FCPS School Pyramid Recommendations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First, I just hate these comments about "low performing schools." It's not like the schools being referred to are using some kind of low-level curriculum -- every kid in every FCPS HS has access to high level classes. These so-called "low performing schools" are just schools that have a mixture of kids -- higher income, lower income, English speaker, non-English, parents with degrees/professional jobs, parents with no jobs, parents with hourly jobs, etc.

As long as (1) you are academically oriented at home (as the parent), and (2) there is a segment of kids who are high achievers at the school, and (3) your child is physically safe -- then your child has all he/she needs for success -- doesn't matter if that school has 8% FARMS/ESOL with a mostly white/asian population, or 35+% FARMS/ESOL with a plurality of brown/white/asian/black.

Don't forget to look at the (economic + racial mix). I'm not talking just about the FARMs rate -- I mean, look for a school where there aren't clear lines about WHO is lower income. That's something I really like about our neighborhood school and the AAP center -- it's not a situation where all the brown kids are the low-income kids . There is no subtle distinction that kids or adults can detect about who gets FARMs and who doesn't. My white kids have had best friends from year who are black, hispanic, asian, white, whatever. Largely, it's the housing in the area (type, cost, number of apartments, etc.) that drives the economics of the school population.


Look beyond the usual list of "best schools" in FCPS.

But that is not actually true because if you are a minority around other minrity students from lower SES and who are not academically oriented there is peer pressure to also be low performing. There is not that peer pressure for caucasion students. But you are right that you have to look at where the students come from and if the minorities are no low -income )or brown as you put it) then there is a less of a chance that that wierd peer pressure to be low performing does not exist.

I'm not sure what you are saying "isn't true"????? Sounds like we agree that it isn't helping op's cause for her child to be in a school with a substantial portion of AA kids if they are mostly low performing (for whatever reason). My point us that op should look for schools where the AA population is economically similar to the non-minority population. That is the case in my kids' school....there isn't an underlying current that one race is poorer than the others...and all groups are well represented in the school's population. THAT is diversity and it allows kids to relate to each other based on substance, not SES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those suggesting schools with 7-9% are fooling themselves. Just as a point of comparison, my children attend a school where the caucasian population is around 15%. In K and 1, my daughter was one of 2 caucasian children in her class. This year, she is the only one. My son is in 3rd, and has had a similar experience. Now, I will say, our school is large, so in the lower grades, there are sometimes 7 classes per grade. OP, honestly I would look at schools of at least 30% if your child having racial peers is that important to you. For us, in the lower grades it has been fine.

A very valid point, but restritcting the home serach to only those pyramids in Fairfax County with around 30% or more African-American students would exclude a HUGE portion of the county.

The black population in Fairfax County has been growing, but far less rapidly than the Asian and Hispanic populations, so PP is correct that you aren't going to find many 30% AA schools in this county. There are only two: Lorton Station ES (32%) and Riverside ES (31%).

Yes, and if you check out school statistics the % has grown steadily each year even for those schools with 7-9%.

That's not really true. There are a lot of schools in Fairfax where the percentage of Black students has decined at the same time as the percentage of Asian and Hispanic students has increased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow...thank you so much for your honest feedback. I know that this can be a touchy subject for some but at the end of the day - its important to be honest. Yes, we are an AA family that are highly educated and want our son to blossom and be surrounded by (hopefully) other like-minded parents. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - obviously we are looking for enthusiastic teachers, high performing school, etc. but I'm just not comfortable with my son being the only AA in a class. However, I hate to say it but a lot of the predominantly AA schools are also low performing - so its a catch 22. I just want my little fella to be comfortable interacting with all walks of life and not feel out of place because he doesn't see anyone that looks like him in his class.

I work at Marshall HS and while we don't have a large AA population, our population is fairly diverse with many Asians (SE Asian, Korean, etc), Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans. While I would say that your son could potentially be the only AA student in class in elementary, it is unlikely he would be the only minority student in the class. We have an IB program here, and I am always impressed by the diversity of high achieving students at graduation/taking IB exams, etc. It really is a great mix of kids. Not sure about all the feeder elementaries into Marshall, but I am sure you could look them up.

