Considering a house in Vienna.. AA family

[Anonymous]

Another high achieving AA family living in Vienn and loving it here. My children have not brought up any issues to us. Schools so far allow them to a mix of friends from all races. I guess it may matter where you are coming from?

[Anonymous]

Our kids go to Woodson and are happy. The % of Black students on the school profile looks lower than is my experience, though a number of the black families we know are immigrants.

If your kids are AAP in the Woodson pyramid, Canterbury Woods AAP is very diverse, and that extends to Frost. Some of those kids go to Annandale for HS but I find Woodson to be very diverse in terms of all races.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an AA family in Vienna - it’s true that it’s VERY white. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably move to Reston. Same general area but a much more diverse population.

Its on the edge of Reston so theoretically South Lakes would be workable; it just didnt seem like one of the better schoools in any particular metric?

We are at SLHS. It is a fine school, many great teachers, students and teachers are diverse, and the college-bound students from families who prioritize rigor do very well. DS is heading to a T20 next fall.

The school is almost like 2 schools in 1. It has the IB program and rigor, and also more economically diverse and includes larger numbers of students who are ELL and/or low income and that definitely affects “scores” but it is not a worse school than others in FCPS. There can be benefits to attending a school where not everyone is trying for UVA or higher.

If you are afraid of your kid being influenced by the non college bound types then you understandably have difficult decisions to make.

[Anonymous]

Within FCPS, you are provided transportation (bus) to the school you are zoned for. You can pupil place to another school but you will have to get your kids there. If they do not drive yet, it will get very old, very quickly.

The rankings are a lot of things but cannot really cover the community aspect of each school. Even the “worst” high school in FCPS will still offer IB or AP classes for students.

[Anonymous]

We live in Vienna and am not AA but my kids have had a good childhood. I like our neighborhood and the town. If I could do it over, I would have bought in the same area but in a neighborhood a few blocks over and sent them to Marshall. So many of their friends ended up going there instead of Madison and it’s slightly more diverse and down to earth. The only downside is it’s IB instead of AP.

But Madison is fine too. There is more diversity than people lead you to believe on this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an AA family in Vienna - it’s true that it’s VERY white. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably move to Reston. Same general area but a much more diverse population.

Its on the edge of Reston so theoretically South Lakes would be workable; it just didnt seem like one of the better schoools in any particular metric?

We are at SLHS. It is a fine school, many great teachers, students and teachers are diverse, and the college-bound students from families who prioritize rigor do very well. DS is heading to a T20 next fall.

The school is almost like 2 schools in 1. It has the IB program and rigor, and also more economically diverse and includes larger numbers of students who are ELL and/or low income and that definitely affects “scores” but it is not a worse school than others in FCPS. There can be benefits to attending a school where not everyone is trying for UVA or higher.

If you are afraid of your kid being influenced by the non college bound types then you understandably have difficult decisions to make.

An AA family that wants Vienna doesn’t want SLHS.

[Anonymous]

The Vienna community is not at all relaxed. It is hyper competitive on youth sports, academics, wealth, popularity and pretty much anything else people can be competitive about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, not sure if this should be in real estate or this Forum?
Really like the area overall.
The home would be inbound for one of the many very low population AA High Schools; How feasible would it be to commute to one of the more racially diverse private schools in the area? Are there shuttles etc., that students can take instead of the drive to some of these schools?
There doesnt seem to be ANY high achieving FCPS high schools with a solid AA population from what I could tell?
Would it make more sense to simply consider other areas? MoCo Schools have a high average AA population at most, but seem on average seem much lower rated than top rated FCPSchools, but not sure how much this impacts college acceptance? i.e graduating from a Wooten/Whitman etc. vs an Oakton/McLean/Madison.

Vienna is a great community with good schools and very welcoming.

However, Madison is the whitest high school in Fairfax County and about to get whiter.

Some other schools are more diverse than Madison due to significant Asian and Hispanic enrollment but don't have a lot of AA kids.

West Springfield is often considered the sweet spot for those looking for a highly rated school with a larger (in WSHS's case, about 13%) AA enrollment.

Source?

[Anonymous]

I teach in Vienna. I am not AA but have not seen any racism in Vienna elementary schools. I have only seen kids being inclusive. This includes Vienna ES, Louise Archer ES, and Westbriar ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, not sure if this should be in real estate or this Forum?
Really like the area overall.
The home would be inbound for one of the many very low population AA High Schools; How feasible would it be to commute to one of the more racially diverse private schools in the area? Are there shuttles etc., that students can take instead of the drive to some of these schools?
There doesnt seem to be ANY high achieving FCPS high schools with a solid AA population from what I could tell?
Would it make more sense to simply consider other areas? MoCo Schools have a high average AA population at most, but seem on average seem much lower rated than top rated FCPSchools, but not sure how much this impacts college acceptance? i.e graduating from a Wooten/Whitman etc. vs an Oakton/McLean/Madison.

Vienna is a great community with good schools and very welcoming.

However, Madison is the whitest high school in Fairfax County and about to get whiter.

Some other schools are more diverse than Madison due to significant Asian and Hispanic enrollment but don't have a lot of AA kids.

West Springfield is often considered the sweet spot for those looking for a highly rated school with a larger (in WSHS's case, about 13%) AA enrollment.

Source?

https://www.fcpsboundaryreview.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Vienna community is not at all relaxed. It is hyper competitive on youth sports, academics, wealth, popularity and pretty much anything else people can be competitive about.

OP Here; That actually sounds amazing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in Vienna. I am not AA but have not seen any racism in Vienna elementary schools. I have only seen kids being inclusive. This includes Vienna ES, Louise Archer ES, and Westbriar ES.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an AA family in Vienna - it’s true that it’s VERY white. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably move to Reston. Same general area but a much more diverse population.

Its on the edge of Reston so theoretically South Lakes would be workable; it just didnt seem like one of the better schoools in any particular metric?

We are at SLHS. It is a fine school, many great teachers, students and teachers are diverse, and the college-bound students from families who prioritize rigor do very well. DS is heading to a T20 next fall.

The school is almost like 2 schools in 1. It has the IB program and rigor, and also more economically diverse and includes larger numbers of students who are ELL and/or low income and that definitely affects “scores” but it is not a worse school than others in FCPS. There can be benefits to attending a school where not everyone is trying for UVA or higher.

If you are afraid of your kid being influenced by the non college bound types then you understandably have difficult decisions to make.

This is great information and a very useful datapoint imo. Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an AA family in Vienna - it’s true that it’s VERY white. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably move to Reston. Same general area but a much more diverse population.

Its on the edge of Reston so theoretically South Lakes would be workable; it just didnt seem like one of the better schoools in any particular metric?

We are at SLHS. It is a fine school, many great teachers, students and teachers are diverse, and the college-bound students from families who prioritize rigor do very well. DS is heading to a T20 next fall.

The school is almost like 2 schools in 1. It has the IB program and rigor, and also more economically diverse and includes larger numbers of students who are ELL and/or low income and that definitely affects “scores” but it is not a worse school than others in FCPS. There can be benefits to attending a school where not everyone is trying for UVA or higher.

If you are afraid of your kid being influenced by the non college bound types then you understandably have difficult decisions to make.

This is great information and a very useful datapoint imo. Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Vienna community is not at all relaxed. It is hyper competitive on youth sports, academics, wealth, popularity and pretty much anything else people can be competitive about.

OP Here; That actually sounds amazing

OP good luck