New Home Choice: Is Oakton High Really Better than Chantilly?

[Anonymous]

Oakton is generally considered "better" per the various rankings like US News and World Report, Niche, School Digger, but YMMV.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy with both Carson and Chantilly. It's what you make it, but you do you.

[Anonymous]

Homes that are zoned Carson/Oakton have a very long commute to Oakton IMO. Check out if that is acceptable to you... Personally I avoided it and went with RR/Chantilly a mile away.

[Anonymous]

Oakton has a richer population, so the test scores are going to be higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oakton has a richer population, so the test scores are going to be higher.

Even this isn't a given. Chantilly often has higher AP test scores and had higher sat scores a few years ago. It has been ranked higher than Oakton a few times in the past 5 years. remember rankings are based on data that is 3 to 5 years old and might not be reflective of the current student body. (e.g. taking bc calculs used to be rare for sophomores in 2019 at chantilly, now there are a few freshman taking multivar).

[Anonymous]

Both are considered avoidable if you can afford private school, otherwise those schools are part of the Neoliberal Establishment that puts patriots to need to avoid if liberal democrats continue to control Fairfax County. Then there are a lot fewer options for them in Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both are considered avoidable if you can afford private school, otherwise those schools are part of the Neoliberal Establishment that puts patriots to need to avoid if liberal democrats continue to control Fairfax County. Then there are a lot fewer options for them in Fairfax County.

Isn't it too early in the day to be hitting the bottle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are considered avoidable if you can afford private school, otherwise those schools are part of the Neoliberal Establishment that puts patriots to need to avoid if liberal democrats continue to control Fairfax County. Then there are a lot fewer options for them in Fairfax County.

Isn't it too early in the day to be hitting the bottle?

Lol

[Anonymous]

Boundaries could be an issue at either school. Historically Oakton's boundaries have shifted more than any other high school in FCPS. On the other hand, Chantilly is overcrowded and it looks like FCPS's "plan" is to redistrict once Centreville has been expanded to 3000 seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD goes to Rocky and her best friend goes to Carson. She says that academically, Rocky seems to be more difficult than RC. She really does not like the new Rocky principal; some of the new policies that impact the students don't make any sense.

Rocky's old principal went to Chantilly, and she is very well regarded. I don't think there are huge differences between Oakton and Chantilly. Chantilly does have an overcrowding problem.

What new policies?

Until the admin change, the kids had 3rd period (I think) daily. So there was one 45 minute class every day. Then they had 45 minutes of Rock Time, which was a break of sorts, every day. Now, they just have Rock Time as a regular class, one long block, every other day. The school is divided into groups based on counselors, and their outside time is with everyone in their own group. These groups each have a designated spot where they're supposed to meet, and each group is not supposed to mingle with the other groups. Last year, the kids got to sign up for where they wanted their breaks, every two weeks. Friends could meet up with their friends by choosing the same break location, and even if everyone didn't get the same spots, they still would have some friends in their location in any given week. Some of their locations were outdoors, some indoors. Now, with assigned grouping, some kids (like my daughter) end up with no friends in their group. Additionally, if there is inclement weather, there are no indoor locations where they can go; they just stay in whatever class/Rock Time they had before their break time.

The teachers also have the ability to view all the tabs on their computer. The kids were told that this was an FCPS-wide thing, but per DD, none of her friends in other schools, including high schools have this. I don't think this is a bad thing, BTW.

What does this mean? Abilitynto view all the tabs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boundaries could be an issue at either school. Historically Oakton's boundaries have shifted more than any other high school in FCPS. On the other hand, Chantilly is overcrowded and it looks like FCPS's "plan" is to redistrict once Centreville has been expanded to 3000 seats.

If and when a western high school is built, along with all the new Affordable Housing developments being built in the Tysons/Vienna corridor, both of these schools stand to get a significant redistribution of wealth. Scores and ratings will go down on paper but all of that is just gossip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boundaries could be an issue at either school. Historically Oakton's boundaries have shifted more than any other high school in FCPS. On the other hand, Chantilly is overcrowded and it looks like FCPS's "plan" is to redistrict once Centreville has been expanded to 3000 seats.

If and when a western high school is built, along with all the new Affordable Housing developments being built in the Tysons/Vienna corridor, both of these schools stand to get a significant redistribution of wealth. Scores and ratings will go down on paper but all of that is just gossip.

Centreville will be expanded long before a western high school is built, so that could affect Chantilly earlier.

