Seeking info source on good NOVA schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what this poster is talking about. Arlington spends more per student and has a lower percentage of children than surrounding districts.

Arlington has money but not a fourth HS. Too bad.

I'm sure it will by the time OP's children attend high school.

It will not. We don't need any more kids, in particular from parents who only want their kids to mingle with certain groups. Go to McLean OP.

[Anonymous]

nasty people here! OP - aim for the best public high school. That means Langley or McLean High School. Best real estate for resale is 22101 inside the beltway. Get your kids into the AAP program (gifted). There's an entire index here set up for discussion about FCPS AAP. If your kids turn out to be STEM geniuses you will want them to go to TJ if they can get in (but you will find a lot of complainers here about TJ). Kids from TJ can pretty much write their own tickets for college. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology. Lastly, you will want to stay in Virginia so your kids can try for Va state universities. The demand for them is increasing expontentially every year as the private SLACs, LACs and universities price themselves out of existence. Good luck. And,yes, we have plenty of diversitiy in McLean notwithstanding the naysayers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great Schools is a proxy for test scores, but it also breaks them down by race/SES/disability, etc. So, you can see that if a school is a 7, maybe one group is passing the SOLs at a "10" but another is passing at a "3" .

GreatSchools is based exclusively on SOL pass rates compared to other schools in the same state. So, a GS rating of 7 in DC may not be comparable to a GS rating of 7 in VA or MD.

You can get other data by looking at the school profiles on FCPS.edu.

GreatSchools provides the big picture, but understand that there are reasons a score might not tell the whole story. For instance, a school that has an AAP center (gifted/talented) tends to have higher scores b/c of the center. But, if you kid isn't in the AAP center, then that composite score may be shielding the "true" score for the part of the school that your kid attends. Likewise, a school may be sort of a magnet for autism or other disabilities and that will tend to bring the overall passrates down -- but it has nothing to do with how your kid is educated if your kid doesn't have autism. (you can see the number of kids with disabilities on the profiles on fcps.edu and then compare with other schools.)

Likewise, you will usually find that the 5th grade math score is strangely low. That is b/c the kids in adv. math do not take the 5th grade math SOL (at all). So the only kids taking that test are the ones not in adv. math.

There are little variations that can't be assumed just looking at GS. But, if you are looking for high SES, Great Schools ratings are pretty well correlated. I just hope you have plenty of $$ for that house b/c schools in the higher SES zones cost a lot!

OP here. Thanks, this info for how to find and interpret the data is very useful. Based on this and other responses, it looks like the data would be found by county. I'll start researching to find some schools to visit.

l\

Just so you know, Fairfax County Public School do not have school choice like in DC. In general, there are no transfers. There are no charters either. There are a few magnate programs, like immersion- but there is a lottery. You go to the school in the district in which you live. You also need to look at the map as sometimes the closest school is not the one for which you are zoned. Sometimes the school listed on the ad for a house is incorrect- verify.

You don't come across as operating from a place of deep knowledge.

There are magnet/transfer options within FCPS for language programs, AAP, Academy courses, AP/IB, and of course TJHSST, if admitted. It is true that FCPS doesn't want charters, and isn't keen to set up a "school choice" system such as in DC or parts of MoCo, but that's because the neighborhood schools generally are strong and FCPS hasn't felt the need to try and bribe parents into staying through "choice," school consortia, and the like.

It is different from DC. The PP mentioned magnet programs. However, the majority of students have the only choice of their in district school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:nasty people here! OP - aim for the best public high school. That means Langley or McLean High School. Best real estate for resale is 22101 inside the beltway. Get your kids into the AAP program (gifted). There's an entire index here set up for discussion about FCPS AAP. If your kids turn out to be STEM geniuses you will want them to go to TJ if they can get in (but you will find a lot of complainers here about TJ). Kids from TJ can pretty much write their own tickets for college. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_High_School_for_Science_and_Technology. Lastly, you will want to stay in Virginia so your kids can try for Va state universities. The demand for them is increasing expontentially every year as the private SLACs, LACs and universities price themselves out of existence. Good luck. And,yes, we have plenty of diversitiy in McLean notwithstanding the naysayers.

It’s harder to get into uva from TJ.