My Somalian neighbors, who are black as night, think that they are different and better than AAs.

It really isn't the same.

Huh? I didn't say anything about Africans and African Americans being the same. I just said that Marshall had a diverse, well educated population. NO matter the background or race - they all seem to get along fairly well here, at least those who are motivated, take advanced classes, play sports/do other activities, and have involved parents which is what the OP sounds like she is looking for.

And I'm saying that someone else saying - "Oh, there are a lot of "minorities" here - your kid will be fine and will fit right in!" is disingenuous at best.

New person here, If a school has a lot of diverse racial, cultural and economic backgrounds it will be more inclusive of any minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow...thank you so much for your honest feedback. I know that this can be a touchy subject for some but at the end of the day - its important to be honest. Yes, we are an AA family that are highly educated and want our son to blossom and be surrounded by (hopefully) other like-minded parents. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - obviously we are looking for enthusiastic teachers, high performing school, etc. but I'm just not comfortable with my son being the only AA in a class. However, I hate to say it but a lot of the predominantly AA schools are also low performing - so its a catch 22. I just want my little fella to be comfortable interacting with all walks of life and not feel out of place because he doesn't see anyone that looks like him in his class.

I work at Marshall HS and while we don't have a large AA population, our population is fairly diverse with many Asians (SE Asian, Korean, etc), Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans. While I would say that your son could potentially be the only AA student in class in elementary, it is unlikely he would be the only minority student in the class. We have an IB program here, and I am always impressed by the diversity of high achieving students at graduation/taking IB exams, etc. It really is a great mix of kids. Not sure about all the feeder elementaries into Marshall, but I am sure you could look them up.

On the other hand....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/18/geor...gh-sc_n_1358044.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First, I just hate these comments about "low performing schools." It's not like the schools being referred to are using some kind of low-level curriculum -- every kid in every FCPS HS has access to high level classes. These so-called "low performing schools" are just schools that have a mixture of kids -- higher income, lower income, English speaker, non-English, parents with degrees/professional jobs, parents with no jobs, parents with hourly jobs, etc.

As long as (1) you are academically oriented at home (as the parent), and (2) there is a segment of kids who are high achievers at the school, and (3) your child is physically safe -- then your child has all he/she needs for success -- doesn't matter if that school has 8% FARMS/ESOL with a mostly white/asian population, or 35+% FARMS/ESOL with a plurality of brown/white/asian/black.

Don't forget to look at the (economic + racial mix). I'm not talking just about the FARMs rate -- I mean, look for a school where there aren't clear lines about WHO is lower income. That's something I really like about our neighborhood school and the AAP center -- it's not a situation where all the brown kids are the low-income kids . There is no subtle distinction that kids or adults can detect about who gets FARMs and who doesn't. My white kids have had best friends from year who are black, hispanic, asian, white, whatever. Largely, it's the housing in the area (type, cost, number of apartments, etc.) that drives the economics of the school population.


Look beyond the usual list of "best schools" in FCPS.

But that is not actually true because if you are a minority around other minrity students from lower SES and who are not academically oriented there is peer pressure to also be low performing. There is not that peer pressure for caucasion students. But you are right that you have to look at where the students come from and if the minorities are no low -income )or brown as you put it) then there is a less of a chance that that wierd peer pressure to be low performing does not exist.

I'm not sure what you are saying "isn't true"????? Sounds like we agree that it isn't helping op's cause for her child to be in a school with a substantial portion of AA kids if they are mostly low performing (for whatever reason). My point us that op should look for schools where the AA population is economically similar to the non-minority population. That is the case in my kids' school....there isn't an underlying current that one race is poorer than the others...and all groups are well represented in the school's population. THAT is diversity and it allows kids to relate to each other based on substance, not SES.

