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best public schools in Arlington
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Anonymous
| We are thinking of leaving our beloved Del Ray neighborhood (Alexandria) because our kids are approaching school age and we would like to live in an area with good public schools. We are thinking Arlington because of the good schools, but we have no idea where to look -- where should we live to get the best schools? Is there any sort of ranking or website I should look at? We moved here a couple years ago so I am still not that familiar with the area. |
Anonymous
| There have been several long posts on this in the past. To sum up, all Arlington schools (North and South) are very good. It really depends what you are looking for. Some schools are more diverse than others and in general the more North you go, the less diverse the schools are. Because of this, the test scores are generally higher at these schools because there are very few low income students. However, that doesn't mean the school is necessarily better. The schools that come up regularly as "the best" schools in Arlington are Nottingham, Taylor, and Jamestown. They are all in N. Arlington and are the least diverse schools. There are many others worth looking at, too, like Barrett, McKinley, Glebe, and Ashlawn. I would really think about what you are looking for in a neighborhood and then investigate the schools. Assuming you like something like Del Ray, you might want to look in the areas of Arlington that are a little more "urban" than some of the further out locations - maybe Lyon Park, Lyon Village, Maywood, Cherrydale, Ashton Heights, Lee Heights, Tara, Westover, Waycroft and Waverly Hills. All of these are fairly close to metro and are close (and sometimes within walking distance) of shops and restaurants. Most of these follow Lee Highway west. In general, the further west and north you go, the further away you are from metro, shopping, restaurants. But nothing in Arlington is too far from anything. I know there are also many nice neighborhoods in S. Arlington - I am just not as familiar with them. But in general, I don't think you can go wrong with any school in Arlington. |
Anonymous
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Here is a link to the discussion from a few months ago..
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/2972.page#13338 |
Anonymous
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We're in Arlington and one of the best things about the school system is the amount of choice, especially at the elementary school level. Kids can attend their neighborhood school or a variety of other schools -- Montessori-based, the Arlington Traditional School, dual-immersion schools, a science focus school, and one elementary school does the elementary school version of the International Baccalaureat program. You can't go wrong - the quality really is high. As other posters have noted, the schools at the north end of the county (Nottingham, Jamestown, Tuckahoe, Taylor) are not diverse at all.
Good luck! |
Anonymous
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sort of OT but after reading this thread this just hit me - we're in Nottingham district and we're the only non-white family in our entire neighborhood. we moved here a few months ago...
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Anonymous
Yes, many areas/schools in N. Arlington are really not very diverse at all. When I go to the parks or playgrounds, the majority of minorities I see are the nannies. There are certainly pockets where more minorities live - along the Lee Highway corridor near Lee Heights, the predominantly African American neighborhood near Lee and Glebe, but in general it is mostly white. Our neighborhood elementary is Glebe, which is one of the more diverse schools in the area. While it is still a majority white, it pulls from the neighborhoods I mentioned above so there is a fairly large African American and Hispanic population as well. My kids are still too young for school, but I do like the fact that if we send them there they will be exposed to more diversity than they would at some of the other neighborhood schools. |
Anonymous
We're white parents with a child of a different race and, while we love the neighborhood (we're in the Nottingham district too), we're glad that we didn't send our DC to Nottingham. Interestingly, our immediate street is reasonably diverse for this part of Arlington. Fortunately, DC's friends are all over Arlington so we didn't feel any special pull toward a "neighborhood school." Don't get me wrong, Nottingham's a great school but it really did shock us, as white parents, how un-diverse it is. Had we thought things through more before we bought the house, we might have looked in a more diverse part of Arlington. |
Anonymous
| Just curious (and maybe a little OT) - are Del Ray schools that bad? I thought Alex. City was okay in terms of a school district....I certainly know there are tons of rugrats in the area - are they all in private school?? |
Anonymous
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We're at Long Branch and happy there. It is more diverse than Nottingham, for sure, but less diverse than it was 6 years ago. This is the school for Lyon Park and Ashton Heights. Of the neighborhoods listed, these two are probably most like Del Ray (although not all that much like Del Ray). Walking distance to stuff, funky bungalows etc. Lyon Village is lovely, but far more affluent than Del Ray.
Of course, Arlington's gotten a whole lot wealthier overall over the last decade, so my last comment may not be relevant. |
Anonymous
| Don't worry PP--we got to Nottingham and we aren't white either! But boy was that Back to School Night homogenous! Maybe you saw me there... Not too worried about it; our kids get plenty of exposure to diversity in other settings and it is a great school. |
Anonymous
if i may ask which school did choose for your DC? in fact i'm not sure there's other 'options' except ATS through lottery... and which street is it that's reasonably diverse, if you don't mind. |
Anonymous
There's the Spanish immersion schools (Claremont in our case - and that was our choice). If our son had had Montessori experience, he could've gone to the Drew Montessori School. If you live in the Jamestown, Taylor, Key triangle, you've also got Arlington Science Focus. Yes, these all are based on lottery (Claremont hasn't been, but likely is going to have to resort to one in the future). As for the street, I won't go into quite that level of detail on here, but we live near the Lee-Harrison Center |
Anonymous
| OP, what's wrong with Mt Vernon? All the parents I know with kids there have been very pleased with it. We're nearby-- kids at Maury-- and have been very pleased with Maury as well. And my understanding is that it's not hard to get an administrative transfer to another school if you're not thrilled with your local option-- I think people in the Mt Vernon area can do that automatically, since not everyone's crazy about Mt. Vernon's Spanish Immersion program or year-round calendar. I can see a public v. private decision, but why move from a beloved neighborhood when you already have good public school options? |
Anonymous
| bump |
Anonymous
| we're not zoned for Mt Vernon -- we are zoned for Jefferson Houston. It's unaccredited. |