Shrevewood/Kilmer/Marshall triangle - what is the cause of disparity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For whatever it's worth, I think the consensus would be that Marshall is a slight upgrade over Falls Church HS.

Yes, Marshall boosterism on this forum was overbearing esp. about 1 year ago, by one incessant poster.

Slight? Falls Church is one of the worst in the county vs Marshall one of the top ten.

Marshall is one of the best in the county and keeps climbing up the rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For whatever it's worth, I think the consensus would be that Marshall is a slight upgrade over Falls Church HS.

Yes, Marshall boosterism on this forum was overbearing esp. about 1 year ago, by one incessant poster.

Slight? Falls Church is one of the worst in the county vs Marshall one of the top ten.

Marshall is one of the best in the county and keeps climbing up the rankings

Falls Church is what Marshall used to call itself, a "small school with a big heart." Marshall is obsessed with rankings now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to Shrevewood. It's a nice school with a good sense of community and a lot of great families. I was displeased with the academics. There is no creativity and way too much teaching to the test. I thought the academic expectations were way too low. I'm sure others will disagree.

How would one promote more creativity in teaching? I'm really curious about new ideas.

I think most FCPS would teach to the test because everyone is so bent out of shape re SOL (see this thread) - unless you can guarantee that all the kids will do really well on the SOLs then you can't really afford to move much beyond teaching to the test as a teacher. I guess that is one benefit of a high SES school - high SES automatically guarantees adequate SOLs so the teachers have more time to teach other things.

I'm also curious as to your feeling that academic expectations are low - my kid is doing great but in the back of my mind it seems to be too easy for him. He's at the stage of learning to read, spell and maths and the only slight challenge would be the spelling component. Two or three other kids in the class are in the same boat academically I would imagine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to Shrevewood. It's a nice school with a good sense of community and a lot of great families. I was displeased with the academics. There is no creativity and way too much teaching to the test. I thought the academic expectations were way too low. I'm sure others will disagree.

How would one promote more creativity in teaching? I'm really curious about new ideas.

I think most FCPS would teach to the test because everyone is so bent out of shape re SOL (see this thread) - unless you can guarantee that all the kids will do really well on the SOLs then you can't really afford to move much beyond teaching to the test as a teacher. I guess that is one benefit of a high SES school - high SES automatically guarantees adequate SOLs so the teachers have more time to teach other things.

I'm also curious as to your feeling that academic expectations are low - my kid is doing great but in the back of my mind it seems to be too easy for him. He's at the stage of learning to read, spell and maths and the only slight challenge would be the spelling component. Two or three other kids in the class are in the same boat academically I would imagine.

Sounds like your child hasn't gone through too many grades at Shrevewood yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For whatever it's worth, I think the consensus would be that Marshall is a slight upgrade over Falls Church HS.

Yes, Marshall boosterism on this forum was overbearing esp. about 1 year ago, by one incessant poster.

Slight? Falls Church is one of the worst in the county vs Marshall one of the top ten.

Marshall is one of the best in the county and keeps climbing up the rankings

Falls Church is what Marshall used to call itself, a "small school with a big heart." Marshall is obsessed with rankings now.

Can't Marshall be both? Small school with a big heart along with being highly ranked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For whatever it's worth, I think the consensus would be that Marshall is a slight upgrade over Falls Church HS.

Yes, Marshall boosterism on this forum was overbearing esp. about 1 year ago, by one incessant poster.

Slight? Falls Church is one of the worst in the county vs Marshall one of the top ten.

Marshall is one of the best in the county and keeps climbing up the rankings

Falls Church is what Marshall used to call itself, a "small school with a big heart." Marshall is obsessed with rankings now.

Can't Marshall be both? Small school with a big heart along with being highly ranked.

With roughly 1900 students, Marshall isn't really small any more. "Small school, big heart" was the motto when GCM had about 1300 students.

We used to live in the GCM district, and one of our kids graduated from the school. When we talk to some of our former neighbors who still have kids there, they say it's become less personal and more focused on test scores and ratings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to Shrevewood. It's a nice school with a good sense of community and a lot of great families. I was displeased with the academics. There is no creativity and way too much teaching to the test. I thought the academic expectations were way too low. I'm sure others will disagree.

How would one promote more creativity in teaching? I'm really curious about new ideas.

I think most FCPS would teach to the test because everyone is so bent out of shape re SOL (see this thread) - unless you can guarantee that all the kids will do really well on the SOLs then you can't really afford to move much beyond teaching to the test as a teacher. I guess that is one benefit of a high SES school - high SES automatically guarantees adequate SOLs so the teachers have more time to teach other things.

I'm also curious as to your feeling that academic expectations are low - my kid is doing great but in the back of my mind it seems to be too easy for him. He's at the stage of learning to read, spell and maths and the only slight challenge would be the spelling component. Two or three other kids in the class are in the same boat academically I would imagine.

