VA Public Elementary Schools 101

[Anonymous]

great school rating of 8+, shoot for north arlington or mclean

[Anonymous]

I work in an elementary school in Northern Virginia. If you call and request it, one of the secretaries in the main office will give you a tour of the building. There is, as others have mentioned, a Kindergarten Orientation night in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm beginning research into VA public elementary schools to see if it could be an option for our family. Are there any recent key threads or resources that provide a good overview or discuss ongoing/upcoming changes to be aware of? Also, based on a forum search, it sounds like VA schools don't hold open houses for prospective families - is that correct?

Thank you in advance

I hear they don't really teach grammar anymore, so you may want to consider that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is the gold standard. It’s a big and kind of weird and ultra competitive system. APS is softer. It’s mediocre-plus with a lot of window dressing.

Clearly a troll response above.... Fairfax and Arlington both have positives. Class sizes are generally smaller in Arlington, and the commute is generally better. Fairfax has more competitive "gifted services" and, as a larger school system, can sometimes have more services for kids with unique needs. Falls Church City has wonderful schools, but it's a tiny jurisdiction. Alexandria schools are not as good as the other jurisdictions I mentioned. All of those statements are generalizations and stereotypes, but it should give you a general sense of the jurisdictions. So much varies by the individual school - and your individual family -- that it's hard to rely on these generalizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is the gold standard. It’s a big and kind of weird and ultra competitive system. APS is softer. It’s mediocre-plus with a lot of window dressing.

Clearly a troll response above.... Fairfax and Arlington both have positives. Class sizes are generally smaller in Arlington, and the commute is generally better. Fairfax has more competitive "gifted services" and, as a larger school system, can sometimes have more services for kids with unique needs. Falls Church City has wonderful schools, but it's a tiny jurisdiction. Alexandria schools are not as good as the other jurisdictions I mentioned. All of those statements are generalizations and stereotypes, but it should give you a general sense of the jurisdictions. So much varies by the individual school - and your individual family -- that it's hard to rely on these generalizations.

Not a troll. Just breaking it down. The APS college admission numbers, as discussed on another thread, are horrifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:great school rating of 8+, shoot for north arlington or mclean

Sounds kind of whiteprivilegy?

[Anonymous]

FCPS has a variety of language immersion programs that are interesting. Our son began learning Japanese through FCPS in first grade. They offer Korean, Japanese, French, German and Spanish immersion. I would look at their language immersion page for information and locations.

[Anonymous]

OP tell us what you are looking for in a school and you can probably get some suggestions. I had some very specific criteria that helped me to narrow down the schools and we moved to that school pyramid before DS started a Kindergarten. He’s in 7th grade now and we are very happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is the gold standard. It’s a big and kind of weird and ultra competitive system. APS is softer. It’s mediocre-plus with a lot of window dressing.

Clearly a troll response above.... Fairfax and Arlington both have positives. Class sizes are generally smaller in Arlington, and the commute is generally better. Fairfax has more competitive "gifted services" and, as a larger school system, can sometimes have more services for kids with unique needs. Falls Church City has wonderful schools, but it's a tiny jurisdiction. Alexandria schools are not as good as the other jurisdictions I mentioned. All of those statements are generalizations and stereotypes, but it should give you a general sense of the jurisdictions. So much varies by the individual school - and your individual family -- that it's hard to rely on these generalizations.

Not a troll. Just breaking it down. The APS college admission numbers, as discussed on another thread, are horrifying.

College admissions from all NoVA public HSs are dismal aside from TJHSST.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school rating of 8+, shoot for north arlington or mclean

Sounds kind of whiteprivilegy?

How so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school rating of 8+, shoot for north arlington or mclean

Sounds kind of whiteprivilegy?

Oh please.

OP, a more honest site is SchoolDigger. It will give you FARMS and other good info. Go with that.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thank you all for the very helpful insights and info links, which we'll use to do some research. STEM is important to us (not to the exclusion of other creative areas, though) and we have to decide whether to continue with French language immersion. Arlington seems to make sense in terms of a shorter commute, but we'll look more broadly for good school pyramids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: thank you all for the very helpful insights and info links, which we'll use to do some research. STEM is important to us (not to the exclusion of other creative areas, though) and we have to decide whether to continue with French language immersion. Arlington seems to make sense in terms of a shorter commute, but we'll look more broadly for good school pyramids.

Kent Gardens in McLean might be what you seek.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: thank you all for the very helpful insights and info links, which we'll use to do some research. STEM is important to us (not to the exclusion of other creative areas, though) and we have to decide whether to continue with French language immersion. Arlington seems to make sense in terms of a shorter commute, but we'll look more broadly for good school pyramids.

Remember TJHSST admits from Arlington as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is the gold standard. It’s a big and kind of weird and ultra competitive system. APS is softer. It’s mediocre-plus with a lot of window dressing.

Clearly a troll response above.... Fairfax and Arlington both have positives. Class sizes are generally smaller in Arlington, and the commute is generally better. Fairfax has more competitive "gifted services" and, as a larger school system, can sometimes have more services for kids with unique needs. Falls Church City has wonderful schools, but it's a tiny jurisdiction. Alexandria schools are not as good as the other jurisdictions I mentioned. All of those statements are generalizations and stereotypes, but it should give you a general sense of the jurisdictions. So much varies by the individual school - and your individual family -- that it's hard to rely on these generalizations.

This is a good post. Fairfax is more organized and professionally run than APS. APS has some positives - smaller class sizes and choice programs. The schools are still probably smaller than Fairfax but are getting bigger. The system is kind of a mess with high growth, turnover at the top rungs of leadership, and ongoing boundary wars. Being an APS parent can be exhausting. Check out the threads on the upcoming elem boundary process and see if that's something you want to deal with for the next 15 years. If not, check out Falls Church City or maybe Fairfax.