Tell me why I should pay extra for Arlington High Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Also considering Arlington for better schools. Currently zoned for a 5 high school in FCPS Alexandria. Kid is in AAP. Feel like we should just stay put if the schools aren't even better.

The only high schools in FCPS currently rated 5 by GS (same as Yorktown) are Centreville, Fairfax, and South County. None is in Alexandria.

Edison and Hayfield are rated 4, and are probably just as good as APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Also considering Arlington for better schools. Currently zoned for a 5 high school in FCPS Alexandria. Kid is in AAP. Feel like we should just stay put if the schools aren't even better.

The only high schools in FCPS currently rated 5 by GS (same as Yorktown) are Centreville, Fairfax, and South County. None is in Alexandria.

Edison and Hayfield are rated 4, and are probably just as good as APS.

I agree with this.
Honestly, we live in Arlington because the schools are better than DCPS and ACPS.
Fairfax is too far to commute so Arlington is our only option.
If you are making it work where you are now, I would not move for schools.

[Anonymous]

Great schools is worthless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am looking to move next year, and was led to believe that North Arlington High Schools are great - Yorktown and Washington Lee. And that no one who is interested in education would send their kid to Wakefield.

Then I look at GS ratings for the schools and scratch my head a bit.

Washington Lee is a 4 and Yorktown is a 5.

Wakefield is a 3.

I see there has been some talk that GS has "changed the way they rank," but won't the bad rating lead people away regardless creating a downward spiral?

If commute is not a concern (and other areas of NOVA would work for us), why bet on North Arlington and pay the premium on a house?

Let’s just say that people who put that much stock in GS would themselves cause a downward spiral, so best they stay away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Also considering Arlington for better schools. Currently zoned for a 5 high school in FCPS Alexandria. Kid is in AAP. Feel like we should just stay put if the schools aren't even better.

The only high schools in FCPS currently rated 5 by GS (same as Yorktown) are Centreville, Fairfax, and South County. None is in Alexandria.

Edison and Hayfield are rated 4, and are probably just as good as APS.

When did Hatfield drop to 4?

[Anonymous]

Wow, Arlington schools sound like they’re pretty bad. I’d stay away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking to move next year, and was led to believe that North Arlington High Schools are great - Yorktown and Washington Lee. And that no one who is interested in education would send their kid to Wakefield.

Then I look at GS ratings for the schools and scratch my head a bit.

Washington Lee is a 4 and Yorktown is a 5.

Wakefield is a 3.

I see there has been some talk that GS has "changed the way they rank," but won't the bad rating lead people away regardless creating a downward spiral?

If commute is not a concern (and other areas of NOVA would work for us), why bet on North Arlington and pay the premium on a house?

Let’s just say that people who put that much stock in GS would themselves cause a downward spiral, so best they stay away.

You mean everyone buying a home...

[Anonymous]

Washington and Lee and Yorktown are extremely over-rated, and Wakefield under-rated.

But frankly, I wouldn't look in Arlington at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington and Lee and Yorktown are extremely over-rated, and Wakefield under-rated.

But frankly, I wouldn't look in Arlington at all.

Last time I was at Yorktown all the boys looked like younger versions of Steve Bannon. W-L kids were like Michael Cera. But Wakefield kids seemed normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking to move next year, and was led to believe that North Arlington High Schools are great - Yorktown and Washington Lee. And that no one who is interested in education would send their kid to Wakefield.

Then I look at GS ratings for the schools and scratch my head a bit.

Washington Lee is a 4 and Yorktown is a 5.

Wakefield is a 3.

I see there has been some talk that GS has "changed the way they rank," but won't the bad rating lead people away regardless creating a downward spiral?

If commute is not a concern (and other areas of NOVA would work for us), why bet on North Arlington and pay the premium on a house?

Let’s just say that people who put that much stock in GS would themselves cause a downward spiral, so best they stay away.

You mean everyone buying a home...

Exactly. With these new GS ratings, it’s really only a matter of time before APS is in the same boat as ACPS. Will people choose to live there despite the schools? Yes, but they most definitely will not choose to live there because of the schools.

[Anonymous]

Arlington public high schools are good (The Great Schools ratings are garbage), but college placement from Arlington schools is sub-par. If your child's 'reach' school is UVa or William & Mary, APS is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking to move next year, and was led to believe that North Arlington High Schools are great - Yorktown and Washington Lee. And that no one who is interested in education would send their kid to Wakefield.

Then I look at GS ratings for the schools and scratch my head a bit.

Washington Lee is a 4 and Yorktown is a 5.

Wakefield is a 3.

I see there has been some talk that GS has "changed the way they rank," but won't the bad rating lead people away regardless creating a downward spiral?

If commute is not a concern (and other areas of NOVA would work for us), why bet on North Arlington and pay the premium on a house?

At this point, leading people away would be a good thing. The capacity crisis is real.

And only going to get unbelievably worse with Nestle (for sure) and Amazon (probably).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If commute (or proximity to DC) is not a concern, why would you want to buy in Arlington?

Jobs change; companies have been known to move around the area. It is better to be cetrallylocated within the area so that when that does happen, your commute doesn’t become become prohibitive.

We have lived in North Arlington and McLean for the past 25 years. Our jobs have been in L’Enfant, Van Ness, Bethesda, Tyson’s, Chantilly, Reston. DH has worked fo the same company the entire time. I changed jobs once. We were able to have excellent to okay commutes for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington public high schools are good (The Great Schools ratings are garbage), but college placement from Arlington schools is sub-par. If your child's 'reach' school is UVa or William & Mary, APS is fine.

Where do you find better college placement? APS seems on par with most of the other equivalent public HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Also considering Arlington for better schools. Currently zoned for a 5 high school in FCPS Alexandria. Kid is in AAP. Feel like we should just stay put if the schools aren't even better.

The only high schools in FCPS currently rated 5 by GS (same as Yorktown) are Centreville, Fairfax, and South County. None is in Alexandria.

Edison and Hayfield are rated 4, and are probably just as good as APS.

When did Hatfield drop to 4?

Greatschools changed their rating system this past fall and added an "equity" component that essentially dings schools with a minority/FARMs population. We bought a house in the Woodson HS district last year. It was an 8 or 9 then. It's a 6 now. But if you look at Schooldigger, it's top 10% in the state by test scores. A rating system that would give a top 10% school a 6 seems pretty useless to me, but you have to dig into the whole thing to figure out what's going on.