Marshall High School - Lowest Graduation Rate vs. TJ, Langley, McLean, Woodson, Madison, Oakton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello pp! You must be one of the obnoxious posters on the other thread intent on tearing down any positive sign about other schools. As we house hunt in VA, I wish I knew if this type of snotty mentality was the norm at any of the more highly touted schools mentioned by OP. That is certainly not something I would want my kids picking up.

You must be kidding. Marshall posters are often very snotty about other schools.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

I haven't seen that, more likely if you are in Langley, McLean or Yorktown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Compared to the other schools they are seeing a spike in the FARMS/ESOL enrollment due to the unaccompanied minors arriving from Central America, so I'm not surprised they have a lower graduation rate. It's still a good school, particularly if you want IB, even if it is not as "sought after" as the others like Langley, Woodson, etc.

Speculation or do you actually know if this is true? I've heard that this has had an effect on Herndon.

The FARMS rate was up 1.81% at Marshall last year over the prior year, to over 20%, and the Hispanic enrollment increased by 60 students to 17.3% of the total enrollment, up from 14.7% in the fall of 2013. Draw your own conclusions. Herndon was not the only school impacted.

TJ, Langley, McLean, Woodson, Oakton and Madison did not see increases on the same magnitude as Marshall. The Hispanic enrollment was down at TJ and flat at Langley, while the percentage of FARMS students actually declined last year at TJ, McLean and Oakton. Again, this puts in perspective why you might expect to see a lower graduation rate at Marshall compared to the other schools.

If that's the case why did the English Proficient rate at marshall go up?

http://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:13::::0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID:070

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ, Langley, McLean, Woodson, Oakton and Madison are six of the top seven high schools in Virginia.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

Marshall is second-tier.

Maybe in perception but if you used previous years US news it was in the top 10

One year GCM was in the top five but it was based on incorrect data about the IB participation rate. It was amazing to me how some parents vehemently denied the data could possibly be wrong. In the following years, the US News data showed a lower IB participation rate and Marshall dropped out of the USNews top five and then the top 10 in Virginia. The culture there has changed and there is a lot more focus on ratings there now than in the past. As the parent of a GCM graduate, the school has lost what used to make it different.

[Anonymous]

People talking about Marshall "gentrifying," as if it's in some kind of slum. What a joke. It's a perfectly good school in a perfectly safe and middle-class area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People talking about Marshall "gentrifying," as if it's in some kind of slum. What a joke. It's a perfectly good school in a perfectly safe and middle-class area.

of course it is, but until recently the BMW count in the parking lot wasn't big enough for the Langley/McLean/Madison crowd to take note. Not to mention all those brown faces are scary to some people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People talking about Marshall "gentrifying," as if it's in some kind of slum. What a joke. It's a perfectly good school in a perfectly safe and middle-class area.

When blacks are displaced by higher income whites in DC, you can call it gentrification, but not when lower middle class whites in Pimmit Hills are replaced with higher-income Indians and other immigrants. Got it.

Marshall neighborhoods may not have been slums, but there were reasons why the school was consistently in the bottom half in FCPS in the 80s and 90s and sometimes even in the bottom third.

[Anonymous]

Unless you have a child at risk of not graduating from high school, why do you think its a good marker for the quality of education your DC will get? Having fewer at-risk students at a school doesn't make it any better, it just makes it more segregated. There are tons of schools in the some parts of the country where nearly every one graduates from high school, but almost no one goes to a decent college.

On the other hand, if your DC might not finish high school, the difference between Marshall and the others is minimal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People talking about Marshall "gentrifying," as if it's in some kind of slum. What a joke. It's a perfectly good school in a perfectly safe and middle-class area.

When blacks are displaced by higher income whites in DC, you can call it gentrification, but not when lower middle class whites in Pimmit Hills are replaced with higher-income Indians and other immigrants. Got it.

Marshall neighborhoods may not have been slums, but there were reasons why the school was consistently in the bottom half in FCPS in the 80s and 90s and sometimes even in the bottom third.

Don't the Indians dominate the TJ admissions and do well in education? Wouldn't that be a positive?

[Anonymous]

I don't have a dog in this fight, as our kids go to another school, but I was at a basketball tournament a couple of years ago where the referees tossed some yelling Marshall parents out of the gym two games in a row. It did not leave me with a good impression of the school as the parents were loud and arrogant and all-around bad sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a dog in this fight, as our kids go to another school, but I was at a basketball tournament a couple of years ago where the referees tossed some yelling Marshall parents out of the gym two games in a row. It did not leave me with a good impression of the school as the parents were loud and arrogant and all-around bad sports.

OMG and you will NEVER find bad parental behavior at a sports tournament at any other school! Seems like a pretty good reason to write off a whole high school to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Marshall is in a different demographic situation which affects test scores and graduation rates. If you don't mind that, it is a fine school with a good IB program.

It certainly is true in terms of housing. Marshall has more multi family housing than other schools mentioned. Its boundary includes all the apartments and condos on both sides of Rt 7 from Whole Foods to Tysons. The gentrification is referring to the Pimmit Hills neighborhood with the tearing down of older SF homes for newer ones. Nearby is the Silver Line metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Marshall is in a different demographic situation which affects test scores and graduation rates. If you don't mind that, it is a fine school with a good IB program.

It certainly is true in terms of housing. Marshall has more multi family housing than other schools mentioned. Its boundary includes all the apartments and condos on both sides of Rt 7 from Whole Foods to Tysons. The gentrification is referring to the Pimmit Hills neighborhood with the tearing down of older SF homes for newer ones. Nearby is the Silver Line metro.

There is also a lot of older MFH zoned for Marshall off Gallows near Merrifield and on Lee Highway east of Merrifield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Marshall is in a different demographic situation which affects test scores and graduation rates. If you don't mind that, it is a fine school with a good IB program.

It certainly is true in terms of housing. Marshall has more multi family housing than other schools mentioned. Its boundary includes all the apartments and condos on both sides of Rt 7 from Whole Foods to Tysons. The gentrification is referring to the Pimmit Hills neighborhood with the tearing down of older SF homes for newer ones. Nearby is the Silver Line metro.

It also makes it one of the most interesting student bodies in the area. Marshall, like any school, isn't without its problems, but overall, the diversity makes for a really special community. I love the fact that kids come from multi-family housing and wish the gentrification of Pimmit Hills would slow down. We don't need another public school composed of primarily rich spoiled kids.

[Anonymous]

So if the FARMS rate at Marshall is increasing, and the SOL scores are increasing, it actually sounds like the school is doing a great job at actually teaching whoever comes through their doors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if the FARMS rate at Marshall is increasing, and the SOL scores are increasing, it actually sounds like the school is doing a great job at actually teaching whoever comes through their doors.

We can't have that, can we????? Then how can NOVA parents brag about their FCPS high school being "just like a private."