Thinking of moving to VA. Tell me more about the high schools in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:weirdo

OP.

You are the weirdo for commenting this. What an effing idiot you are. I asked a question, if you don't know of anything to say get off the thread. I'm trying to get serious answers from people whose kids go to high schools in FCPS.

And now you understand the parents of FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Langley or Mclean pyramids . The rest are bad

There’s a poster who’ll come on here and say crap like this, most likely to get a counter-reaction.

You have to take most of what gets posted on this forum with a big grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always wish we had not moved here. It’s too late now, but it’s so competitive and intense. I feel like we don’t get to enjoy life. I wish we had gone where the schools weren’t so highly ranked and life was smaller and slower. I would do it differently if I could.

OP. But what does your kid think about it? Is he/she stressed out by the competition? Which high school does your kid go to where you feel it is very intense?

I have 5 kids aged 20-15. They agree. They regularly remark how they won’t be chosen or recognized because of where we are. My oldest is a literal math genius and thought she was below average until she went to college because everyone talks about how high their scores are and how much better they are than each other. My kids work really hard and take private lessons at their “things” and that is all just to get into the things- not to be on top. It’s a race to misery. Not a race to success. We’re in the Robinson/LBSS/WSHS area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm not a troll. We are in MCPS where the CO is doing a big change and watering down all the magnet programs and proposing 6 regional magnets in 2027. We will no longer have access to Richard Montgomery or Blair. We live in a region where our school does not have the advanced classes. This will be a problem for one of my kids who is STEM focused.

Good to know about Chantilly and Edison. I will look into those.

We are also considering renting before buying.

Both of us WFH so commute is not a factor.

Look also into North Arlington as a place to live and APS as a school system.

Arlington County also sends kids to TJ every year. (FCPS merely operates TJ, which is a Virginia Governor's School serving multiple NoVA localities.)

APS also has the Arlington Tech STEM option HS, which is not competing Blair/TJ but is college prep (rather than the 1950s vocational type HS).

The N Arlington geographic HS is academically solid with a wide range of AP offerings.

Worth at least a look-see. Start with the APS web site for more.

[Anonymous]

What’s happening in MCPS is interesting, but I thought they promised everyone would have access to AP? The changes will actually make it more like FCPS. So before you move, I would consider what you are looking for. With an sea change in student body composition, all of the schools will change as well.

Your magnet programs are a bit different than FCPS so it’s not quite analogous. With the consortium in MCPS, HSs had a lot of flexibility to specialize. In FCPS most kids go to their base HS. There are a few academies that run all 4 years (including an engineering one at Edison if that’s of interest to your STEM kid) and some academies in trades that run 2 years. There is also the STEM governor’s school, Thomas Jefferson, that has a very competitive admissions process.

All base HSs have honors and AP or IB classes. They all have opportunities for kids to specialize and excel. There are plenty of snobs on this forum who will tell you that your socioeconomic demographic at certain schools equates to better education. Don’t believe them. There are great schools at all socioeconomic levels in FCPS.

If you’re running from MCPS because your base HS has been high poverty, that will look really different once the consortium is disbanded. IME engaged parents matter much more than anything else. There are opportunities to participate in sports and clubs at your base HS in MoCo that might have been prohibitive in a wealthier school. I say this as relatively well off parent that stuck with our local HS in FCPS that has a high FARMS rate. My kids have played on all the teams they’ve wanted to, gotten to do academic and social clubs and have leadership roles, and have had an excellent education in the IB program.

[Anonymous]

I would avoid APS entirely unless a short commute to DC is a top priority. You get the social competition you find at some FCPS schools but it’s not as academically rigorous.

- former Arlington resident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm not a troll. We are in MCPS where the CO is doing a big change and watering down all the magnet programs and proposing 6 regional magnets in 2027. We will no longer have access to Richard Montgomery or Blair. We live in a region where our school does not have the advanced classes. This will be a problem for one of my kids who is STEM focused.

Good to know about Chantilly and Edison. I will look into those.

We are also considering renting before buying.

Both of us WFH so commute is not a factor.

Look also into North Arlington as a place to live and APS as a school system.

Arlington County also sends kids to TJ every year. (FCPS merely operates TJ, which is a Virginia Governor's School serving multiple NoVA localities.)

APS also has the Arlington Tech STEM option HS, which is not competing Blair/TJ but is college prep (rather than the 1950s vocational type HS).

The N Arlington geographic HS is academically solid with a wide range of AP offerings.

Worth at least a look-see. Start with the APS web site for more.

It’s an odd turn of phrase to say FCPS “merely operates” TJ. It took the initiative to get TJ designated and annually renewed as a Governor’s School, and it both owns and runs TJ. APS gets to send some kids there as a participating jurisdiction, but FCPS calls the shots.

[Anonymous]

Since you live in the area- you should know budget is a major factor. But if we are just throwing out good options- families seem happy with Langley academically but it might be hard socially.

[Anonymous]

We had friends who moved to VA to get their kids into TJ. It worked for them, but they were legit math geniuses (as well as very accelerated) and one of them took Calc in middle school. The application process has also changed, and it's a bit more of a lottery than it was before.

I'm not familiar with how things are in MCPS these days, but FCPS schools have either AP or IB. I'm not sure about the IB schools, but it's pretty normal to take Algebra in 7th, and all of the AP schools can handle that track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had friends who moved to VA to get their kids into TJ. It worked for them, but they were legit math geniuses (as well as very accelerated) and one of them took Calc in middle school. The application process has also changed, and it's a bit more of a lottery than it was before.

I'm not familiar with how things are in MCPS these days, but FCPS schools have either AP or IB. I'm not sure about the IB schools, but it's pretty normal to take Algebra in 7th, and all of the AP schools can handle that track.

It's common to take Algebra in 7th grade in FCPS, especially among families aspiring for their kids to attend TJ, but it's not the norm. They also have a pilot program now to offer Algebra in 6th grade, about which local math teachers have mixed feelings.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is being run into the ground by an incompetent school board and extremist superintendent.

Please consider private school if you care about your children’s future.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is going downhill and run by an extremely liberal, politically motivated school board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is being run into the ground by an incompetent school board and extremist superintendent.

Please consider private school if you care about your children’s future.

Fairfax doesn't have many private schools and the Catholic schools like O'Connell are inferior to the best FCPS schools, so some of us will continue to press for reforms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is going downhill and run by an extremely liberal, politically motivated school board.

+1
And if the OP really is moving from MCPS, you would think they’d already know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since you live in the area- you should know budget is a major factor. But if we are just throwing out good options- families seem happy with Langley academically but it might be hard socially.

We’ve been very happy with Langley, both academically and socially.