Mont Co Schools vs Fairfax Co Schools- opinions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Woodson after spending my first three hs years at a Montgomery County HS. My son currently attends Frost MS and will go to Woodson as well.

I think both school systems are excellent and you really cannot go wrong either way. My huge complaint about Fairfax County in general is that they teach to test. My son spends a ridiculous amount of time "prepping for" and learning the SOL materials. I feel like every few weeks they are going over SOL material and not working on actual class work or projects. Most of other parents in the neighborhood have that same complaint. It does hurt the child academically when they are constantly taking time out to review, study, memorize material that is known to be on a test. School funding money is tied to SOL scores and Fairfax Co Schools takes that very seriously.

That's interesting because I've heard this exact complaint leveled at MoCo schools, i.e., too much teaching to the test and not enough depth of learning. Oddly enough it was in the context of MoCo schools vs. public schools in DC (obviously the very wealthy nice ones in NW). In that case it was a MoCo teacher who said that in her experience there wasn't enough creative thinking encouraged in MoCo schools.

Maybe the grass is greener everywhere...