I'm the PP you quoted. By creativity I mean different ways for the kids to learn things other than spit out the material, cut and paste the terms a bit, fill in the blanks on the study guide and take a test. There is a plethora of worksheets. In my child's experience, 5 years, it was about 85-90 percent worksheet driven. Some fine projects meant to teach would have been nice.

I found the academic expectations low. The goal seems to be getting everyone to the benchmark, not their best. (Maybe that's just public school but I don't think so). There are no longer separate classes for the various levels of math so advanced math is essentially gone because the teacher can't realistically differentiate for 25-28 kids at varying levels. They have some sort of AAP now, which might be ok. But if your child is bright kid but you haven't pushed him into AAP, there will be no challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For whatever it's worth, I think the consensus would be that Marshall is a slight upgrade over Falls Church HS.

Yes, Marshall boosterism on this forum was overbearing esp. about 1 year ago, by one incessant poster.

Slight? Falls Church is one of the worst in the county vs Marshall one of the top ten.

Marshall is one of the best in the county and keeps climbing up the rankings

Falls Church is what Marshall used to call itself, a "small school with a big heart." Marshall is obsessed with rankings now.

Sounds like every other in Fairfax county with the obsession over rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some recent examples (I have to think at least some of them written by Marshall parents/boosters, and of course there are all the RE posts recommending Pimmit Hills):

"Marshall is better than all the other schools listed so zoning for Marshall is actually a plus"

"Woodson is a good school but the location is far imo. Marshall now exceeds it and there are poor woodson apts near fair city."

"Woodson has not really gone up that much in quality because the more affluent people have moved closer into the beltway to places like 22182, 22043. The real increase in quality is Marshall which has surpassed woodson in many areas."

"I think you should try to buy in the Marshall district versus the Falls Church HS (Fairfax Co.) or JEB Stuart district."

"Make sure you look at the schools, some of merrifield / mosaic is in Falls Church High Zone while as the other part is in Marshall."

Response to question from poster about Falls Church HS: "You can send your daughter to Marshall IB."

I can't believe this poster took the time to capture all these and repost them. They must have some pent up anger over Marshall parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some recent examples (I have to think at least some of them written by Marshall parents/boosters, and of course there are all the RE posts recommending Pimmit Hills):

"Marshall is better than all the other schools listed so zoning for Marshall is actually a plus"

"Woodson is a good school but the location is far imo. Marshall now exceeds it and there are poor woodson apts near fair city."

"Woodson has not really gone up that much in quality because the more affluent people have moved closer into the beltway to places like 22182, 22043. The real increase in quality is Marshall which has surpassed woodson in many areas."

"I think you should try to buy in the Marshall district versus the Falls Church HS (Fairfax Co.) or JEB Stuart district."

"Make sure you look at the schools, some of merrifield / mosaic is in Falls Church High Zone while as the other part is in Marshall."

Response to question from poster about Falls Church HS: "You can send your daughter to Marshall IB."

I can't believe this poster took the time to capture all these and repost them. They must have some pent up anger over Marshall parents.

DCUM has a search function. It doesn't take very long to find such examples, which a previous poster had suggested weren't out there. No pent-up "anger," but perhaps some annoyance at the volume of negative comments about other schools that seem to emanate from a few Marshall touts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some recent examples (I have to think at least some of them written by Marshall parents/boosters, and of course there are all the RE posts recommending Pimmit Hills):

"Marshall is better than all the other schools listed so zoning for Marshall is actually a plus"

"Woodson is a good school but the location is far imo. Marshall now exceeds it and there are poor woodson apts near fair city."

"Woodson has not really gone up that much in quality because the more affluent people have moved closer into the beltway to places like 22182, 22043. The real increase in quality is Marshall which has surpassed woodson in many areas."

"I think you should try to buy in the Marshall district versus the Falls Church HS (Fairfax Co.) or JEB Stuart district."

"Make sure you look at the schools, some of merrifield / mosaic is in Falls Church High Zone while as the other part is in Marshall."

Response to question from poster about Falls Church HS: "You can send your daughter to Marshall IB."

I can't believe this poster took the time to capture all these and repost them. They must have some pent up anger over Marshall parents.

DCUM has a search function. It doesn't take very long to find such examples, which a previous poster had suggested weren't out there. No pent-up "anger," but perhaps some annoyance at the volume of negative comments about other schools that seem to emanate from a few Marshall touts.

Ok, you took the time to "Search" for all those quotes and repost them. And fine, I should have used the word annoyance rather than anger. I think it's amazing you are willing to do that. I applaud you. *Clap Clap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some recent examples (I have to think at least some of them written by Marshall parents/boosters, and of course there are all the RE posts recommending Pimmit Hills):

"Marshall is better than all the other schools listed so zoning for Marshall is actually a plus"

"Woodson is a good school but the location is far imo. Marshall now exceeds it and there are poor woodson apts near fair city."

