Why does Annandale HS have a bad reputation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Lake Braddock better than Annandale? Is Robert E Lee better or worse? What about Edison or Hayfield?

The party line evaluates schools based on test scores and demographics. Lake Braddock has higher test scores and fewer low-income kids than Annandale. Over the past decade, FCPS moved a lot of the more stable single-family neighborhoods assigned to Annandale to other schools. So Columbia Pines got moved to Falls Church, Ravensworth got moved to Lake Braddock, Wakefield Forest got moved to Woodson, and Edsall Park got moved to Edison. There are still some nice areas zoned for Annandale, but a high percentage of the kids there now live in low-income apartments that are either just inside the Beltway in Annandale or near Landmark. In comparison, Lake Braddock pulls mostly from single-family neighborhoods and townhouses in Burke and West Springfield.

Lee is similar to Annandale, the main difference being that it pulls from fewer apartment complexes and more run-down single-family neighborhoods, along with nicer areas like Saratoga and Daventry. Edison and Hayfield are considered more desirable than Annandale and Lee now, but still several notches below Lake Braddock. The big Kingstowne development in Alexandria splits between those schools. Edison is an IB high school; Hayfield is an AP secondary school.

This. We are in one of the nicer single family home areas zoned for Annandale HS (Pinecrest), and I love our neighborhood, and it is great for me, my husband and our (very young) kids for now, but I don't know what are are going to do when they get older. We moved here before we had kids.

Some of the apartment complexes zoned for Annandale are seriously decrepit and disgusting. I really don't know what the county thought would happen by rezoning so many nicer neighborhoods away from Annandale.

+1

The odd part is FCPS Facilities said Annandale was overcrowded and Woodson had lots of room. Now just two years later Woodson is severely overcrowded and Annandale has lots of room.

We live in a neighborhood we love (Brook Hills) but have pupil placed for high school.

Annandale was definitely overcrowded a while back. I think what happened was that FCPS agreed to move Wakefield Forest to Woodson without realizing that, in another year or so, the City of Fairfax would demand that FCPS reduce the non-City enrollment at Fairfax HS, when led to more kids being reassigned to Woodson. I also think FCPS underestimated the extent to which people would start avoiding Poe and Annandale, once it became clear that FCPS was OK driving up the ESOL/FARMS rates at those two schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Lake Braddock better than Annandale? Is Robert E Lee better or worse? What about Edison or Hayfield?

The party line evaluates schools based on test scores and demographics. Lake Braddock has higher test scores and fewer low-income kids than Annandale. Over the past decade, FCPS moved a lot of the more stable single-family neighborhoods assigned to Annandale to other schools. So Columbia Pines got moved to Falls Church, Ravensworth got moved to Lake Braddock, Wakefield Forest got moved to Woodson, and Edsall Park got moved to Edison. There are still some nice areas zoned for Annandale, but a high percentage of the kids there now live in low-income apartments that are either just inside the Beltway in Annandale or near Landmark. In comparison, Lake Braddock pulls mostly from single-family neighborhoods and townhouses in Burke and West Springfield.

Lee is similar to Annandale, the main difference being that it pulls from fewer apartment complexes and more run-down single-family neighborhoods, along with nicer areas like Saratoga and Daventry. Edison and Hayfield are considered more desirable than Annandale and Lee now, but still several notches below Lake Braddock. The big Kingstowne development in Alexandria splits between those schools. Edison is an IB high school; Hayfield is an AP secondary school.

This. We are in one of the nicer single family home areas zoned for Annandale HS (Pinecrest), and I love our neighborhood, and it is great for me, my husband and our (very young) kids for now, but I don't know what are are going to do when they get older. We moved here before we had kids.

Some of the apartment complexes zoned for Annandale are seriously decrepit and disgusting. I really don't know what the county thought would happen by rezoning so many nicer neighborhoods away from Annandale.

+1

The odd part is FCPS Facilities said Annandale was overcrowded and Woodson had lots of room. Now just two years later Woodson is severely overcrowded and Annandale has lots of room.

We live in a neighborhood we love (Brook Hills) but have pupil placed for high school.

Annandale was definitely overcrowded a while back. I think what happened was that FCPS agreed to move Wakefield Forest to Woodson without realizing that, in another year or so, the City of Fairfax would demand that FCPS reduce the non-City enrollment at Fairfax HS, when led to more kids being reassigned to Woodson. I also think FCPS underestimated the extent to which people would start avoiding Poe and Annandale, once it became clear that FCPS was OK driving up the ESOL/FARMS rates at those two schools.

