Tell me about the schools in Herndon/Chantilly - Crossfield, Oak Hill, Navy, Fox Mill, Lees Corner

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, really not as concerned about STEM/STEAM as I am about the community and whether the school is well regarded and families like it there. There are a couple schools that get brought up in this forum a lot and fortunately those are in areas we can't afford to live in, I just want to make sure we're avoiding schools like that where parents get all up in arms about AAP vs General Ed, or are racists, or things like that. We are a mixed race family (half Asian/half white), and I hope we'd be welcomed in these communities, I think there are decent sized asian/south asian populations?

You might want to avoid Navy then. The AAP vs Gen Ed culture is real and sadly I feel like it’s ruined the experience for us. The teachers are great, but when you split everyone into “the smart kids” and “the not smart kids”, and everyone knows who is in which class, you’re setting yourself up for a not so great learning experience. If we had a choice, we would have chosen Fox Mill. It’s a super tight knit community and everyone (parents, teachers, kids) are lovely. If you value community, those are your people.

+1 Navy does absolutely nothing to try to integrate AAP and Gen Ed kids. There are no team activities. AAP and Gen Ed teachers don’t plan units together. Everyone does their own thing (all upper grade teachers departmentalized) and it’s a mess.

I had a gen ed kid at Navy who grew up going there so she knew a lot of AAP kids as well. Those friendships died, as the divide is steep so they never interacted. Even at recess, the AAP teachers stood together and the gen ed teachers stood together on the other side of the playground. I had an older child there prior, who went to Hunters Woods for AAP prior to the change. I LOVED that at that school everyone was mixed for specials--each child was assigned a number 1-7 and all the "1s" were together each day for their special. He didn't know any of the kids there in gen ed or magnet prior to going there, but at least got out of his AAP group for a portion of ea day. It can be done, is all I'm saying. When he was at Navy, the afterschool activities were the usual ones (karate, etc) but when the younger kid went there, by that time the school was majority Asian (maybe 55%?) and even the activities had changed--every math and science activity/ competition under the sun was now available, but according to my kid, "only the AAP kids go to those". I don't know, it was a weird vibe by the end. I think 7 years in one school is too long anyways...

I agree with this. Navy does a terrible job integrating the kids. It's our base school and each of my DCs went into 3rd grade AAP with plenty of close friends who went to gen ed (or PBL, as they call it). The divide was immediate because they never saw the PBL kids again during the day since even specials were all with AAP kids. In 4th grade they start to mix by specials group, but the damage is already done. By the time they graduated, none of my DCs had any close friends in PBL. It's bizarre to watch happen and it's from both sides - neither wants to spend time with the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in Navy ES 5th grade AAP and they divided all 5th grade classes into 5 groups (a-e) of class schedules, so both Gen Ed and AAP would be in same classroom depend on which group they are. DC plays with non AAP classmates too. Navy ES has nearly half American and half Asian students, and the after school activities including yoga, chess, strings, and sports etc which both Asians and Americans and other races of students all can join if they want.

I’m sorry, but I cannot let this slide. Half Asians, half Americans? As a fellow Navy parent, I sincerely hope you didn’t mean this the way it reads.

Depending on the person's native language that might not be inaccurate. We call people foreigners even though we are the foreigner in the USA. Also back home American is synonymous with white while that is less accurate after moving here.

[Anonymous]

Poplar Tree and GB-W both have excellent AAP programs and RRMS is an AAP center as well. All these schools have very good non-AAP programs.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I was hesitant to put Navy on my original list because it has a bit of a reputation, and I'm seeing that reinforced in a few of the threads here, unfortunately. Did I mention I am Asian-American?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I was hesitant to put Navy on my original list because it has a bit of a reputation, and I'm seeing that reinforced in a few of the threads here, unfortunately. Did I mention I am Asian-American?

2021-2022 data from the county says Navy is 46% Asian, most of whom are going to be in AAP. I think that maybe 75% of kids in AAP were Asian? Could be a bit more?

