Glasgow AAP vs Private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, please could you elaborate on “the quality of teachers and attention to students are far more superior than FCPS classes full of 27 children per class.”

Do you teacher qualifications professionally?

I’m genuinely interested as I am weighing potential switch to private after teacher issues. Thanks.

I do not evaluate teachers professionally. However, I have been lucky to visit two private schools for business purpose and I noticed a significant difference in teachers and academic standards. During preschool we noticed the same difference. Privates with a lower teacher to student ratio was better than private’s with higher teacher to student ratio.

I am not saying that FCPS teachers are unqualified. However the private schools pay a higher salary to teachers for providing better one on one attention. I can not afford it. So I supplement with extra classes which give them at least some time to express themselves directly with the tutors.

I also notice that FCPS teachers in elementary schools can easily get by with bare minimum work and attention because parents are super active. Put them in Arizona and you will find their real qualifications.

Everyone has their choices! But I have to say there is no way private schools in this area, except NySmith, can compete with FCPS schools academically. I don't see or hear anything big from privates. If parents look for more disciplines, religious education, lower teacher:student ratio or more selective peer groups, then I agree. Academically comparisons - no way!

Typically it's the other way around. Private teacher pay is usually lower.

[Anonymous]

The principal at Glasgow is a former AP at TJHSST. I think people thought he’d work some miracles and boost the school’s academic profile, but that hasn’t happened. Glasgow is close to TJ, but sends few kids there. It’s a very big school with grades 6-8 and a lot of kids with issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Following. Please be specific. Was there something actually wrong with the peer group aside from being poor and brown?

I have no issues with poor brown people. I have issues with fighting, buses being turned around for poor behavior, sex being common in middle school....

[Anonymous]

^teach your children that these things are wrong and life happens everyday. How your children work thru them now will resonate thru life. Keeping them in a bubble will delay the inevitable later in life. The academic is there. I have had no problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The principal at Glasgow is a former AP at TJHSST. I think people thought he’d work some miracles and boost the school’s academic profile, but that hasn’t happened. Glasgow is close to TJ, but sends few kids there. It’s a very big school with grades 6-8 and a lot of kids with issues.

I don't think it's because there aren't kids who are bright enough to be accepted to TJ. There is no real focus at the school for nurturing strong math and science kids into wanting to go to TJ and doing the extra curriculars to get there. I think the focus of Glasgow as a whole is teaching positive interactions, building a sense of community, and teaching respect for others. I think those are important things, but those things are generally not the focus of other schools. Other schools generally expect a partnership with parents wherein parents are supposed to do the heavy lifting in those areas, allowing the schools to focus more heavily on academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^teach your children that these things are wrong and life happens everyday. How your children work thru them now will resonate thru life. Keeping them in a bubble will delay the inevitable later in life. The academic is there. I have had no problems.

The academics is fine, not great. My kids don't need to be in a bubble, but they don't need to be immersed in those things either.

[Anonymous]

The question still remains Glasgow AAP vs Private I.e Immanuel Christian School, Immanuel Lutheran School or St. Rita School.

Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal at Glasgow is a former AP at TJHSST. I think people thought he’d work some miracles and boost the school’s academic profile, but that hasn’t happened. Glasgow is close to TJ, but sends few kids there. It’s a very big school with grades 6-8 and a lot of kids with issues.

I don't think it's because there aren't kids who are bright enough to be accepted to TJ. There is no real focus at the school for nurturing strong math and science kids into wanting to go to TJ and doing the extra curriculars to get there. I think the focus of Glasgow as a whole is teaching positive interactions, building a sense of community, and teaching respect for others. I think those are important things, but those things are generally not the focus of other schools. Other schools generally expect a partnership with parents wherein parents are supposed to do the heavy lifting in those areas, allowing the schools to focus more heavily on academics.

This is the exact situation at our MS. Many fights occur. Admin seems to spend a lot of time heading it off. Extra time and assemblies are used to promote positive interactions. Project Momentum programs are implemented to promote reading to reluctant readers. English teacher had one of the Pigeon books standing up on the bookshelf and this was a local level AAP class. I know teachers teach all levels but that should've given me a clue of what will come. Go private if you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question still remains Glasgow AAP vs Private I.e Immanuel Christian School, Immanuel Lutheran School or St. Rita School.

Any thoughts?

It sounds like you’re active and engaged in your child’s education, so it probably won’t matter academically where you send them.

Behavior is a whole other issue. Glasgow has had at least 2 (small) fires set by students this year and one (rumored) social media threat of a school shooting. It’s been a tough school year and it’s only December. The teachers and administrators try really hard, but a large number of these kids have very challenging backgrounds. My DC is discouraged by all the disruptive behaviors at Glasgow.

I’d consider private, but we can’t afford private high school, so my kid would be right back in the mix in 9th grade. We’re muddling through and hoping for the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The principal at Glasgow is a former AP at TJHSST. I think people thought he’d work some miracles and boost the school’s academic profile, but that hasn’t happened. Glasgow is close to TJ, but sends few kids there. It’s a very big school with grades 6-8 and a lot of kids with issues.

He is also a former administrator at Justice HS (formerly JEB Stuart) and believes strongly in what's going on over there as it's the public school that Glasgow feeds - and to their credit, Justice has come leaps and bounds from where it was 10 years ago.

TJ is also not especially attractive to Latinx and Black students even when accepted as the numbers there are so staggeringly low. Kids want to go to school with kids who look like them. Sort of a chicken and egg problem - the school would have more success retaining the under-represented minorities who get in....if they had more success retaining the under-represented minorities who get in.