I just looked those up under School Profiles. Thanks for pointing this out.

Poe MS FARMS:
2011-12: 665 students 60.62%
2012-13: 616 students 65.32%
2013-14: 655 students 72.94%

Poe MS English Proficiency:
2011-12: 684 students 62.35%
2012-13: 608 students 64.48%
2013-14: 596 students 66.37%


Annandale HS FARMS:
2011-12: 1,249 students 51.89%
2012-13: 1,213 students 51.73%
2013-14: 1,233 students 55.39%

Annandale HS English Proficiency:
2011-12: 1,851 students 76.90%
2012-13: 1,875 students 79.96%
2013-14: 1,740 students 78.17%

[Anonymous]

Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

[Anonymous]

So that actually suggests the FARMS rates are going up, but the ESOL rates are stable or declining. I wonder whether the ESOL rates for 2014-15 will go up, given the undocumented minors who've been placed in NoVa over the past year.

In either case, I think FCPS took a couple of schools that already had high FARMS rates and moved more single-family neighborhoods out, under-estimating the signal that it might send about the commitment to SES balance at those schools. I hope they revisit the current Poe/Annandale boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

For 2015 pilot year, ESOL academies at Lee and Stuart are for in-bounds only --> do not change demographics at the school. Who knows if this will persist long-term though.

Also each academy is 30 students so not really a big program anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

I went to a meeting at Glasgow MS this spring where Karen Garza and others discussed this, and there was no suggestion that students from other districts would be bussed to Stuart. The intent seemed to be two-fold: first, identify the best way to educate these high-needs kids and, second, give other families comfort that the rest of the school would go about its regular business.

Also, the affordable housing that you mention is mostly market-rate affordable housing in that area. It's not like the county decided to build a ton of housing projects at Bailey's Crossroads, so much as that over time, as newer housing with modern amenities was built elsewhere, garden apartments there became relatively affordable for lower-income immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Lake Braddock better than Annandale? Is Robert E Lee better or worse? What about Edison or Hayfield?

The party line evaluates schools based on test scores and demographics. Lake Braddock has higher test scores and fewer low-income kids than Annandale. Over the past decade, FCPS moved a lot of the more stable single-family neighborhoods assigned to Annandale to other schools. So Columbia Pines got moved to Falls Church, Ravensworth got moved to Lake Braddock, Wakefield Forest got moved to Woodson, and Edsall Park got moved to Edison. There are still some nice areas zoned for Annandale, but a high percentage of the kids there now live in low-income apartments that are either just inside the Beltway in Annandale or near Landmark. In comparison, Lake Braddock pulls mostly from single-family neighborhoods and townhouses in Burke and West Springfield.

Lee is similar to Annandale, the main difference being that it pulls from fewer apartment complexes and more run-down single-family neighborhoods, along with nicer areas like Saratoga and Daventry. Edison and Hayfield are considered more desirable than Annandale and Lee now, but still several notches below Lake Braddock. The big Kingstowne development in Alexandria splits between those schools. Edison is an IB high school; Hayfield is an AP secondary school.

This. We are in one of the nicer single family home areas zoned for Annandale HS (Pinecrest), and I love our neighborhood, and it is great for me, my husband and our (very young) kids for now, but I don't know what are are going to do when they get older. We moved here before we had kids.

Some of the apartment complexes zoned for Annandale are seriously decrepit and disgusting. I really don't know what the county thought would happen by rezoning so many nicer neighborhoods away from Annandale.

People seem pretty positive on both Columbia ES and Holmes MS, so you should be good for some time. I wouldn't be surprised if, st some point, FCPS claws back some of the neighborhoods that it's moved out of Annandale.

PP here. Yes, we are fine with Columbia ES and Holmes, and will happily send our children there, and hopefully FCPS will revisit the Annandale boundaries.

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent with children in ES. I didn't know about the ESOL program starting in certain HS. Is there a mailing list I should join to keep up with changes or issues being discussed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent with children in ES. I didn't know about the ESOL program starting in certain HS. Is there a mailing list I should join to keep up with changes or issues being discussed?