Fox Mill is only 11.41% Asian, mainly concentrated in Japanese Immersion. This number feels low, given my memory of what the students & parents looked like. Now that I look at the data I see "TWO OR MORE" is 15.42%, and those would be nearly all mixed white/asian couples.

Data from here:

https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in Navy ES 5th grade AAP and they divided all 5th grade classes into 5 groups (a-e) of class schedules, so both Gen Ed and AAP would be in same classroom depend on which group they are. DC plays with non AAP classmates too. Navy ES has nearly half American and half Asian students, and the after school activities including yoga, chess, strings, and sports etc which both Asians and Americans and other races of students all can join if they want.

I’m sorry, but I cannot let this slide. Half Asians, half Americans? As a fellow Navy parent, I sincerely hope you didn’t mean this the way it reads.

Depending on the person's native language that might not be inaccurate. We call people foreigners even though we are the foreigner in the USA. Also back home American is synonymous with white while that is less accurate after moving here.

They might not (and I hope not) have intended it as it came across.. But that most definitely does not make it “accurate.” Or less offensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, really not as concerned about STEM/STEAM as I am about the community and whether the school is well regarded and families like it there. There are a couple schools that get brought up in this forum a lot and fortunately those are in areas we can't afford to live in, I just want to make sure we're avoiding schools like that where parents get all up in arms about AAP vs General Ed, or are racists, or things like that. We are a mixed race family (half Asian/half white), and I hope we'd be welcomed in these communities, I think there are decent sized asian/south asian populations?

You might want to avoid Navy then. The AAP vs Gen Ed culture is real and sadly I feel like it’s ruined the experience for us. The teachers are great, but when you split everyone into “the smart kids” and “the not smart kids”, and everyone knows who is in which class, you’re setting yourself up for a not so great learning experience. If we had a choice, we would have chosen Fox Mill. It’s a super tight knit community and everyone (parents, teachers, kids) are lovely. If you value community, those are your people.

+1 Navy does absolutely nothing to try to integrate AAP and Gen Ed kids. There are no team activities. AAP and Gen Ed teachers don’t plan units together. Everyone does their own thing (all upper grade teachers departmentalized) and it’s a mess.

I had a gen ed kid at Navy who grew up going there so she knew a lot of AAP kids as well. Those friendships died, as the divide is steep so they never interacted. Even at recess, the AAP teachers stood together and the gen ed teachers stood together on the other side of the playground. I had an older child there prior, who went to Hunters Woods for AAP prior to the change. I LOVED that at that school everyone was mixed for specials--each child was assigned a number 1-7 and all the "1s" were together each day for their special. He didn't know any of the kids there in gen ed or magnet prior to going there, but at least got out of his AAP group for a portion of ea day. It can be done, is all I'm saying. When he was at Navy, the afterschool activities were the usual ones (karate, etc) but when the younger kid went there, by that time the school was majority Asian (maybe 55%?) and even the activities had changed--every math and science activity/ competition under the sun was now available, but according to my kid, "only the AAP kids go to those". I don't know, it was a weird vibe by the end. I think 7 years in one school is too long anyways...

I agree with this. Navy does a terrible job integrating the kids. It's our base school and each of my DCs went into 3rd grade AAP with plenty of close friends who went to gen ed (or PBL, as they call it). The divide was immediate because they never saw the PBL kids again during the day since even specials were all with AAP kids. In 4th grade they start to mix by specials group, but the damage is already done. By the time they graduated, none of my DCs had any close friends in PBL. It's bizarre to watch happen and it's from both sides - neither wants to spend time with the other.

+1 this is so true. Also, there are no grade level events where kids get mixed up. Typically schools do something at each grade level where they integrate the AAP and Gen Ed kids. Such as Colonial Day, where kids move from class to class to do different activities in teachers’ rooms. They would actually mix up the kids so AAP and Gen Ed kids were combined and moved as a group. A lot of schools also do their end of year parties as a team. Not Navy. Each teacher plans their own thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in Navy ES 5th grade AAP and they divided all 5th grade classes into 5 groups (a-e) of class schedules, so both Gen Ed and AAP would be in same classroom depend on which group they are. DC plays with non AAP classmates too. Navy ES has nearly half American and half Asian students, and the after school activities including yoga, chess, strings, and sports etc which both Asians and Americans and other races of students all can join if they want.