I think we are agreeing for the most part. When I saw your 1) I thouhjt to that that part is not true I.e. Just coming from a good background where your parents are academically minded will not suffice if there are a good number of minority/AA student but they are not from the same socioeconomic background

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those suggesting schools with 7-9% are fooling themselves. Just as a point of comparison, my children attend a school where the caucasian population is around 15%. In K and 1, my daughter was one of 2 caucasian children in her class. This year, she is the only one. My son is in 3rd, and has had a similar experience. Now, I will say, our school is large, so in the lower grades, there are sometimes 7 classes per grade. OP, honestly I would look at schools of at least 30% if your child having racial peers is that important to you. For us, in the lower grades it has been fine.

A very valid point, but restritcting the home serach to only those pyramids in Fairfax County with around 30% or more African-American students would exclude a HUGE portion of the county.

The black population in Fairfax County has been growing, but far less rapidly than the Asian and Hispanic populations, so PP is correct that you aren't going to find many 30% AA schools in this county. There are only two: Lorton Station ES (32%) and Riverside ES (31%).

Yes, and if you check out school statistics the % has grown steadily each year even for those schools with 7-9%.

That's not really true. There are a lot of schools in Fairfax where the percentage of Black students has decined at the same time as the percentage of Asian and Hispanic students has increased.

Yes, but I am not talking about whatever school you are taking about. I am saying there are schools where the AA population had increased every year. Are there some that have not sure. But there are some that have -op needs to find those and some of the 7-9% previously mentioned fit the bill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow...thank you so much for your honest feedback. I know that this can be a touchy subject for some but at the end of the day - its important to be honest. Yes, we are an AA family that are highly educated and want our son to blossom and be surrounded by (hopefully) other like-minded parents. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - obviously we are looking for enthusiastic teachers, high performing school, etc. but I'm just not comfortable with my son being the only AA in a class. However, I hate to say it but a lot of the predominantly AA schools are also low performing - so its a catch 22. I just want my little fella to be comfortable interacting with all walks of life and not feel out of place because he doesn't see anyone that looks like him in his class.

I work at Marshall HS and while we don't have a large AA population, our population is fairly diverse with many Asians (SE Asian, Korean, etc), Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans. While I would say that your son could potentially be the only AA student in class in elementary, it is unlikely he would be the only minority student in the class. We have an IB program here, and I am always impressed by the diversity of high achieving students at graduation/taking IB exams, etc. It really is a great mix of kids. Not sure about all the feeder elementaries into Marshall, but I am sure you could look them up.

My Somalian neighbors, who are black as night, think that they are different and better than AAs.

It really isn't the same.

Huh? I didn't say anything about Africans and African Americans being the same. I just said that Marshall had a diverse, well educated population. NO matter the background or race - they all seem to get along fairly well here, at least those who are motivated, take advanced classes, play sports/do other activities, and have involved parents which is what the OP sounds like she is looking for.

And I'm saying that someone else saying - "Oh, there are a lot of "minorities" here - your kid will be fine and will fit right in!" is disingenuous at best.

New person here, If a school has a lot of diverse racial, cultural and economic backgrounds it will be more inclusive of any minority.

I completely disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow...thank you so much for your honest feedback. I know that this can be a touchy subject for some but at the end of the day - its important to be honest. Yes, we are an AA family that are highly educated and want our son to blossom and be surrounded by (hopefully) other like-minded parents. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - obviously we are looking for enthusiastic teachers, high performing school, etc. but I'm just not comfortable with my son being the only AA in a class. However, I hate to say it but a lot of the predominantly AA schools are also low performing - so its a catch 22. I just want my little fella to be comfortable interacting with all walks of life and not feel out of place because he doesn't see anyone that looks like him in his class.

I work at Marshall HS and while we don't have a large AA population, our population is fairly diverse with many Asians (SE Asian, Korean, etc), Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans. While I would say that your son could potentially be the only AA student in class in elementary, it is unlikely he would be the only minority student in the class. We have an IB program here, and I am always impressed by the diversity of high achieving students at graduation/taking IB exams, etc. It really is a great mix of kids. Not sure about all the feeder elementaries into Marshall, but I am sure you could look them up.

My Somalian neighbors, who are black as night, think that they are different and better than AAs.

It really isn't the same.

Huh? I didn't say anything about Africans and African Americans being the same. I just said that Marshall had a diverse, well educated population. NO matter the background or race - they all seem to get along fairly well here, at least those who are motivated, take advanced classes, play sports/do other activities, and have involved parents which is what the OP sounds like she is looking for.

