Best NoVA pyramid for parents who want both quality instruction & racial/socioeconomic diversity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, your original post sounds like you want to know which AP school in ALL of FCPS fits your criteria best. But, unless you are planning on moving, you have to go where FCPS tells you based on your address. It was my understanding that you can only pick from one AP school, but if, in fact, you can pick from three equadistant schools, that still limits your pool considerably. People are giving answers such as West Springfield or Falls Church, and those might not be anywhere near you, again, unless you are wiilling to move.

So, why not call your base school and ask them where students go if they wish to do the AP program. They might know off the top of their head based on your neighborhood. And if you can choose from 3 schools, then why not list them on here so people can give you their opinions of those three schools rather than waste time naming schools far away from where you live.

PP here -- and I was thinking I should do this, too. So I plan to call the school today. Thank you!

And the AP schools are Falls Church, Lake Braddock, and Woodson. My DS is a science/math kid and is very tech focused, so I am hoping to find an AP school that also offers both AP Computer Science and AP Environmental Science. These would be in addition to the other science/math AP courses.

I found a list of AP classes offered at the AP schools but it looks like it is old (2010-2011):

http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/pdfs/presentations/AP%20Schools%20and%20Course%20Offerings.2010-11.xls

We may also opt for private (we are looking at the GW Community School). I would prefer that we not have to move!

[Anonymous]

So, of those three, I believe Woodson and Lake Braddock are equally good fits for your criteria. You should read the stats for each school for the numbers describing diversity and test scores.
Lake Braddock is the bigger school, but take a look at the breakout of numbers for population per grade level. There are more students per grade for seventh and eighth grades because the middle school is an AAP center, so the high school itself is similar in size to Woodson, since many of the AAP kids go back to their base schools at the end of eighth grade.
Kids from my church go to both of these schools and they all seem to have a good experience. You can't go wrong with either of these choices in terms of the strength of the teachers and the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, of those three, I believe Woodson and Lake Braddock are equally good fits for your criteria. You should read the stats for each school for the numbers describing diversity and test scores.
Lake Braddock is the bigger school, but take a look at the breakout of numbers for population per grade level. There are more students per grade for seventh and eighth grades because the middle school is an AAP center, so the high school itself is similar in size to Woodson, since many of the AAP kids go back to their base schools at the end of eighth grade.
Kids from my church go to both of these schools and they all seem to have a good experience. You can't go wrong with either of these choices in terms of the strength of the teachers and the curriculum.

Thank you! I will look at the membership numbers as you suggest.

I did speak with a staff member at our base school who is going to have someone else get back in touch with me. The person I spoke with said that AP placement is pretty much divided evenly between those two schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You still don't get to pick which one you want. Plug your address into google maps and use the addresses of those schools to check the distance. The one with the shortest driving distance is the one you have the option to choose.
You can only choose from your base IB school and the closest AP school with space available.

The three schools have exactly the same distance from my home to the school. And, I plugged my address into Google Maps AND the FCPS Mapquest template.

So - do I still "don't get to pick the one that I want" when they are all equidistant?

They cannot all be the exact same distance from your house. One might be 3.2 miles while another is 3.8 miles and the third is 3.45 miles. Whatever the distances are, you can't round them all to 3 miles and call it equidistant. The pupil placement office will check the distance, and if that is not the closest school with space available they will reject your application for transfer. Since it would then be after the deadline, you would find yourself stuck at the AP school (which I assume is Annandale) for the first year.

And for what it's worth, if the closest one is Falls Church, it is very unlikely that they will be at or over capacity in the next 5+ years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They cannot all be the exact same distance from your house.

They are, down to the tenths place. I prefer not to post my home address information in an anonymous forum to prove it to you, however.