scores required to be in pool because so many parents prep for the NNAT and new test and then work hard to curate the perfect work samples and parent referral packet. The number of families that end up on the AAP Forum complaining that their kid with a 140 test score was not selected for AAP in the Langley and McLean pyramids is surprisingly high. Those are the pyramids with the highest number of rejected kids.

Move because you want a different school experience. Move because you want a different community. Move for commute or a bigger house or whatever but moving for AAP is a gamble. Only move if you are going to be happy if your child doesn't get into AAP. If you are hell bent on AAP, move to a different pyramid where the parents are less AAP obsessed.

Agreed. And note that "normal" academic level in the Langley/Mclean pyramids is likely to be "advanced" somewhere else. I don't know if that would be the case for your Arlington schools, which I imagine are the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving for AAP could be a mistake, especially with the schools you are targeting. Those are the schools with far higher scores required to be in pool because so many parents prep for the NNAT and new test and then work hard to curate the perfect work samples and parent referral packet. The number of families that end up on the AAP Forum complaining that their kid with a 140 test score was not selected for AAP in the Langley and McLean pyramids is surprisingly high. Those are the pyramids with the highest number of rejected kids.

Move because you want a different school experience. Move because you want a different community. Move for commute or a bigger house or whatever but moving for AAP is a gamble. Only move if you are going to be happy if your child doesn't get into AAP. If you are hell bent on AAP, move to a different pyramid where the parents are less AAP obsessed.

Have they changed something recently?

Because every school in the county has the same cut off scores to qualify for AAP.

Your elementary school in McLean has the same AAP score cut off as Garfield Elementary in central Springfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved from an average FCPS pyramid into Langley/McLean. The differences in the peer groups and academic expectations were quickly noticeable, and it served our kids very well in terms of college preparedness and developing a solid work ethic.

This. As a parent of kids at McLean HS, I can confirm that an academically solid peer group is by far the single biggest benefit of moving to this pyramid. I guess at certain point there’s not much difference between schools but being with high achieving, like minded peers is the most important aspect for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved from an average FCPS pyramid into Langley/McLean. The differences in the peer groups and academic expectations were quickly noticeable, and it served our kids very well in terms of college preparedness and developing a solid work ethic.

This. As a parent of kids at McLean HS, I can confirm that an academically solid peer group is by far the single biggest benefit of moving to this pyramid. I guess at certain point there’s not much difference between schools but being with high achieving, like minded peers is the most important aspect for us.

There's no reason to think that Arlington doesn't have a similarly academically minded peer set. That doesn't seem like a factor here.

[Anonymous]

Check out Chesterbrook. Keep in mind, the class sizes have to do with the numbers of students that are signed up at the beginning of the year and the formula that determines how many teachers. My kids had between 22- 35 kids in their ES classes because of the number of kids kept increasing and decreasing slightly and they went above and below the cutoffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving for AAP could be a mistake, especially with the schools you are targeting. Those are the schools with far higher scores required to be in pool because so many parents prep for the NNAT and new test and then work hard to curate the perfect work samples and parent referral packet. The number of families that end up on the AAP Forum complaining that their kid with a 140 test score was not selected for AAP in the Langley and McLean pyramids is surprisingly high. Those are the pyramids with the highest number of rejected kids.

Move because you want a different school experience. Move because you want a different community. Move for commute or a bigger house or whatever but moving for AAP is a gamble. Only move if you are going to be happy if your child doesn't get into AAP. If you are hell bent on AAP, move to a different pyramid where the parents are less AAP obsessed.

Have they changed something recently?

Because every school in the county has the same cut off scores to qualify for AAP.

Your elementary school in McLean has the same AAP score cut off as Garfield Elementary in central Springfield.

This is incorrect.