Fairfax County Schools -- Is there a deterioration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS kids are tracked in elementary and middle school. High school is important for college and also because those friendships tend to last into adulthood.

Our Vienna-area elementary school is not tracked except for math classes. Otherwise, each grade has the designated "special" class with the requisite number of smart kids mixed in, who have to put up with being limited by the others.

If our school did true tracking, everyone could be on or around the same level. But no.

[Anonymous]

If our school did true tracking, everyone could be on or around the same level. But no.

No. Some of the kids will be lots smarter than the others. A nice hetergenous group is best.

[Anonymous]

edit: heterogenous

[Anonymous]

AAP, level 2, 3 and 4 and Honors classes are forms of tracking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm new to this forum and my family is considering moving into the area from Long Island. So far I'm not used to all the acronyms used so that is very confusing to me. However what is not confusing to me is most of the posting do not answer the question----Is there a deterioration in the schools? So I will ask some questions:

1) What is lacking in the schools? On the elementary, middle, and high school level.

2) Overcrowding is nothing new in any public school in this country. So what is being done (if any) to reduce the overcrowding in Fairfax?

3) Teaching to the test is also nothing new. The question is: What are the students learning from this process and has there been a decrease in grades or education through this process?

4) With the changes seen by those on this forum, how does Fairfax schools match up to surrounding schools in other counties? I can look at Greatschool.com or .org if I want numbers. What I'm looking for is info from parents who are involved in the schools and not relying on the teacher to do all the teaching.

In Virginia, school districts are done by county or City. So they tend to be large. Fairfax County Public Schools is a very large district, 11th largest in the country. Different schools have different issues they are tackling. On the whole, the schools are very good and the test scores are higher than the surrounding school districts. It is generally an affluent highly educated population, but there are Title I schools in pockets. ~20-23% of the students qualify for free or reduced price lunches- so despite the affluence there is still poverty.

The school board just increased the class sizes to meet the budget- so there will be even more overcrowding.

The SOLs have been around for many years and I would say there was an initial decrease in the quality of education, but the SOL benchmarks have been increasing- so the quality of what is being tested has also been increasing.

Fairfax County matches up well to surrounding districts with a few exceptions. With 25 major HS (some are "secondary school because they include Middle School), there are some that are ranked very highly nationally and a few that still need work.

Do you know where in the County you will be looking?

At the present time, I don't know which school district I'll be moving to. Right now I'm on a fact finding mission, to gather as much info (some of it a little overwhelming), then make a decision. It may be outside Fairfax County but still in the NOVA area. It appears and please correct me if I'm wrong; that its best to choose a district to live in based on the high school? From what I have read on this forum that is what most of the discussion is centered on.

Fairfax County has 25 High Schools/Secondary Schools in its district. It is best to choose based on high school boundary- but those change and with the new Superintendent- they will probably be changing in the next few year in many HS across the county. Arlington has 4 HS. Falls Church has 1 HS and is it called George Mason (the HS that has the name 'Falls Church High School' is one of the HS in Fairfax County). Here, we generally refer to "District" as the whole countywide (citywide) system.

There are Cities in northern Virginia: Falls Church, Alexandria - each run their own schools. However, the postal code for Falls Church and for Alexandria includes some houses in Fairfax County. So, you may have an address that says 'Falls Church" but it may actually be in Fairfax County and the children go to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Same goes for Alexandria. This is important, because the schools in Alexandria City are generally considered to be very poor. It is important to use the school locators on the public school websites when you are looking at specific houses. Vienna and Fairfax City are similar, but they use FCPS. I know Fairfax City contracts with FCPS for its schools and has its own school board, but I don't know if Vienna has its own school board. Again, you can have a postal code of Fairfax or Vienna, but live outside the city limits.

Thanks for the info. How often do the school boundaries change and why?

There usually are some changes every year or two. They change to address capacity issues when certain schools are over-capacity. Sometimes they change when a particular School Board member wants to alter the demographics at a school within his or her district, and can get the other School Board members to go along with a redistricting. Sometimes the changes relate only to special programs, such as the elementary school assignments to AAP (Advanced Academic Program) centers.