I’m sorry, but I cannot let this slide. Half Asians, half Americans? As a fellow Navy parent, I sincerely hope you didn’t mean this the way it reads.

Depending on the person's native language that might not be inaccurate. We call people foreigners even though we are the foreigner in the USA. Also back home American is synonymous with white while that is less accurate after moving here.

They might not (and I hope not) have intended it as it came across.. But that most definitely does not make it “accurate.” Or less offensive.

I'm OP and this is a good point, that PP could have been an immigrant herself - I grew up in a very white area (if you weren't white, your parents were immigrants) and my parents referred to my friends based on where their parents were raised -- American (white people), Indian, or Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, really not as concerned about STEM/STEAM as I am about the community and whether the school is well regarded and families like it there. There are a couple schools that get brought up in this forum a lot and fortunately those are in areas we can't afford to live in, I just want to make sure we're avoiding schools like that where parents get all up in arms about AAP vs General Ed, or are racists, or things like that. We are a mixed race family (half Asian/half white), and I hope we'd be welcomed in these communities, I think there are decent sized asian/south asian populations?

You might want to avoid Navy then. The AAP vs Gen Ed culture is real and sadly I feel like it’s ruined the experience for us. The teachers are great, but when you split everyone into “the smart kids” and “the not smart kids”, and everyone knows who is in which class, you’re setting yourself up for a not so great learning experience. If we had a choice, we would have chosen Fox Mill. It’s a super tight knit community and everyone (parents, teachers, kids) are lovely. If you value community, those are your people.

+1 Navy does absolutely nothing to try to integrate AAP and Gen Ed kids. There are no team activities. AAP and Gen Ed teachers don’t plan units together. Everyone does their own thing (all upper grade teachers departmentalized) and it’s a mess.

I had a gen ed kid at Navy who grew up going there so she knew a lot of AAP kids as well. Those friendships died, as the divide is steep so they never interacted. Even at recess, the AAP teachers stood together and the gen ed teachers stood together on the other side of the playground. I had an older child there prior, who went to Hunters Woods for AAP prior to the change. I LOVED that at that school everyone was mixed for specials--each child was assigned a number 1-7 and all the "1s" were together each day for their special. He didn't know any of the kids there in gen ed or magnet prior to going there, but at least got out of his AAP group for a portion of ea day. It can be done, is all I'm saying. When he was at Navy, the afterschool activities were the usual ones (karate, etc) but when the younger kid went there, by that time the school was majority Asian (maybe 55%?) and even the activities had changed--every math and science activity/ competition under the sun was now available, but according to my kid, "only the AAP kids go to those". I don't know, it was a weird vibe by the end. I think 7 years in one school is too long anyways...

I agree with this. Navy does a terrible job integrating the kids. It's our base school and each of my DCs went into 3rd grade AAP with plenty of close friends who went to gen ed (or PBL, as they call it). The divide was immediate because they never saw the PBL kids again during the day since even specials were all with AAP kids. In 4th grade they start to mix by specials group, but the damage is already done. By the time they graduated, none of my DCs had any close friends in PBL. It's bizarre to watch happen and it's from both sides - neither wants to spend time with the other.

+1 this is so true. Also, there are no grade level events where kids get mixed up. Typically schools do something at each grade level where they integrate the AAP and Gen Ed kids. Such as Colonial Day, where kids move from class to class to do different activities in teachers’ rooms. They would actually mix up the kids so AAP and Gen Ed kids were combined and moved as a group. A lot of schools also do their end of year parties as a team. Not Navy. Each teacher plans their own thing.

