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VA Public Schools other than FCPS
Alexandria Public Schools - what to do
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Anonymous
PP. I agree. My kids are little and the uncertainty makes it hard to decide what to do. Other than just move out of Alexandria. |
Anonymous
I always say, if Alexandria could ever get its school game together, real estate would be more expensive than Arlington. And think of all the money they could make on property taxes… |
Anonymous
From my time in Alexandria I believe that they do, but the dysfunction is so deeply rooted even the most dedicated give up. We left for South Arlington over being zoned for Jefferson-Houston. I'm a big believer in public schools as a parent and teacher but I do not think ACPS is likely to improve. One of the biggest things I would consider if I were you OP is that by the time you get to high school there is exactly one public option. There is no TJHSST, no Arlington Tech, no WL IB, No HB Woodlawn (I'm not as familiar with FCPS high schools but I know they do some program/administrative transfers.) |
Anonymous
. I do know this, but you are vastly under estimating the shit ton of kids at top DMV publics who are hooked. And, the elite DMV privates still are more diverse economically than the schools I mentioned above because they aren’t restricted by housing. So irony I think is the wrong word. I deeply understand and you aren’t convincing me of jack. |
Anonymous
It has nothing to do with the schools you mentioned, but with your comment about ACHS and the Penn kid being hooked. You not only fail to deeply understand the landscape, you don’t even deeply understand your own comment. |
Anonymous
| In my experience the people who live there and plan to stay were planning to do private for middle and high school. Otherwise they move. it is big with people whose kids go to Catholic schools. |
Anonymous
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OP- follow #ACHSdecisions_2025 on Insta for a look at where the kids land. I'd proudly put it up against any other school in the DC area.
Brown Stanford Berkeley Cornell Bucknell Princeton UW Northwestern UVA x 30 William and Mary x 15 Michigan Tons of HSBCUs But, you will get the usual racists crapping on it because inside they are racist and insecure. |
Anonymous
It’s a massive school. Of course there will be some impressive students. |
Anonymous
Ugh, this is horrible if accurate. You are saying that 30 admits to UVA out of a class of 900 is good? At the North Arlington schools (YHS and W&L), it’s about 10% of the class, so 50/500. 3/900 going to Ivey League. Have you even looked at the privates? I’m glad for these kids, but the argument that the college results are ACH are anywhere near as good as other schools in the DC are is asinine. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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We started at public and then switched to private when my kids got close to middle school. When we made the choice, college placement was not part of our decision. I’m positive that my kids will end up at the same type of school from either path.
The choice was about our personal comfort for the next 10 years. Private schools are a bubble and you pay handsomely for it. After switching to private school, we noticed how much public school is like prison. You’re “in trouble” from the moment you walk in the door. In private schools, they wander the halls freely, they work outside often, everything is less intense. If you have a sensitive child that is stressed out easily then private school of for you. I find that academic stress is less intense at private schools even though expectations are higher and you’re among peers who all want to achieve because the resources for success are available. In public school, even if you’re motivated to succeed, you can run up against a wall and be put in situations with certain teachers where success is not possible. Public schools are broken in America. It is a collective action problem that stems from racism. If everyone can use the pool then we pour gasoline in the pool. The public school to prison pipeline, school shootings, the option of private schools being right there. It is not something that will get better in our lifetime. Some kids can put their head down and ignore any chaos around them, most can’t. If I were you, I’d move to a mid-size city with cheaper private schools and cheaper houses and go to private school there. |
Anonymous
NP. Not all public schools are like how you describe, and there are also private schools that are very strict with a regimented pedagogy. Here in the DC area, HB Woodlawn and School Without Walls are small, high achieving public schools with completely open campuses where students freely come and go through the day. |
Anonymous
You are a racist that can't spell. |
Anonymous
+1 She's also a coward with a fragile ego. She keeps flagging the posts pointing out how she can't spell. LOL. |
Anonymous
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Alex public MS/HS can be good for a certain type of kid. There is a lot of violence there. But if you're a kid who is really well adjusted, in honors track, have enough cushion in terms of your own tribe and you have zero learning disabilities, anxiety and any other mental health issues even potentially - aka you are pretty "perfect" you are going to do very well and there and your college admissions results look bright.
I say this having friends whose kids have gone to GM, GW and the HS. OP - your kids are still young and unfortunately you won't know what the right environment for them will be until at least 3rd grade or even 4/5th. |