New housing in Tysons/Vienna may eventually bump part of Vienna zoned to Marshall to Madison but it won’t affect Oakton or Chantilly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD goes to Rocky and her best friend goes to Carson. She says that academically, Rocky seems to be more difficult than RC. She really does not like the new Rocky principal; some of the new policies that impact the students don't make any sense.

Rocky's old principal went to Chantilly, and she is very well regarded. I don't think there are huge differences between Oakton and Chantilly. Chantilly does have an overcrowding problem.

What new policies?

Until the admin change, the kids had 3rd period (I think) daily. So there was one 45 minute class every day. Then they had 45 minutes of Rock Time, which was a break of sorts, every day. Now, they just have Rock Time as a regular class, one long block, every other day. The school is divided into groups based on counselors, and their outside time is with everyone in their own group. These groups each have a designated spot where they're supposed to meet, and each group is not supposed to mingle with the other groups. Last year, the kids got to sign up for where they wanted their breaks, every two weeks. Friends could meet up with their friends by choosing the same break location, and even if everyone didn't get the same spots, they still would have some friends in their location in any given week. Some of their locations were outdoors, some indoors. Now, with assigned grouping, some kids (like my daughter) end up with no friends in their group. Additionally, if there is inclement weather, there are no indoor locations where they can go; they just stay in whatever class/Rock Time they had before their break time.

The teachers also have the ability to view all the tabs on their computer. The kids were told that this was an FCPS-wide thing, but per DD, none of her friends in other schools, including high schools have this. I don't think this is a bad thing, BTW.

What does this mean? Abilitynto view all the tabs?

NP. It means they have the version of Light Speed that allows teachers to view what students are doing on their school issued laptops while in class. Teachers can see if the students are switching back and forth from the websites they're supposed to be using and watching YouTube shorts or playing Minecraft via an unblocker site and then they can close the tabs to the sites the students aren't supposed to be visiting. Not every school has this feature but it should be offered county-wide in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD goes to Rocky and her best friend goes to Carson. She says that academically, Rocky seems to be more difficult than RC. She really does not like the new Rocky principal; some of the new policies that impact the students don't make any sense.

Rocky's old principal went to Chantilly, and she is very well regarded. I don't think there are huge differences between Oakton and Chantilly. Chantilly does have an overcrowding problem.

What new policies?

Until the admin change, the kids had 3rd period (I think) daily. So there was one 45 minute class every day. Then they had 45 minutes of Rock Time, which was a break of sorts, every day. Now, they just have Rock Time as a regular class, one long block, every other day. The school is divided into groups based on counselors, and their outside time is with everyone in their own group. These groups each have a designated spot where they're supposed to meet, and each group is not supposed to mingle with the other groups. Last year, the kids got to sign up for where they wanted their breaks, every two weeks. Friends could meet up with their friends by choosing the same break location, and even if everyone didn't get the same spots, they still would have some friends in their location in any given week. Some of their locations were outdoors, some indoors. Now, with assigned grouping, some kids (like my daughter) end up with no friends in their group. Additionally, if there is inclement weather, there are no indoor locations where they can go; they just stay in whatever class/Rock Time they had before their break time.

The teachers also have the ability to view all the tabs on their computer. The kids were told that this was an FCPS-wide thing, but per DD, none of her friends in other schools, including high schools have this. I don't think this is a bad thing, BTW.

What does this mean? Abilitynto view all the tabs?

NP. It means they have the version of Light Speed that allows teachers to view what students are doing on their school issued laptops while in class. Teachers can see if the students are switching back and forth from the websites they're supposed to be using and watching YouTube shorts or playing Minecraft via an unblocker site and then they can close the tabs to the sites the students aren't supposed to be visiting. Not every school has this feature but it should be offered county-wide in my opinion.

Yes. Sorry about being unclear. The interesting thing is that the teachers can see this even when students are not in their class at the moment. DD said that one of the teachers shows his Rock Time class what's on random students' browser. She feels that this is not okay; it's one thing to control what the kids in your class are doing, and quite another to do it when the students are in someone else's class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boundaries could be an issue at either school. Historically Oakton's boundaries have shifted more than any other high school in FCPS. On the other hand, Chantilly is overcrowded and it looks like FCPS's "plan" is to redistrict once Centreville has been expanded to 3000 seats.

If and when a western high school is built, along with all the new Affordable Housing developments being built in the Tysons/Vienna corridor, both of these schools stand to get a significant redistribution of wealth. Scores and ratings will go down on paper but all of that is just gossip.

That is happening in your dreams.