Falls Church City Elementary Schools

[Anonymous]

Lived here my whole life - never once heard anyone rave about Falls Church City school or comment on them at all for that matter....

The real estate is not pricey bc of the schools - its the location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lived here my whole life - never once heard anyone rave about Falls Church City school or comment on them at all for that matter....

The real estate is not pricey bc of the schools - its the location.

Seven Corners is also a good location, but the population is quite different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An example of that...Haycock ES in Falls Church (but Fairfax County) is 64% caucasian and consistently scores with 90-99% pass rates on the SOLs with typically 75%+ scoring pass advanced.

Falls Church City schools typically also score in the 90's...but starting in 6th grade, their mathematics scores drop to a pass rate in the 70's and it stays there at least until 8th grade. I can't find stats on their pass advanced percentages.

That is a stark contrast to Haycock's 09-10 scores where 99.1% of 6th graders passed and 80.6% scored pass advanced.

Not to take anything away from Haycock's performance, but Haycock is an AAP Center, so the results are expected to be high.

Haycock has a large general population also...and Falls Church City doesn't have GT centers, so all of their "GT" kids are included in their test scores as well.

[Anonymous]

Different poster here. But, Haycock gets the best and brightest students from other schools who are then added into their school's population. Falls Church City does not. That's a big difference in that it skews Haycock's test scores upward. (I have no bone in this discussion as I don't feed into either school district.)

But I don't think the differences between Falls Church City and other "top tier" Fairfax County Public Schools is that great. If Falls Church City Schools were part of Fairfax County, the high school would be right up there with Langley, McLean, Woodson, Madison. It is, however, better than the majority of the other Fairfax County Public Schools in terms of test scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An example of that...Haycock ES in Falls Church (but Fairfax County) is 64% caucasian and consistently scores with 90-99% pass rates on the SOLs with typically 75%+ scoring pass advanced.

Falls Church City schools typically also score in the 90's...but starting in 6th grade, their mathematics scores drop to a pass rate in the 70's and it stays there at least until 8th grade. I can't find stats on their pass advanced percentages.

That is a stark contrast to Haycock's 09-10 scores where 99.1% of 6th graders passed and 80.6% scored pass advanced.

Not to take anything away from Haycock's performance, but Haycock is an AAP Center, so the results are expected to be high.

Haycock has a large general population also...and Falls Church City doesn't have GT centers, so all of their "GT" kids are included in their test scores as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An example of that...Haycock ES in Falls Church (but Fairfax County) is 64% caucasian and consistently scores with 90-99% pass rates on the SOLs with typically 75%+ scoring pass advanced.

Falls Church City schools typically also score in the 90's...but starting in 6th grade, their mathematics scores drop to a pass rate in the 70's and it stays there at least until 8th grade. I can't find stats on their pass advanced percentages.

That is a stark contrast to Haycock's 09-10 scores where 99.1% of 6th graders passed and 80.6% scored pass advanced.

Not to take anything away from Haycock's performance, but Haycock is an AAP Center, so the results are expected to be high.

Haycock has a large general population also...and Falls Church City doesn't have GT centers, so all of their "GT" kids are included in their test scores as well.

You assume they have GT kids, but without a GT program, it's just an assumption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An example of that...Haycock ES in Falls Church (but Fairfax County) is 64% caucasian and consistently scores with 90-99% pass rates on the SOLs with typically 75%+ scoring pass advanced.

Falls Church City schools typically also score in the 90's...but starting in 6th grade, their mathematics scores drop to a pass rate in the 70's and it stays there at least until 8th grade. I can't find stats on their pass advanced percentages.

That is a stark contrast to Haycock's 09-10 scores where 99.1% of 6th graders passed and 80.6% scored pass advanced.

Not to take anything away from Haycock's performance, but Haycock is an AAP Center, so the results are expected to be high.

Haycock has a large general population also...and Falls Church City doesn't have GT centers, so all of their "GT" kids are included in their test scores as well.

You assume they have GT kids, but without a GT program, it's just an assumption.

Not a tough assumption to make, though. The percentile for their median composite cogat is in the 80's. For the U.S. population as a whole, it's 50. Quite a few GT kids in those schools, unless you assume a really weird distribution still centered in the 80's.

http://www.fccps.k12.va.us/cia/assessment/assessmentReport_05_06/outcomes.htm

[Anonymous]

Falls Church City does have a GT program, but it is very different from the one in FCPS.

http://www.fccps.k12.va.us/html/GT.html

[Anonymous]

I guess buying a condo to get into that school district is cheaper than buying a SFH.