I'm pretty sure colonial day has gone as it wasn't politically correct. I know my kids would have enjoyed it! One of my favorite memories of elementary school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, really not as concerned about STEM/STEAM as I am about the community and whether the school is well regarded and families like it there. There are a couple schools that get brought up in this forum a lot and fortunately those are in areas we can't afford to live in, I just want to make sure we're avoiding schools like that where parents get all up in arms about AAP vs General Ed, or are racists, or things like that. We are a mixed race family (half Asian/half white), and I hope we'd be welcomed in these communities, I think there are decent sized asian/south asian populations?

You might want to avoid Navy then. The AAP vs Gen Ed culture is real and sadly I feel like it’s ruined the experience for us. The teachers are great, but when you split everyone into “the smart kids” and “the not smart kids”, and everyone knows who is in which class, you’re setting yourself up for a not so great learning experience. If we had a choice, we would have chosen Fox Mill. It’s a super tight knit community and everyone (parents, teachers, kids) are lovely. If you value community, those are your people.

+1 Navy does absolutely nothing to try to integrate AAP and Gen Ed kids. There are no team activities. AAP and Gen Ed teachers don’t plan units together. Everyone does their own thing (all upper grade teachers departmentalized) and it’s a mess.

I had a gen ed kid at Navy who grew up going there so she knew a lot of AAP kids as well. Those friendships died, as the divide is steep so they never interacted. Even at recess, the AAP teachers stood together and the gen ed teachers stood together on the other side of the playground. I had an older child there prior, who went to Hunters Woods for AAP prior to the change. I LOVED that at that school everyone was mixed for specials--each child was assigned a number 1-7 and all the "1s" were together each day for their special. He didn't know any of the kids there in gen ed or magnet prior to going there, but at least got out of his AAP group for a portion of ea day. It can be done, is all I'm saying. When he was at Navy, the afterschool activities were the usual ones (karate, etc) but when the younger kid went there, by that time the school was majority Asian (maybe 55%?) and even the activities had changed--every math and science activity/ competition under the sun was now available, but according to my kid, "only the AAP kids go to those". I don't know, it was a weird vibe by the end. I think 7 years in one school is too long anyways...

I agree with this. Navy does a terrible job integrating the kids. It's our base school and each of my DCs went into 3rd grade AAP with plenty of close friends who went to gen ed (or PBL, as they call it). The divide was immediate because they never saw the PBL kids again during the day since even specials were all with AAP kids. In 4th grade they start to mix by specials group, but the damage is already done. By the time they graduated, none of my DCs had any close friends in PBL. It's bizarre to watch happen and it's from both sides - neither wants to spend time with the other.

+1 this is so true. Also, there are no grade level events where kids get mixed up. Typically schools do something at each grade level where they integrate the AAP and Gen Ed kids. Such as Colonial Day, where kids move from class to class to do different activities in teachers’ rooms. They would actually mix up the kids so AAP and Gen Ed kids were combined and moved as a group. A lot of schools also do their end of year parties as a team. Not Navy. Each teacher plans their own thing.

That wasn't really a problem for us since our base school is Crossfield and going to Navy, my kid only knew a couple of other kids from Crossfield. I could see how it might be a problem for people who started in Navy before AAP, and dealing with neighborhood kids.

[Anonymous]

OP here, so....Navy sounds like it has a lot of disgruntled families, I think we may try to avoid homes zoned there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, really not as concerned about STEM/STEAM as I am about the community and whether the school is well regarded and families like it there. There are a couple schools that get brought up in this forum a lot and fortunately those are in areas we can't afford to live in, I just want to make sure we're avoiding schools like that where parents get all up in arms about AAP vs General Ed, or are racists, or things like that. We are a mixed race family (half Asian/half white), and I hope we'd be welcomed in these communities, I think there are decent sized asian/south asian populations?

You might want to avoid Navy then. The AAP vs Gen Ed culture is real and sadly I feel like it’s ruined the experience for us. The teachers are great, but when you split everyone into “the smart kids” and “the not smart kids”, and everyone knows who is in which class, you’re setting yourself up for a not so great learning experience. If we had a choice, we would have chosen Fox Mill. It’s a super tight knit community and everyone (parents, teachers, kids) are lovely. If you value community, those are your people.

