Hard choice about buying near Spring Hill or Franklin Sherman

[Anonymous]

PP: the real issue is any place that has a lot of apartments will have a more transient population, which probably correlates to lower scores. In Vienna, the school that is the special ed center seems to be one of the better schools right now: Vienna Elementary.

FYI, I know nothing about McLean schools, so they must be bad .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the he$$ ??? Is this slam on Cunningham Park week on the VA Public Schools board? That Marshall Road topic was full of it (and full of it too).

Back to the topic at hand, IMHO your kids would be fine at either school pick the best combination for you and your family.

Uh, I put "undesirable" in quotes. Namely, CP is "undesirable" if you're a school snob, but OK to good otherwise. I thought CP was a good example of unjustified school snob hating but it seems it has some defenders quick to see slights when none were meant.

[Anonymous]

My bad, I must have missed the sarcism aimed at the school snobs due to not hitting my "second wind" yesterday afternoon. ( We were too early before dawn, Ooph! ) Read in that context then, nice job ! ! The Marshall Road thread has been really unconstructive once the snobbish took hold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What area do these hispanic kids live in? I can't think of any lower income apartments in McLean.

Sherman's lower scores would be especially surprising since I think a few homes along McLean's gold coast feed into Sherman, not to mention a lot of other wealthy areas.

The point was that the parents who send their kids to Sherman don't seem to worry too much if Sherman gets a "7" on Great Schools because there are special education students sent there who tend to score lower on standardized tests.

On the other hand, if Marshall Road also gets a "7" on GreatSchools, or Cunningham Park gets a "5," because there are lower-income kids in condos near the Vienna metro or Hispanic kids in the Cedar/Park apartments, some posters seem to think that's good and sufficient reason to steer people away from those schools in favor of other, "great" schools.

Capiche?

BTW, what and where exactly is McLean's "gold coast"?

I supposed it's perceived this way because special ed kids who go to Sherman are not poor and most likely have a stable house hold where the kids are taught right from wrong and parents are highly educated.

In contrast, the poor kids who go to Marshall Road and Cunningham Park are more likely from less stable families and are from different cultures where education may not be emphasized.

McLean's Gold Coast is the area that borders the Potomac River.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP: the real issue is any place that has a lot of apartments will have a more transient population, which probably correlates to lower scores. In Vienna, the school that is the special ed center seems to be one of the better schools right now: Vienna Elementary.

FYI, I know nothing about McLean schools, so they must be bad . [u]

You must have just awaken from a coma.

[Anonymous]

Starting this thread up again. We are moving to the Sherman-Longfellow-McLean pyramid. Leaving private school behind to get a great house for our three kids with great schools.

What do we need to know, ie testing for GT programs -- is it worth it before school starts or should we wait and see what the school offers and what the teachers recommend? What do kids wear to school? Our private had a strict dress code, so getting to wear anything you want is a new issue for us. What do we need to do to get our kids mingling with other kids? Should I volunteer, etc?

So new to the public school thing!!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

School web site with some picture galleries:

http://www.fcps.edu/FranklinShermanES/