There goes the neighborhood..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An example of that...Haycock ES in Falls Church (but Fairfax County) is 64% caucasian and consistently scores with 90-99% pass rates on the SOLs with typically 75%+ scoring pass advanced.

Falls Church City schools typically also score in the 90's...but starting in 6th grade, their mathematics scores drop to a pass rate in the 70's and it stays there at least until 8th grade. I can't find stats on their pass advanced percentages.

That is a stark contrast to Haycock's 09-10 scores where 99.1% of 6th graders passed and 80.6% scored pass advanced.

Not to take anything away from Haycock's performance, but Haycock is an AAP Center, so the results are expected to be high.

Haycock has a large general population also...and Falls Church City doesn't have GT centers, so all of their "GT" kids are included in their test scores as well.

You assume they have GT kids, but without a GT program, it's just an assumption.

Not a tough assumption to make, though. The percentile for their median composite cogat is in the 80's. For the U.S. population as a whole, it's 50. Quite a few GT kids in those schools, unless you assume a really weird distribution still centered in the 80's.

http://www.fccps.k12.va.us/cia/assessment/assessmentReport_05_06/outcomes.htm

Yes, FCC schools do have GT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I guess buying a condo to get into that school district is cheaper than buying a SFH.

There goes the neighborhood..

Could be worse, like renting an apartment or renting a room in a house along with 10 other people with 10 cars parked out front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard great things about the schools, but the one thing that is weird to me is that they break the schools out by K-1 (Mt. Daniel) and then 2-4, 5-7 (middle school) and 8th grade is with the high schoolers. For families with more than one child it seems like it would be one huge headache to always have kids in different schools. Maybe someone who is in that district can comment on that.

I'd also worry about DD being an 8th grader in school with a bunch of 11-12th graders.

MEH actually does a really good job of recognizing that 5th grade really is still elementary school, and keeping the 5th grade separate from the rest of the building for the most part. Once the kids are in 6th and 7th, which are true middle school grades IMO, the schedules and expectations are much different than they are in 5th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lived here my whole life - never once heard anyone rave about Falls Church City school or comment on them at all for that matter....

The real estate is not pricey bc of the schools - its the location.

I just moved into Falls Church, have heard wonderful things about the schools. There is a HUGE price difference between houses in the city and similar ones just over the border (same location practically). When looking at the listings, I could always tell by the house and price whether it was in the city or not - most of that price $ is related to the schools' reputation. Not sure if it's deserved or not (my child is not in the schools yet), but I've heard great things (similar to Arlington and Fairfax County/Mclean ones). It wasn't a deciding factor for me, they all seem great....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lived here my whole life - never once heard anyone rave about Falls Church City school or comment on them at all for that matter....

The real estate is not pricey bc of the schools - its the location.

I just moved into Falls Church, have heard wonderful things about the schools. There is a HUGE price difference between houses in the city and similar ones just over the border (same location practically). When looking at the listings, I could always tell by the house and price whether it was in the city or not - most of that price $ is related to the schools' reputation. Not sure if it's deserved or not (my child is not in the schools yet), but I've heard great things (similar to Arlington and Fairfax County/Mclean ones). It wasn't a deciding factor for me, they all seem great....

Most people would be at least as happy at Haycock/Longfellow/McLean as at a FCC school. Are you talking about schools in the Falls Church HS district or did you just drink too much Kool-Aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lived here my whole life - never once heard anyone rave about Falls Church City school or comment on them at all for that matter....

The real estate is not pricey bc of the schools - its the location.

I just moved into Falls Church, have heard wonderful things about the schools. There is a HUGE price difference between houses in the city and similar ones just over the border (same location practically). When looking at the listings, I could always tell by the house and price whether it was in the city or not - most of that price $ is related to the schools' reputation. Not sure if it's deserved or not (my child is not in the schools yet), but I've heard great things (similar to Arlington and Fairfax County/Mclean ones). It wasn't a deciding factor for me, they all seem great....

Let's clarify one thing.

Homes east and south of Falls Church City are much lower.

Homes West and North of Falls Church City are as expensive, or much more expensive.

As you head east and/or south, the schools aren't comparable at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Let's clarify one thing.

Homes east and south of Falls Church City are much lower.

Homes West and North of Falls Church City are as expensive, or much more expensive.

As you head east and/or south, the schools aren't comparable at all.

For what it's worth, McLean, Marshall and Stuart HS all get more "out-of-boundary" students transferring into the schools than "in-boundary" students transferring to other schools. Marshall HS now gets the most "out-of-boundary" students transferring into the school of any high school in Fairfax County, and Falls Church HS has the most "in-boundary" students transferring out.