"Woodson has not really gone up that much in quality because the more affluent people have moved closer into the beltway to places like 22182, 22043. The real increase in quality is Marshall which has surpassed woodson in many areas."

"I think you should try to buy in the Marshall district versus the Falls Church HS (Fairfax Co.) or JEB Stuart district."

"Make sure you look at the schools, some of merrifield / mosaic is in Falls Church High Zone while as the other part is in Marshall."

Response to question from poster about Falls Church HS: "You can send your daughter to Marshall IB."

I can't believe this poster took the time to capture all these and repost them. They must have some pent up anger over Marshall parents.

DCUM has a search function. It doesn't take very long to find such examples, which a previous poster had suggested weren't out there. No pent-up "anger," but perhaps some annoyance at the volume of negative comments about other schools that seem to emanate from a few Marshall touts.

Ok, you took the time to "Search" for all those quotes and repost them. And fine, I should have used the word annoyance rather than anger. I think it's amazing you are willing to do that. I applaud you. *Clap Clap

No problem, though you seem kind of salty about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to Shrevewood. It's a nice school with a good sense of community and a lot of great families. I was displeased with the academics. There is no creativity and way too much teaching to the test. I thought the academic expectations were way too low. I'm sure others will disagree.

How would one promote more creativity in teaching? I'm really curious about new ideas.

I think most FCPS would teach to the test because everyone is so bent out of shape re SOL (see this thread) - unless you can guarantee that all the kids will do really well on the SOLs then you can't really afford to move much beyond teaching to the test as a teacher. I guess that is one benefit of a high SES school - high SES automatically guarantees adequate SOLs so the teachers have more time to teach other things.

I'm also curious as to your feeling that academic expectations are low - my kid is doing great but in the back of my mind it seems to be too easy for him. He's at the stage of learning to read, spell and maths and the only slight challenge would be the spelling component. Two or three other kids in the class are in the same boat academically I would imagine.

I'm the PP you quoted. By creativity I mean different ways for the kids to learn things other than spit out the material, cut and paste the terms a bit, fill in the blanks on the study guide and take a test. There is a plethora of worksheets. In my child's experience, 5 years, it was about 85-90 percent worksheet driven. Some fine projects meant to teach would have been nice.

I found the academic expectations low. The goal seems to be getting everyone to the benchmark, not their best. (Maybe that's just public school but I don't think so). There are no longer separate classes for the various levels of math so advanced math is essentially gone because the teacher can't realistically differentiate for 25-28 kids at varying levels. They have some sort of AAP now, which might be ok. But if your child is bright kid but you haven't pushed him into AAP, there will be no challenge.

Thanks for the insights

[Anonymous]

OP here: Wow! This conversation has really taken off in an unexpected manner; some of it is very helpful, and I'm grateful for those replies. Others, not so much.

My biggest takeaway: Shrevewood is fine. Sounds like my son would have the AAP option at Lemon Road if he met the criteria; that school isn't too far from the home in question either. At this point, we don't even know if we're going to get this house, but it's nice to have all the background info just in case.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some recent examples (I have to think at least some of them written by Marshall parents/boosters, and of course there are all the RE posts recommending Pimmit Hills):

"Marshall is better than all the other schools listed so zoning for Marshall is actually a plus"

"Woodson is a good school but the location is far imo. Marshall now exceeds it and there are poor woodson apts near fair city."

"Woodson has not really gone up that much in quality because the more affluent people have moved closer into the beltway to places like 22182, 22043. The real increase in quality is Marshall which has surpassed woodson in many areas."

"I think you should try to buy in the Marshall district versus the Falls Church HS (Fairfax Co.) or JEB Stuart district."

"Make sure you look at the schools, some of merrifield / mosaic is in Falls Church High Zone while as the other part is in Marshall."

Response to question from poster about Falls Church HS: "You can send your daughter to Marshall IB."

I can't believe this poster took the time to capture all these and repost them. They must have some pent up anger over Marshall parents.

DCUM has a search function. It doesn't take very long to find such examples, which a previous poster had suggested weren't out there. No pent-up "anger," but perhaps some annoyance at the volume of negative comments about other schools that seem to emanate from a few Marshall touts.

Ok, you took the time to "Search" for all those quotes and repost them. And fine, I should have used the word annoyance rather than anger. I think it's amazing you are willing to do that. I applaud you. *Clap Clap

No problem, though you seem kind of salty about it.

Not salty at all. I'm just in awe of the dedication in your posts. To be able to "Search" for all those quotes and repost them, how can anyone compete?