[Anonymous]

OP-The only good school in NoVa is TJ.
That's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what this poster is talking about. Arlington spends more per student and has a lower percentage of children than surrounding districts.

Arlington has money but not a fourth HS. Too bad.

I'm sure it will by the time OP's children attend high school.

I wouldn't count on it. The next strategic plan will cover 2018-2024, and so far it doesn't sound like they're contemplating putting construction of a fourth high school into that plan. That would mean a new high school probably wouldn't be considered until after that, and would likely take a couple of years to open from when they decided on it (for reference, see the Reed School, they've known for a year they're going to turn it into an elementary school but that's not scheduled to open until 2021). I have a kindergartner (and an older child), she'll be in middle school before they do the 2025-2031 plan and if we're lucky they'll open a new high school when she's already in high school.

Building a high school would be a capital plan, not a strategic plan. Although if people think buildings should be in a strategic plan, this planning process is going to be a real shitshow.

[Anonymous]

What you're looking for in FCPS is the Langley or Mclean pyramid and the Yorktown pyramid in APS. All three schools have their plusses and minuses, but educational outcomes are only marginally different at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what this poster is talking about. Arlington spends more per student and has a lower percentage of children than surrounding districts.

Arlington has money but not a fourth HS. Too bad.

I'm sure it will by the time OP's children attend high school.

I wouldn't count on it. The next strategic plan will cover 2018-2024, and so far it doesn't sound like they're contemplating putting construction of a fourth high school into that plan. That would mean a new high school probably wouldn't be considered until after that, and would likely take a couple of years to open from when they decided on it (for reference, see the Reed School, they've known for a year they're going to turn it into an elementary school but that's not scheduled to open until 2021). I have a kindergartner (and an older child), she'll be in middle school before they do the 2025-2031 plan and if we're lucky they'll open a new high school when she's already in high school.

Building a high school would be a capital plan, not a strategic plan. Although if people think buildings should be in a strategic plan, this planning process is going to be a real shitshow.

It won't be in either plan, though it should be in both (if we're creating all these small programs rather than comprehensive schools wouldn't that need to be accounted for in a strategic plan? You know, pretend as if this is a deliberate strategy rather than a hastily thrown together idea to put out the latest fire.

Staff has no idea what it's doing and is too overwhelmed, and the community is divided over whether or not a 4th school should happen. Plenty of residents without kids don't want to spend the money on it, and plenty of parents become opposed to the idea once they realize it might be their children or homes zoned for the new school. Too many protracted fights about boundaries have led to a lack of will, and there isnt the money or land to build one in time for any currently living children. Don't move to Arlingotn OP.

[Anonymous]

22:32 - what a sad life you must lead. The only good school? really? Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22:32 - what a sad life you must lead. The only good school? really? Sigh.

Sad life? It's the truth.
The only school in NoVa with notable academic achievements is TJ.Some of the other ones have good test score but haven't done s#*$t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22:32 - what a sad life you must lead. The only good school? really? Sigh.

Sad life? It's the truth.
The only school in NoVa with notable academic achievements is TJ.Some of the other ones have good test score but haven't done s#*$t.

TJ = best cheating scandals

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22:32 - what a sad life you must lead. The only good school? really? Sigh.

Sad life? It's the truth.
The only school in NoVa with notable academic achievements is TJ.Some of the other ones have good test score but haven't done s#*$t.

It's high school. I'm not sure what your expectations are, but they seem unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22:32 - what a sad life you must lead. The only good school? really? Sigh.

Sad life? It's the truth.
The only school in NoVa with notable academic achievements is TJ.Some of the other ones have good test score but haven't done s#*$t.

It's high school. I'm not sure what your expectations are, but they seem unusual.

I see. Ya'll don't expect academic achievements in High school.
No wonder TJ is the only good school in NoVa.

[Anonymous]

I would NOT rely on Great Schools. Questionable methodology.

Take a look at the school report cards issued by the Virginia Department of Education: http://schoolquality.virginia.gov

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would NOT rely on Great Schools. Questionable methodology.

Take a look at the school report cards issued by the Virginia Department of Education: http://schoolquality.virginia.gov

great schools is based on the same data. Great schools is simply an in-state comparison of passrates in the whole school compared to other schools of the same level in that state.