Tweaks happen every year and every so often a bigger change for a few High Schools. OTOH, our neighborhood children have gone to the same HS since it opened 50+ years ago. So, it also depends on where you live. Our school board, like all schools boards, tries to do the fewest boundary changes as possible because they are rarely popular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If our school did true tracking, everyone could be on or around the same level. But no.

No. Some of the kids will be lots smarter than the others. A nice hetergenous group is best.

Clearly, you have the *slower* kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If our school did true tracking, everyone could be on or around the same level. But no.

No. Some of the kids will be lots smarter than the others. A nice hetergenous group is best.

Clearly, you have the *slower* kid.

Ugh. An AAP parent personified.

[Anonymous]

Going downhill fast. Just too big, becoming more urban. Nobody could manage it and money only slows the bleeding .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If our school did true tracking, everyone could be on or around the same level. But no.

No. Some of the kids will be lots smarter than the others. A nice hetergenous group is best.

Clearly, you have the *slower* kid.

Ugh. An AAP parent personified.

Actually no, I'm not. I think it's a crock. My intelligent, hard-working kid should not have to be held back so much, however. Tracking benefits all kids, weaker academically as well as stronger.

[Anonymous]

No. Some of the kids will be lots smarter than the others. A nice hetergenous group is best.


Clearly, you have the *slower* kid.

No. I was a teacher who understands that there are big shifts in achievement in elementary school. I am not opposed to tracking starting around fifth grade. Grouping is fine--tracking is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually argue that elementary school is the most important and you should choose a place based on that. During elementary school most students are not tracked

Once you reach middle school students are tracked and every school in Fairfax county has at least one class/section tracking at the highest level

The one consideration at the high school level is whether you care if the program is AP or IB

OP here. What is the difference between AP or IB? AP I figure is Advance Placement----never heard of IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going downhill fast. Just too big, becoming more urban. Nobody could manage it and money only slows the bleeding .

MMM--urban. Please clarify? Going downhill fast-------please elaborate on how and why its going downhill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually argue that elementary school is the most important and you should choose a place based on that. During elementary school most students are not tracked

Once you reach middle school students are tracked and every school in Fairfax county has at least one class/section tracking at the highest level

The one consideration at the high school level is whether you care if the program is AP or IB

OP here. What is the difference between AP or IB? AP I figure is Advance Placement----never heard of IB.

IB is International Baccalaureate. It's a program administered out of Geneva that was introduced to a number of Fairfax high schools, primarily in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

http://www.ibo.org/

Eight high schools in Fairfax have IB (Annandale, Edison, Lee, Stuart, Marshall, Mount Vernon, Robinson and South Lakes); the rest have AP. Robinson is primarily IB, but offers some AP courses as well, which it is able to do given its large size. If you're zoned for an IB school, but want AP, you can pupil place to the AP school, and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually argue that elementary school is the most important and you should choose a place based on that. During elementary school most students are not tracked

Once you reach middle school students are tracked and every school in Fairfax county has at least one class/section tracking at the highest level

The one consideration at the high school level is whether you care if the program is AP or IB

OP here. What is the difference between AP or IB? AP I figure is Advance Placement----never heard of IB.

IB is International Baccalaureate. It's a program administered out of Geneva that was introduced to a number of Fairfax high schools, primarily in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

http://www.ibo.org/

Eight high schools in Fairfax have IB (Annandale, Edison, Lee, Stuart, Marshall, Mount Vernon, Robinson and South Lakes); the rest have AP. Robinson is primarily IB, but offers some AP courses as well, which it is able to do given its large size. If you're zoned for an IB school, but want AP, you can pupil place to the AP school, and vice versa.

In your opinion which is the better program and why? What is the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going downhill fast. Just too big, becoming more urban. Nobody could manage it and money only slows the bleeding .

MMM--urban. Please clarify? Going downhill fast-------please elaborate on how and why its going downhill?

More crime, more family disfunction, more tolerance for disruption, too many different languages, more financially stressed people, more difficult to fire inept teachers, less school spirit, jaded, stretched budget, mess .