Excellent, but not crazy competitive school districts in VA

[Anonymous]

Marshall fits that description as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington, especially in the Yorktown pyramid. Amazing resources for kids, close to DC and families that nurture kids in a healthy environment. We do not see the competitiveness that you find nearby.

+1 Yorktown pyramid is wonderful and is NOT crazy competitive, at least academically. Williamsburg MS is the best public MS in the state, despite the old facilities.

[Anonymous]

What is the point of this post? The person wants AAP for their child but still wants their child to stand out verses being among peers of a similar ability? Is that the goal? AAP by definition is a magnet program intended for children driven to excel in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of this post? The person wants AAP for their child but still wants their child to stand out verses being among peers of a similar ability? Is that the goal? AAP by definition is a magnet program intended for children driven to excel in school.

Yes, in elementary. In middle school it is really just for the TJ crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington, especially in the Yorktown pyramid. Amazing resources for kids, close to DC and families that nurture kids in a healthy environment. We do not see the competitiveness that you find nearby.

What a load of sh!t

Why do you say this? Do you feel the YTown pyramid does not have the resources or nurturing, or do you disagree that it is not competitive? Schools in the YTown pyramid are big, but not as large as the FCPS, for instance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington, especially in the Yorktown pyramid. Amazing resources for kids, close to DC and families that nurture kids in a healthy environment. We do not see the competitiveness that you find nearby.

+1 Yorktown pyramid is wonderful and is NOT crazy competitive, at least academically. Williamsburg MS is the best public MS in the state, despite the old facilities.

+ 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington, especially in the Yorktown pyramid. Amazing resources for kids, close to DC and families that nurture kids in a healthy environment. We do not see the competitiveness that you find nearby.

+1 Yorktown pyramid is wonderful and is NOT crazy competitive, at least academically. Williamsburg MS is the best public MS in the state, despite the old facilities.

+ 1

Indeed it is not academically competitive. There isn’t an atmosphere of academic excellence at Yorktown. Just a toxic stew of thinly veiled racism, upper middle class entitlement, and lack of consequences enforced by parents.
But it is a better commute, so there is a reason why people choose it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield/Lake Braddock/Robinson pyramids.

Why? Lake Braddock and Robinson are very large secondary schools. Lots of competition going on there, even if there are some other schools with higher test scores.

West Springfield, Lake Braddock, and Robinson are all schools that are basically uniformly middle class/upper middle class. There's a bit of racial/ethnic diversity, but economically the kids are all basically normal kids.

For the secondary schools, the size works in both ways. There's plenty for kids to do and it's big enough that there's no dominant "culture." It's much more kids finding their niches. Academically all three are strong enough schools without TJ craziness (note -- even though all three are close-ish to TJ, very few kids actually go to TJ because they are perfectly happy with their home schools. It's not a pressure cooker area.

It cuts both ways. Kids aren't going to be the tippy top. It's a place where people are fine with their kids going to Tech or JMU or VCU. It's not UVA or die around here (though plenty do attend UVA).

That's quite self-serving. Kids from families with more or less money - and those schools are about 10-16% low-income - are "normal," too.

Also, a large number of kids from Lake Braddock, which has the local AAP center, apply to TJ every year. They are just admitted at substantially lower rates than at some of the other middle school feeders to TJ. Perhaps that supports the notion that it's a lower-pressure area, but surely most of the kids who took the test would have gone to TJ if they'd been admitted.

[Anonymous]

if you have lot of $$$, go to Churchill ES/Cooper MS/Langley HS enclave. Not so much money, Kent Garden ES/Long Fellow MS/Mclean HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield/Lake Braddock/Robinson pyramids.

Why? Lake Braddock and Robinson are very large secondary schools. Lots of competition going on there, even if there are some other schools with higher test scores.

West Springfield, Lake Braddock, and Robinson are all schools that are basically uniformly middle class/upper middle class. There's a bit of racial/ethnic diversity, but economically the kids are all basically normal kids.

For the secondary schools, the size works in both ways. There's plenty for kids to do and it's big enough that there's no dominant "culture." It's much more kids finding their niches. Academically all three are strong enough schools without TJ craziness (note -- even though all three are close-ish to TJ, very few kids actually go to TJ because they are perfectly happy with their home schools. It's not a pressure cooker area.

It cuts both ways. Kids aren't going to be the tippy top. It's a place where people are fine with their kids going to Tech or JMU or VCU. It's not UVA or die around here (though plenty do attend UVA).

That's quite self-serving. Kids from families with more or less money - and those schools are about 10-16% low-income - are "normal," too.

Also, a large number of kids from Lake Braddock, which has the local AAP center, apply to TJ every year. They are just admitted at substantially lower rates than at some of the other middle school feeders to TJ. Perhaps that supports the notion that it's a lower-pressure area, but surely most of the kids who took the test would have gone to TJ if they'd been admitted.

Actually that's not true. In terms of demographics AAP students at lake Braddock pass on TJ at a much higher rate than Demographically similar schools.

[Anonymous]

Marshall Road/Mosby Woods (AAP) + THoreau + Madison/Oakton (if you are in the Mosby base zone).

Mix of kids. Thoreau will benefit from the diversity that Mosby Woods brings when it is re-zoned. It is very chill and nurturing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield/Lake Braddock/Robinson pyramids.

Why? Lake Braddock and Robinson are very large secondary schools. Lots of competition going on there, even if there are some other schools with higher test scores.

West Springfield, Lake Braddock, and Robinson are all schools that are basically uniformly middle class/upper middle class. There's a bit of racial/ethnic diversity, but economically the kids are all basically normal kids.