+1 Navy does absolutely nothing to try to integrate AAP and Gen Ed kids. There are no team activities. AAP and Gen Ed teachers don’t plan units together. Everyone does their own thing (all upper grade teachers departmentalized) and it’s a mess.

I had a gen ed kid at Navy who grew up going there so she knew a lot of AAP kids as well. Those friendships died, as the divide is steep so they never interacted. Even at recess, the AAP teachers stood together and the gen ed teachers stood together on the other side of the playground. I had an older child there prior, who went to Hunters Woods for AAP prior to the change. I LOVED that at that school everyone was mixed for specials--each child was assigned a number 1-7 and all the "1s" were together each day for their special. He didn't know any of the kids there in gen ed or magnet prior to going there, but at least got out of his AAP group for a portion of ea day. It can be done, is all I'm saying. When he was at Navy, the afterschool activities were the usual ones (karate, etc) but when the younger kid went there, by that time the school was majority Asian (maybe 55%?) and even the activities had changed--every math and science activity/ competition under the sun was now available, but according to my kid, "only the AAP kids go to those". I don't know, it was a weird vibe by the end. I think 7 years in one school is too long anyways...

I agree with this. Navy does a terrible job integrating the kids. It's our base school and each of my DCs went into 3rd grade AAP with plenty of close friends who went to gen ed (or PBL, as they call it). The divide was immediate because they never saw the PBL kids again during the day since even specials were all with AAP kids. In 4th grade they start to mix by specials group, but the damage is already done. By the time they graduated, none of my DCs had any close friends in PBL. It's bizarre to watch happen and it's from both sides - neither wants to spend time with the other.

+1 this is so true. Also, there are no grade level events where kids get mixed up. Typically schools do something at each grade level where they integrate the AAP and Gen Ed kids. Such as Colonial Day, where kids move from class to class to do different activities in teachers’ rooms. They would actually mix up the kids so AAP and Gen Ed kids were combined and moved as a group. A lot of schools also do their end of year parties as a team. Not Navy. Each teacher plans their own thing.

That wasn't really a problem for us since our base school is Crossfield and going to Navy, my kid only knew a couple of other kids from Crossfield. I could see how it might be a problem for people who started in Navy before AAP, and dealing with neighborhood kids.

I just think it sets up and reinforces the AAP vs Gen Ed divide. 5th don’t mix, except for specials beginning in 4th. The teachers don’t even plan together on the team.

[Anonymous]

People complaining about Navy... are your kids older? Are there more AAP classes than Gen Ed in the upper grades? Or is it a 50/50 split? In third grade there are more Gen Ed classes than AAP. Maybe that changes the dynamic. My child is utterly unbothered by any of this. He plays with kids from both programs at recess. I never hear any parents talking about some supposed divide. Maybe there are some toxic dynamics at play among some kids in upper grades but we are just not seeing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People complaining about Navy... are your kids older? Are there more AAP classes than Gen Ed in the upper grades? Or is it a 50/50 split? In third grade there are more Gen Ed classes than AAP. Maybe that changes the dynamic. My child is utterly unbothered by any of this. He plays with kids from both programs at recess. I never hear any parents talking about some supposed divide. Maybe there are some toxic dynamics at play among some kids in upper grades but we are just not seeing it.

5th at navy, 2 AAP and 3 gen Ed 8f I remember correctly.

Almost no white kids in the AAP classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People complaining about Navy... are your kids older? Are there more AAP classes than Gen Ed in the upper grades? Or is it a 50/50 split? In third grade there are more Gen Ed classes than AAP. Maybe that changes the dynamic. My child is utterly unbothered by any of this. He plays with kids from both programs at recess. I never hear any parents talking about some supposed divide. Maybe there are some toxic dynamics at play among some kids in upper grades but we are just not seeing it.

Mine are older and I would say we started noticing a change in friendship dynamics around middle to end of third grade. It would be nice if they mixed the groups for homeroom, language arts, science and VA studies since, as far as I am aware, the curriculum in those subjects is exactly the same. Is it not? That would seem like a very obvious solution to a very made up problem.