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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
FCPS High School Poverty and Enrollment
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Anonymous
The Hispanic population is needier so as extra resources pour into meeting their needs it’s less for everyone else and people who figure that out go private or move. Rinse and repeat. |
Anonymous
You're assuming White and Asian families can pick up and leave at will. True for the top-tier upper middle class, but the average families living across most of FCPS who are overextended with mortgages are not going to afford private school any time soon. And they aren't "moving up" to Boston either because they're Feds or defense contractors stuck to this region. I know I'm making very large overgeneralizations here but it's quite clearly the story for a large chunk of MC and UMC families in the area. So I don't see how they are a threat to FCPS enrollment. |
Anonymous
White and Asian families are already leaving FCPS (and/or not being replaced), and that’s in the absence of any grandiose boundary changes. Redistrict in the name of “equity” and you’ll only see that trend accelerate. When they operate based on the same assumption you’re making (a captive student population) it always comes back to bite them in the ass. |
Anonymous
You're assuming quite a lot yourself. |
Anonymous
I don’t know, move my kid from South Lakes to Herndon and we will be looking at Private school. We have been happy with Fox Mill and have heard good things about Carson. Plenty of people in the neighborhood are happy at South Lakes. We like the Japanese Immersion and are excited for DC to continue in MS and throughout HS. We are fine with IB but would prefer AP. DC really likes math and science and the IB program does not have the same options as AP schools. That said, there are enough options at South Lakes that we have not thought about private. But move to a school with fewer AP options because of a smaller number of kids able to take those classes and we will strongly look at private school. I do know families who have moved to Loudoun County for more land and the schools. They are pretty clear that they don’t want to be at a moderate FARMs school, never mind a high FARMs school. Still, FCPS is long over due a boundary study and shifting the boundaries to deal with over crowded and under utilized schools. But it will cause pain and you will lose families to private. |
Anonymous
South Lakes got an addition outside the renovation queue but you want boundary changes for other people whose schools are overcrowded because their schools haven’t gotten the same favorable treatment as South Lakes? FTS. |
Anonymous
I have no say in additions and renovations. I didn’t ask for one, I didn’t campaign for one. I don’t think that the answer to over crowding is to add on to schools, I think redistricting is. South Lakes has also been one of the schools that has seen kids moved in it’s borders. It happened before I had a child at Fox Mill but I have heard the parents in the neighborhood discuss how they did need to petition and push for more advanced class options for the kids being sent to South Lakes, because there were not many options when the change first happened. It sounds like things smoothed out and most people are happy there. It also sounds like there are two South Lakes HS. The kids in the IB program, either the diploma or taking some IB classes, and everyone else. The kids who are taking the more advanced classes have little contact with the kids in the regular classes and only some contact with kids in honors classes. It doesn’t sound great to me. The schools test scores have improved but it doesn’t sound like it is one school. The FARMS rate is pretty high. The County needs to overhaul its school boundaries. Do it all at once so no one group is left feeling like they were targeted. Renovate schools that need to be renovated but stop building additions when there are schools that have space. The County also needs to improve ESOL classes in ES and stop dropping kids with no or limited formal education who don’t speak English into the age appropriate grade. We don’t drop a teen new to the US with no formal schooling into regular high school classes, I have no clue why we do that to a 7 or 8 year old in ES. Redrawing the boundaries could lead to parents moving to private because they don’t want their kid in a high FARM school, or in our case, an even higher FARM school. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be done. |
Anonymous
They can invest in other schools like they did in South Lakes and then we can consider your policy recommendations. Until then, it sounds like the typical “heads I win, tails you lose” stuff common from those who wait until they’ve benefitted from FCPS’s largesse before they start pushing belt-tightening and boundary changes for others. No thanks. |
Anonymous
Redistricting should be as green as possible. Make sure the boundaries are concise, with as few split feeders as possible, the shortest bus commutes and neighborhood schools as the priority. |
Anonymous
Schools aren’t going to be more centrally located just because someone changes the boundaries so in a number of cases they may need to fund additions to keep kids from having to travel longer distances to schools, which would not be “green” in the long run. |
Anonymous
VDOE has statistical reports. Hispanic ESL grades 9-12 for FCPS: 2012-2013 = 3,496 2017-2018 = 5,321 2022-2023 = 6,347 2,851 is the equivalent of 1 high capacity high school over a 10 year period but design capacity is not the same as program capacity . Years ago FCPS rapidly deployed refitting an office building to provide extra elementary school capacity for the high localized growth in Hispanic ESL. Overall FCPS has done a great job providing FAPE for this influx of students. But the Federal Govt should provide increased funding per student and the $$$ for the extra needed capacity. This was not a natural influx such as occurred in areas like Ashburn or when in FX Reston was built or in Moco when Montgomery Village went up. |
Anonymous
In order for the two elementary schools on FT Belvoir to be FCPS schools, they have to pull some kids from off-post (Woodlawn) and when we were living in military housing on FT Belvoir several years ago, some of the housing areas outside the gate (Woodlawn) attended Woodlawn Elementary. So, the FARMS rates for the elementary schools on FT Belvoir may not be a direct correlation to the on post FARMS rates. Also, like others have said, military families are allowed to pupil place elsewhere, though this shows up the most in middle and high school. - military veteran and spouse who has taught for both FCPS and DODEA |
Anonymous
This makes sense to me but I don’t understand why FCPS doesn’t get rid of IB at Mount Vernon, which is one (even if not the only) reason why so many families on base send their kids to schools other than MVHS. It’s just willful stupidity and/or stubbornness at this point on the part of FCPS not to reinstate AP there. |
Anonymous
No arguments from me there. Many just go one school away to Hayfield. Just wanted to point out that when looking at the elementary schools on Belvoir (unless there have been some changes I'm not aware of), we're not looking at the equivalent of a military school in terms of student population. This may or may not skew the numbers significantly in terms of military connected student FARMS rates at those schools. |
Anonymous
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Why is FCPS so resistant to getting rid of IB in the schools where it is clealry not working?
1. It doesn't suit the population. 2. It is more expensive than AP. 3. It is less flexible than AP. 4. It allows PP into and out of troubled schools--both AP and IB |