FCPS High School prestige ranking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's a normal amount of AP courses for a student to take?

Looking at my IB student's projected track, they will take 4-5 college-level courses over the course of their four years in high school. (AP government sophomore year, then 3-4 higher-level classes). I don't intend any attack here; I'm just curious if AP students generally take more or if this is similar.

I grew up with AP in FCPS, but I don't have any problems with IB. The big thing about it is that parents use it as a means to transfer from one school to another.

My average kid (1300 SAT range, A/B student) who is weaker in writing will graduate with 8 AP classes:

AP World (5)
AP US History
AP Government
AP Chemistry
AP Biology
AP Precalc (maybe an equivalent class to the IB math classes?)
AP AB Calculus
AP Lit

This is a fairly typical AP load at out school for a kid eith this kid's academic profile, with possibly a dual enrollment class or two replacing AP classes.


My stronger kid (above 1500 SAT and above 4.0 GPA) graduated with mostly 5s with some 4s in 10 AP classes:

AP World
AP US History
AP Government
AP Chemistry
AP Physics
AP AB Calculus
AP Literature
AP Language
AP Music Theory
AP Macro and Micro Econ

This would be very typical at our school for the higher performing students, with the engineering bound kids taking BC or multivariable calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It’s important to avoid URMs in ES and MS (AAP works well here), but in most FCPS HS, you can find high achieving groups of kids. I wouldn’t want my kid to go to small number of FCPS HS but for the most part it’s not that big of a deal

There's an interesting thread on Next Door from a Marshall parent considering a pupil placement to Falls Church for AP. The thread is full of Falls Church parents talking about how good the school is, and there is only one post from a Falls Church student, which I've noted below, slightly edited for spelling:

Hello my name is R***, I am currently a student at FCHS. To be quite honest, if you have the choice to not go to Falls Church I would take it. I would highly recommend not transferring your kid. The school has been under renovation for quite some time, and will continue to be under renovation for the next couple years, we have no ceiling in the hallways and the pipes often leak causing floods. The people at FC are not a good influence, 70% of the students are immigrants and don't speak English, and there is rampant drug use all throughout the school. We are also extremely poor, our prom this year was in our cafeteria, and we rarely have money to do school things such as field trips, etc. Not to mention a good number of the staff and admin are extremely unfriendly and seem like they hate their life. I'm graduating in a year and I am glad I am almost out of this place. I would highly recommend sending your kid somewhere else.

Sure, there will always be disaffected teens, but it was a reminder that the accounts from parents, who tend to look out for their property values, are often different from the accounts of kids actually attending some of these schools.

Like I said, there are a few schools I wouldn’t want my kids going to.

Are you referring to Justice ?

Justice has some impressive college admissions this year. I also hear the new principal is good.

Justice, unlike Lewis for example, has a substantial population of wealthy country club types. So my guess is that Justice has better college stats than Falls Church, Lewis, and the rest.

That’s wonderful news about the Justice principal. For far too long leadership has changed at a high frequency. Stability would greatly benefit the school.

if by "substantial" you mean maybe a dozen, sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s important to avoid URMs in ES and MS (AAP works well here), but in most FCPS HS, you can find high achieving groups of kids. I wouldn’t want my kid to go to small number of FCPS HS but for the most part it’s not that big of a deal

There's an interesting thread on Next Door from a Marshall parent considering a pupil placement to Falls Church for AP. The thread is full of Falls Church parents talking about how good the school is, and there is only one post from a Falls Church student, which I've noted below, slightly edited for spelling:

Hello my name is R***, I am currently a student at FCHS. To be quite honest, if you have the choice to not go to Falls Church I would take it. I would highly recommend not transferring your kid. The school has been under renovation for quite some time, and will continue to be under renovation for the next couple years, we have no ceiling in the hallways and the pipes often leak causing floods. The people at FC are not a good influence, 70% of the students are immigrants and don't speak English, and there is rampant drug use all throughout the school. We are also extremely poor, our prom this year was in our cafeteria, and we rarely have money to do school things such as field trips, etc. Not to mention a good number of the staff and admin are extremely unfriendly and seem like they hate their life. I'm graduating in a year and I am glad I am almost out of this place. I would highly recommend sending your kid somewhere else.

Sure, there will always be disaffected teens, but it was a reminder that the accounts from parents, who tend to look out for their property values, are often different from the accounts of kids actually attending some of these schools.