And I'm saying that someone else saying - "Oh, there are a lot of "minorities" here - your kid will be fine and will fit right in!" is disingenuous at best.

I don't think I was quite so flip as what you just said. All I said was Marshall has a diverse population from many different backgrounds, and that regardless of their "differences", the students seem to do well, get along, and succeed. I am by no means saying that any student will automatically fit in at Marshall, but I do think it offers something different than some schools - a diverse, successful student body where students of different races, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds work together and for the most part get along. . I don't think that is true at all FCPS high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow...thank you so much for your honest feedback. I know that this can be a touchy subject for some but at the end of the day - its important to be honest. Yes, we are an AA family that are highly educated and want our son to blossom and be surrounded by (hopefully) other like-minded parents. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - obviously we are looking for enthusiastic teachers, high performing school, etc. but I'm just not comfortable with my son being the only AA in a class. However, I hate to say it but a lot of the predominantly AA schools are also low performing - so its a catch 22. I just want my little fella to be comfortable interacting with all walks of life and not feel out of place because he doesn't see anyone that looks like him in his class.

I work at Marshall HS and while we don't have a large AA population, our population is fairly diverse with many Asians (SE Asian, Korean, etc), Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans. While I would say that your son could potentially be the only AA student in class in elementary, it is unlikely he would be the only minority student in the class. We have an IB program here, and I am always impressed by the diversity of high achieving students at graduation/taking IB exams, etc. It really is a great mix of kids. Not sure about all the feeder elementaries into Marshall, but I am sure you could look them up.

My Somalian neighbors, who are black as night, think that they are different and better than AAs.

It really isn't the same.

Huh? I didn't say anything about Africans and African Americans being the same. I just said that Marshall had a diverse, well educated population. NO matter the background or race - they all seem to get along fairly well here, at least those who are motivated, take advanced classes, play sports/do other activities, and have involved parents which is what the OP sounds like she is looking for.

And I'm saying that someone else saying - "Oh, there are a lot of "minorities" here - your kid will be fine and will fit right in!" is disingenuous at best.

I don't think I was quite so flip as what you just said. All I said was Marshall has a diverse population from many different backgrounds, and that regardless of their "differences", the students seem to do well, get along, and succeed. I am by no means saying that any student will automatically fit in at Marshall, but I do think it offers something different than some schools - a diverse, successful student body where students of different races, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds work together and for the most part get along. . I don't think that is true at all FCPS high schools.

The whole story about the black kid at Marshall being the only AA kid in his English class and being told by his teacher to read a poem "blacker" out loud to the other students is such a turn-off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those suggesting schools with 7-9% are fooling themselves. Just as a point of comparison, my children attend a school where the caucasian population is around 15%. In K and 1, my daughter was one of 2 caucasian children in her class. This year, she is the only one. My son is in 3rd, and has had a similar experience. Now, I will say, our school is large, so in the lower grades, there are sometimes 7 classes per grade. OP, honestly I would look at schools of at least 30% if your child having racial peers is that important to you. For us, in the lower grades it has been fine.

And what school in Farifax County has only 15% caucasion? In Fairfax County??? Even Bailey's has 20% caucasion.

I can assure you that I pulled the demographics off the school profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what school in Farifax County has only 15% caucasion? In Fairfax County??? Even Bailey's has 20% caucasion.

Here are some 15% and less schools. I did not look up all schools as I stopped in the Gs, but here are some examples.

Annandale Terrace 10% white
Braddock 12% white
Bren Mar Park 14% white
Bucknell 11% white
Cameron 11% white
Crestwood 7% white
Dogwood 15% white
Garfield 15% white
Graham Road 8% white

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what school in Farifax County has only 15% caucasion? In Fairfax County??? Even Bailey's has 20% caucasion.

Here are some 15% and less schools. I did not look up all schools as I stopped in the Gs, but here are some examples.