[Anonymous]

Glasgow has over 1900 kids, more than some high schools. And now they are expanding Justice to 2500 kids.

They are stuck. If they move the AAP program to Holmes or Poe, or redistrict the kids who live closest to other FCPS high schools, they’ll drive up the FARMS rates and put Glasgow and Justice at risk of losing their state accreditation. If they don’t, Glasgow and Justice just get bigger and more chaotic.

FCPS slobbers all over Justice, but the test scores are still terrible. Only Mount Vernon has worse SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal at Glasgow is a former AP at TJHSST. I think people thought he’d work some miracles and boost the school’s academic profile, but that hasn’t happened. Glasgow is close to TJ, but sends few kids there. It’s a very big school with grades 6-8 and a lot of kids with issues.

I don't think it's because there aren't kids who are bright enough to be accepted to TJ. There is no real focus at the school for nurturing strong math and science kids into wanting to go to TJ and doing the extra curriculars to get there. I think the focus of Glasgow as a whole is teaching positive interactions, building a sense of community, and teaching respect for others. I think those are important things, but those things are generally not the focus of other schools. Other schools generally expect a partnership with parents wherein parents are supposed to do the heavy lifting in those areas, allowing the schools to focus more heavily on academics.

This is the exact situation at our MS. Many fights occur. Admin seems to spend a lot of time heading it off. Extra time and assemblies are used to promote positive interactions. Project Momentum programs are implemented to promote reading to reluctant readers. English teacher had one of the Pigeon books standing up on the bookshelf and this was a local level AAP class. I know teachers teach all levels but that should've given me a clue of what will come. Go private if you can.

Sounds like our middle school. They just had a Reading Rally last week but nobody actually read! Well, the students were read to for a bit, but most of the day was spent doing exercises to build positive interactions. I was told they are not going to read any novels this year nor will they study grammar and this an 8th grade AAP class. I was told they will read but it makes me wonder what and for how long. I just pulled down a practice SAT test for my older one and thought, they better get cracking. My child does not have an IEP so he'll eventually have to read and make sense of complicated texts all by himself.

[Anonymous]

I would move rather than do private for middle school. Your DC would still end up at Justice if you don't do private HS. There are plenty of parents who are IB boosters in the pyramid, but from my personal experience, it's a subpar pyramid. One example is that science oriented kids don't have the option of taking HL Chemistry or HL Physics. Even Lee and Annandale offer one of those in addition to HL Biology (which is the only HL science offered at Justice). The better IB schools in FCPS offer all three sciences as HL. I think both Glasgow and Justice spend a lot of time promoting positive behavior and not enough on academics. My kids don't want to move because they don't want to leave their friends. It's a tough decision. I stayed and regret doing so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal at Glasgow is a former AP at TJHSST. I think people thought he’d work some miracles and boost the school’s academic profile, but that hasn’t happened. Glasgow is close to TJ, but sends few kids there. It’s a very big school with grades 6-8 and a lot of kids with issues.

I don't think it's because there aren't kids who are bright enough to be accepted to TJ. There is no real focus at the school for nurturing strong math and science kids into wanting to go to TJ and doing the extra curriculars to get there. I think the focus of Glasgow as a whole is teaching positive interactions, building a sense of community, and teaching respect for others. I think those are important things, but those things are generally not the focus of other schools. Other schools generally expect a partnership with parents wherein parents are supposed to do the heavy lifting in those areas, allowing the schools to focus more heavily on academics.

This is the exact situation at our MS. Many fights occur. Admin seems to spend a lot of time heading it off. Extra time and assemblies are used to promote positive interactions. Project Momentum programs are implemented to promote reading to reluctant readers. English teacher had one of the Pigeon books standing up on the bookshelf and this was a local level AAP class. I know teachers teach all levels but that should've given me a clue of what will come. Go private if you can.

Sounds like our middle school. They just had a Reading Rally last week but nobody actually read! Well, the students were read to for a bit, but most of the day was spent doing exercises to build positive interactions. I was told they are not going to read any novels this year nor will they study grammar and this an 8th grade AAP class. I was told they will read but it makes me wonder what and for how long. I just pulled down a practice SAT test for my older one and thought, they better get cracking. My child does not have an IEP so he'll eventually have to read and make sense of complicated texts all by himself.

This is a shame. My kid is in "AAP" in a non-center MS. It is standard for 7th grade to read Lord of The Flies and the Outsiders. In 8th grade they have Farenheit 451 and another novel (can't remember -- possibly Prisoner B-3087).

I guess the only upside is that eventually, in 9th and 10th grade -- they WILL read novels. So, while they should be doing that in MS, they will not get out of HS without reading 5-10. Cold consolation. There should be more consistency with the AAP or honors curriculum across schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would move rather than do private for middle school. Your DC would still end up at Justice if you don't do private HS. There are plenty of parents who are IB boosters in the pyramid, but from my personal experience, it's a subpar pyramid. One example is that science oriented kids don't have the option of taking HL Chemistry or HL Physics. Even Lee and Annandale offer one of those in addition to HL Biology (which is the only HL science offered at Justice). The better IB schools in FCPS offer all three sciences as HL. I think both Glasgow and Justice spend a lot of time promoting positive behavior and not enough on academics. My kids don't want to move because they don't want to leave their friends. It's a tough decision. I stayed and regret doing so.

'

Falls Church HS has similar demographics to Justice but offers AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, and AP Physics.

FCPS really needs to get rid of IB.