Like I said, there are a few schools I wouldn’t want my kids going to.

Are you referring to Justice ?

Justice has some impressive college admissions this year. I also hear the new principal is good.

Justice, unlike Lewis for example, has a substantial population of wealthy country club types. So my guess is that Justice has better college stats than Falls Church, Lewis, and the rest.

That’s wonderful news about the Justice principal. For far too long leadership has changed at a high frequency. Stability would greatly benefit the school.

if by "substantial" you mean maybe a dozen, sure.

I've no idea about "country club" i

incomes at either school. However, a comparison of FARMS and other demographics are almost identical.

I don't think either school was helped by the name change.

[Anonymous]

The IB program limits students to 3, maybe 4 HL classes, which cannot be taken until senior year. AP students have no limit on the number of courses they can take that are at that level, and they can take them in whatever grade they are ready to. Therefore, AP is more rigorous.

I disagree. The HL courses are two year courses so they take them to junior and senior years. In addition, they are taking 3 or 4 SL courses, which are also two year courses, their sophomore, junior, and/or senior years. IB diploma candidates end up with two years of a schedule full of college-level courses. From my observation, the English/history IB courses had significantly more writing/studying than the AP courses my other child took at TJ.


To me, the main downside of the IB diploma is the lack of college credit students can receive for IB courses. We got around that by having our student take several AP exams even though they weren’t in the AP course – they were in the IB course.

And we looked hard at having our students take various HL IB courses, and not pursue the diploma. But the uniform advice we got from the experts was that the diploma is considered more prestigious by colleges than if they would take a more rigorous courseload, because of all the additional requirements involved in the diploma. So kids went the diploma route and both Justice kids got into UVA. No complaints about IB here.

[Anonymous]

And then there are all those kids at AP schools getting into UVA and better schools who didn’t jump though all the IB hoops…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s important to avoid URMs in ES and MS (AAP works well here), but in most FCPS HS, you can find high achieving groups of kids. I wouldn’t want my kid to go to small number of FCPS HS but for the most part it’s not that big of a deal

There's an interesting thread on Next Door from a Marshall parent considering a pupil placement to Falls Church for AP. The thread is full of Falls Church parents talking about how good the school is, and there is only one post from a Falls Church student, which I've noted below, slightly edited for spelling:

Hello my name is R***, I am currently a student at FCHS. To be quite honest, if you have the choice to not go to Falls Church I would take it. I would highly recommend not transferring your kid. The school has been under renovation for quite some time, and will continue to be under renovation for the next couple years, we have no ceiling in the hallways and the pipes often leak causing floods. The people at FC are not a good influence, 70% of the students are immigrants and don't speak English, and there is rampant drug use all throughout the school. We are also extremely poor, our prom this year was in our cafeteria, and we rarely have money to do school things such as field trips, etc. Not to mention a good number of the staff and admin are extremely unfriendly and seem like they hate their life. I'm graduating in a year and I am glad I am almost out of this place. I would highly recommend sending your kid somewhere else.

Sure, there will always be disaffected teens, but it was a reminder that the accounts from parents, who tend to look out for their property values, are often different from the accounts of kids actually attending some of these schools.

Like I said, there are a few schools I wouldn’t want my kids going to.

Are you referring to Justice ?

Justice has some impressive college admissions this year. I also hear the new principal is good.

Justice, unlike Lewis for example, has a substantial population of wealthy country club types. So my guess is that Justice has better college stats than Falls Church, Lewis, and the rest.

That’s wonderful news about the Justice principal. For far too long leadership has changed at a high frequency. Stability would greatly benefit the school.

if by "substantial" you mean maybe a dozen, sure.

no need to comment about something you know nothing about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And then there are all those kids at AP schools getting into UVA and better schools who didn’t jump though all the IB hoops…

Lordy. Just be glad it worked out for PP and stop sniping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And then there are all those kids at AP schools getting into UVA and better schools who didn’t jump though all the IB hoops…

Lordy. Just be glad it worked out for PP and stop sniping.

The "sniping" relates to the larger issue of replacing IB with AP at low-performing high schools like Justice. That would work better for most kids at current IB schools, save money, and keep more kids in their current pyramids rather than encourage pupil placements.

[Anonymous]

They should survey the parents in the middle schools about their preferences for AP or IB at the high school level.

[Anonymous]

Just checked the national rankings for the top FCPS HS:

1) Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: 12th place

2) Langley HS: 117th place

3) McLean HS: 587th place

4) and so on: all the rest.