Annandale Terrace 10% white
Braddock 12% white
Bren Mar Park 14% white
Bucknell 11% white
Cameron 11% white
Crestwood 7% white
Dogwood 15% white
Garfield 15% white
Graham Road 8% white

Well then, I'm surprised. But not to be funny but are any of these good schools? I truly don't know. And also if I saw a school with 15% representation I would think that was good because as a miniority I am used to being in the minority .... Usually I just want "some" and don't need "a lot". Like a kid in the other class might even suffice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what school in Farifax County has only 15% caucasion? In Fairfax County??? Even Bailey's has 20% caucasion.

Here are some 15% and less schools. I did not look up all schools as I stopped in the Gs, but here are some examples.

Annandale Terrace 10% white
Braddock 12% white
Bren Mar Park 14% white
Bucknell 11% white
Cameron 11% white
Crestwood 7% white
Dogwood 15% white
Garfield 15% white
Graham Road 8% white

Well then, I'm surprised. But not to be funny but are any of these good schools? I truly don't know. And also if I saw a school with 15% representation I would think that was good because as a miniority I am used to being in the minority .... Usually I just want "some" and don't need "a lot". Like a kid in the other class might even suffice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what school in Farifax County has only 15% caucasion? In Fairfax County??? Even Bailey's has 20% caucasion.

Here are some 15% and less schools. I did not look up all schools as I stopped in the Gs, but here are some examples.

Annandale Terrace 10% white
Braddock 12% white
Bren Mar Park 14% white
Bucknell 11% white
Cameron 11% white
Crestwood 7% white
Dogwood 15% white
Garfield 15% white
Graham Road 8% white

Well then, I'm surprised. But not to be funny but are any of these good schools? I truly don't know. And also if I saw a school with 15% representation I would think that was good because as a miniority I am used to being in the minority .... Usually I just want "some" and don't need "a lot". Like a kid in the other class might even suffice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow...thank you so much for your honest feedback. I know that this can be a touchy subject for some but at the end of the day - its important to be honest. Yes, we are an AA family that are highly educated and want our son to blossom and be surrounded by (hopefully) other like-minded parents. Race/ethnicity is definitely not the only factor - obviously we are looking for enthusiastic teachers, high performing school, etc. but I'm just not comfortable with my son being the only AA in a class. However, I hate to say it but a lot of the predominantly AA schools are also low performing - so its a catch 22. I just want my little fella to be comfortable interacting with all walks of life and not feel out of place because he doesn't see anyone that looks like him in his class.

I work at Marshall HS and while we don't have a large AA population, our population is fairly diverse with many Asians (SE Asian, Korean, etc), Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans. While I would say that your son could potentially be the only AA student in class in elementary, it is unlikely he would be the only minority student in the class. We have an IB program here, and I am always impressed by the diversity of high achieving students at graduation/taking IB exams, etc. It really is a great mix of kids. Not sure about all the feeder elementaries into Marshall, but I am sure you could look them up.

My Somalian neighbors, who are black as night, think that they are different and better than AAs.

It really isn't the same.

Huh? I didn't say anything about Africans and African Americans being the same. I just said that Marshall had a diverse, well educated population. NO matter the background or race - they all seem to get along fairly well here, at least those who are motivated, take advanced classes, play sports/do other activities, and have involved parents which is what the OP sounds like she is looking for.

And I'm saying that someone else saying - "Oh, there are a lot of "minorities" here - your kid will be fine and will fit right in!" is disingenuous at best.

I don't think I was quite so flip as what you just said. All I said was Marshall has a diverse population from many different backgrounds, and that regardless of their "differences", the students seem to do well, get along, and succeed. I am by no means saying that any student will automatically fit in at Marshall, but I do think it offers something different than some schools - a diverse, successful student body where students of different races, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds work together and for the most part get along. . I don't think that is true at all FCPS high schools.

The whole story about the black kid at Marshall being the only AA kid in his English class and being told by his teacher to read a poem "blacker" out loud to the other students is such a turn-off.

I am pretty sure it's highly unlikely something like that will happen at Marshall again any time in the near future, especially given the negative publicity the school received. I think diversity is important in the younger grades while you're trying to lay the foundation for a strong sense of self in your child. Once they have that foundation, I really think the quality of the school is more important than diversity.