The school within school is not really anything new. The kids are already there - they are just offering a program within the school building that is different than the current esol classes. They are not bringing students from any other schools to Stuart or Lee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

I went to a meeting at Glasgow MS this spring where Karen Garza and others discussed this, and there was no suggestion that students from other districts would be bussed to Stuart. The intent seemed to be two-fold: first, identify the best way to educate these high-needs kids and, second, give other families comfort that the rest of the school would go about its regular business.

Also, the affordable housing that you mention is mostly market-rate affordable housing in that area. It's not like the county decided to build a ton of housing projects at Bailey's Crossroads, so much as that over time, as newer housing with modern amenities was built elsewhere, garden apartments there became relatively affordable for lower-income immigrants.

The Board of Supervisors KEEPS approving multi-family housing projects in these pyramids, all under the guise of revitalization, which is absolute horsesh!t.

They are tearing down the Annandale AMF bowling to build multi-family housing, and a project on Columbia Pike got approved recently that is in the Glen Forest/Poe/Stuart pyramid. So no, it is not just old garden apartments that are the problem.

I think these new multi-family housing developments will just fill up with illegals and breed crime and further concentrate a high-needs populace in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

I went to a meeting at Glasgow MS this spring where Karen Garza and others discussed this, and there was no suggestion that students from other districts would be bussed to Stuart. The intent seemed to be two-fold: first, identify the best way to educate these high-needs kids and, second, give other families comfort that the rest of the school would go about its regular business.

Also, the affordable housing that you mention is mostly market-rate affordable housing in that area. It's not like the county decided to build a ton of housing projects at Bailey's Crossroads, so much as that over time, as newer housing with modern amenities was built elsewhere, garden apartments there became relatively affordable for lower-income immigrants.

The Board of Supervisors KEEPS approving multi-family housing projects in these pyramids, all under the guise of revitalization, which is absolute horsesh!t.

They are tearing down the Annandale AMF bowling to build multi-family housing, and a project on Columbia Pike got approved recently that is in the Glen Forest/Poe/Stuart pyramid. So no, it is not just old garden apartments that are the problem.

I think these new multi-family housing developments will just fill up with illegals and breed crime and further concentrate a high-needs populace in the area.

Actually, Glasgow middle, probably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent with children in ES. I didn't know about the ESOL program starting in certain HS. Is there a mailing list I should join to keep up with changes or issues being discussed?

Annandale Blog has great coverage of development and education issues in Mason District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it more advantageous for fcps and easier to build a stronger esol program if they concentrate those students in a few schools rather than spreading those resources between all the schools?

Do they get more federal money if those numbers are higher at a few places than if the numbers were, say, 25-30% at a bunch of schools?

I don't know how all the Title I funding is allocated. Reportedly FCPS will have "ESOL academies" at Stuart, Lee, and perhaps Herndon next year as a pilot program to work with students who arrive at HS with minimal English skills (and in many cases limited literacy in any language).

I guess I'll be pupil placing out of Stuart when my kids hit high school. I'm guessing they'll probably end up busing ESOL kids from other schools to those academies. How much worse can it get? The county needs to do a better job of deciding where affordable housing is built so there isn't such a huge concentration of FARMs and ESOL kids in some schools and very little in others.

I went to a meeting at Glasgow MS this spring where Karen Garza and others discussed this, and there was no suggestion that students from other districts would be bussed to Stuart. The intent seemed to be two-fold: first, identify the best way to educate these high-needs kids and, second, give other families comfort that the rest of the school would go about its regular business.

Also, the affordable housing that you mention is mostly market-rate affordable housing in that area. It's not like the county decided to build a ton of housing projects at Bailey's Crossroads, so much as that over time, as newer housing with modern amenities was built elsewhere, garden apartments there became relatively affordable for lower-income immigrants.

The Board of Supervisors KEEPS approving multi-family housing projects in these pyramids, all under the guise of revitalization, which is absolute horsesh!t.

They are tearing down the Annandale AMF bowling to build multi-family housing, and a project on Columbia Pike got approved recently that is in the Glen Forest/Poe/Stuart pyramid. So no, it is not just old garden apartments that are the problem.

I think these new multi-family housing developments will just fill up with illegals and breed crime and further concentrate a high-needs populace in the area.

It all depends who buys or rents there. Certainly the risk is that, if an area isn't near Metro or doesn't have yuppie amenities, multi-family housing won't attract people who pay in more in taxes than they take out in services.