For the secondary schools, the size works in both ways. There's plenty for kids to do and it's big enough that there's no dominant "culture." It's much more kids finding their niches. Academically all three are strong enough schools without TJ craziness (note -- even though all three are close-ish to TJ, very few kids actually go to TJ because they are perfectly happy with their home schools. It's not a pressure cooker area.

It cuts both ways. Kids aren't going to be the tippy top. It's a place where people are fine with their kids going to Tech or JMU or VCU. It's not UVA or die around here (though plenty do attend UVA).

That's quite self-serving. Kids from families with more or less money - and those schools are about 10-16% low-income - are "normal," too.

Also, a large number of kids from Lake Braddock, which has the local AAP center, apply to TJ every year. They are just admitted at substantially lower rates than at some of the other middle school feeders to TJ. Perhaps that supports the notion that it's a lower-pressure area, but surely most of the kids who took the test would have gone to TJ if they'd been admitted.

Actually that's not true. In terms of demographics AAP students at lake Braddock pass on TJ at a much higher rate than Demographically similar schools.

+1. Our DD graduated from LB and was also in AAP in ES and MS. Quite a few of her friends took the TJ tests to placate their parents and several were admitted. Very few elected to go because they preferred the environment at LB. There were also quite a few that likely would have been admitted but chose not to take the tests because they knew they didn’t want to leave LB.

She also had several AAP friends from MS who went back to their base school for HS (WS, Robo) rather than pursue TJ for those same reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield/Lake Braddock/Robinson pyramids.

Why? Lake Braddock and Robinson are very large secondary schools. Lots of competition going on there, even if there are some other schools with higher test scores.

West Springfield, Lake Braddock, and Robinson are all schools that are basically uniformly middle class/upper middle class. There's a bit of racial/ethnic diversity, but economically the kids are all basically normal kids.

For the secondary schools, the size works in both ways. There's plenty for kids to do and it's big enough that there's no dominant "culture." It's much more kids finding their niches. Academically all three are strong enough schools without TJ craziness (note -- even though all three are close-ish to TJ, very few kids actually go to TJ because they are perfectly happy with their home schools. It's not a pressure cooker area.

It cuts both ways. Kids aren't going to be the tippy top. It's a place where people are fine with their kids going to Tech or JMU or VCU. It's not UVA or die around here (though plenty do attend UVA).

That's quite self-serving. Kids from families with more or less money - and those schools are about 10-16% low-income - are "normal," too.

Also, a large number of kids from Lake Braddock, which has the local AAP center, apply to TJ every year. They are just admitted at substantially lower rates than at some of the other middle school feeders to TJ. Perhaps that supports the notion that it's a lower-pressure area, but surely most of the kids who took the test would have gone to TJ if they'd been admitted.

Actually that's not true. In terms of demographics AAP students at lake Braddock pass on TJ at a much higher rate than Demographically similar schools.

I'm not sure how you'd know the demographics for the subset of students at LB who take the TJ exam, or how you'd determine different groups of applicants were "demographically similar."

Either way, the TJ admit rate from Lake Braddock is substantially lower than from several other middle schools in the county and, as previously noted, presumably the LB kids who bothered to take the test would mostly accept an offer of admission to TJ, if extended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield/Lake Braddock/Robinson pyramids.

Why? Lake Braddock and Robinson are very large secondary schools. Lots of competition going on there, even if there are some other schools with higher test scores.

West Springfield, Lake Braddock, and Robinson are all schools that are basically uniformly middle class/upper middle class. There's a bit of racial/ethnic diversity, but economically the kids are all basically normal kids.

For the secondary schools, the size works in both ways. There's plenty for kids to do and it's big enough that there's no dominant "culture." It's much more kids finding their niches. Academically all three are strong enough schools without TJ craziness (note -- even though all three are close-ish to TJ, very few kids actually go to TJ because they are perfectly happy with their home schools. It's not a pressure cooker area.

It cuts both ways. Kids aren't going to be the tippy top. It's a place where people are fine with their kids going to Tech or JMU or VCU. It's not UVA or die around here (though plenty do attend UVA).

That's quite self-serving. Kids from families with more or less money - and those schools are about 10-16% low-income - are "normal," too.

Also, a large number of kids from Lake Braddock, which has the local AAP center, apply to TJ every year. They are just admitted at substantially lower rates than at some of the other middle school feeders to TJ. Perhaps that supports the notion that it's a lower-pressure area, but surely most of the kids who took the test would have gone to TJ if they'd been admitted.

Actually that's not true. In terms of demographics AAP students at lake Braddock pass on TJ at a much higher rate than Demographically similar schools.

+1. Our DD graduated from LB and was also in AAP in ES and MS. Quite a few of her friends took the TJ tests to placate their parents and several were admitted. Very few elected to go because they preferred the environment at LB. There were also quite a few that likely would have been admitted but chose not to take the tests because they knew they didn’t want to leave LB.

She also had several AAP friends from MS who went back to their base school for HS (WS, Robo) rather than pursue TJ for those same reasons.

This might be more convincing if you could show that a substantially smaller percentage of LB AAP kids apply to TJ than the kids from other AAP centers in the county.

Otherwise, such anecdotes ("oh, we never really wanted to go there anyway") aren't very persuasive. After all, if the area was as relaxed as you claim, kids wouldn't take the TJ tests to placate their parents, because their parents would happily keep them at their base schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Marshall Road/Mosby Woods (AAP) + THoreau + Madison/Oakton (if you are in the Mosby base zone).

Mix of kids. Thoreau will benefit from the diversity that Mosby Woods brings when it is re-zoned. It is very chill and nurturing.

No rezoning has been approved and, hopefully, the School Board will take a hard look at the impact that moving Mosby Woods to Thoreau would have on both Jackson MS and, indirectly, Falls Church HS.