[Anonymous]

Niche.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Justice, unlike Lewis for example, has a substantial population of wealthy country club types. So my guess is that Justice has better college stats than Falls Church, Lewis, and the rest.

That’s wonderful news about the Justice principal. For far too long leadership has changed at a high frequency. Stability would greatly benefit the school.

if by "substantial" you mean maybe a dozen, sure.

The vast majority of Justice students live in Seven Corners and Culmore. Please point out where those wealthy country club types that send their kids to Justice. I am saying this as a Stuart 1990 graduate who came to the United States as a boat refugee from Vietnam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Justice, unlike Lewis for example, has a substantial population of wealthy country club types. So my guess is that Justice has better college stats than Falls Church, Lewis, and the rest.

That’s wonderful news about the Justice principal. For far too long leadership has changed at a high frequency. Stability would greatly benefit the school.

if by "substantial" you mean maybe a dozen, sure.

The vast majority of Justice students live in Seven Corners and Culmore. Please point out where those wealthy country club types that send their kids to Justice. I am saying this as a Stuart 1990 graduate who came to the United States as a boat refugee from Vietnam.

If one follows demographic trends, Justice (Stuart) had a far lower lower income population 35-40 years ago in the late 1980s. Wealthier families always lived around Lake Barcroft. “Country Club” is just lingo, but Army Navy and Washington Golf are both only about 5 miles away from Seven Corners. The families around the lake could easily afford country club fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Justice, unlike Lewis for example, has a substantial population of wealthy country club types. So my guess is that Justice has better college stats than Falls Church, Lewis, and the rest.

That’s wonderful news about the Justice principal. For far too long leadership has changed at a high frequency. Stability would greatly benefit the school.

if by "substantial" you mean maybe a dozen, sure.

The vast majority of Justice students live in Seven Corners and Culmore. Please point out where those wealthy country club types that send their kids to Justice. I am saying this as a Stuart 1990 graduate who came to the United States as a boat refugee from Vietnam.

Justice has an enrollment of just over 2300 kids. About 435 are white, and they mostly live in the single-family areas rather than Seven Corners and Culmore. They aren't really country club types. They may live near Lake Barcroft or send their kids to community pools like SHRA and SHB&R. Their neighbors may send their kids to privates, but there are enough of these families to give Justice a different feel than Annandale (about 275 white kids) or Lewis (about 175 white kids). They dominate the PTA, they make sure their kids enroll in IB classes, and their kids' college admissions compare favorably to most of the other poorer schools.

Then you have the other demographics at Justice. The Hispanic kids account for about 60% of the school and are mostly low-income. The Asian and Black kids account for about 20% of the school and are most economically diverse than the mostly affluent white kids and mostly poor Hispanic kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The vast majority of Justice students live in Seven Corners and Culmore. Please point out where those wealthy country club types that send their kids to Justice. I am saying this as a Stuart 1990 graduate who came to the United States as a boat refugee from Vietnam.

Justice has an enrollment of just over 2300 kids. About 435 are white, and they mostly live in the single-family areas rather than Seven Corners and Culmore. They aren't really country club types. They may live near Lake Barcroft or send their kids to community pools like SHRA and SHB&R. Their neighbors may send their kids to privates, but there are enough of these families to give Justice a different feel than Annandale (about 275 white kids) or Lewis (about 175 white kids). They dominate the PTA, they make sure their kids enroll in IB classes, and their kids' college admissions compare favorably to most of the other poorer schools.

Then you have the other demographics at Justice. The Hispanic kids account for about 60% of the school and are mostly low-income. The Asian and Black kids account for about 20% of the school and are most economically diverse than the mostly affluent white kids and mostly poor Hispanic kids.

Let me break this down for you. White kids that attend Justice are from MC families. Asians kids that go to Justice, most of them recently arrived here. Seven corners and Culmore areas are not safe neighborhoods. Most of the Vietnamese that arrived here in the 90's live either in Seven Corners or Culmore because those places were affordable for us. As soon as we graduated from Stuart (now Justice) we couldn't wait to go to college, either UVA or VATech. Upon college graduation, none of us moved back to either Culmore or Seven Corners. The vast majority of my Vietnamese classmates move to either Langley or McLean so that their kids can attend better schools. If Justice is such a great school, you would see a lot of Asian students from UMC families, but you don't because the school is not good.