They need to re-evaluate programs at schools where 10% of the students are pupil placing out each year. Many of the IB programs are used to leave high FARMs schools, drop IB, bring in a full slate of AP programs and stop the pupil placement. That means running AP classes that might not be full because kids will transfer out to schools that offer those classes. If they are close to the number, then run the class. Give people a reason to stay at the school. If you keep the 200-300 students pupil placing out you have a larger number of students and a larger AP cohort. Families will figure out that they have classes with 15 kids in them and their kids get more attention in more challenging classes, which many will see as a plus. I believe Herndon is the only AP school with a high transfer rate. If every MS gets their own AAP Center, then you keep the AAP kids at Herndon MS and might drop the number of kids pupil placing at SLHS. But the County really doesn't want to change how they do IB. They seem to be hell bent on going IB only and watching the students who are supposed to want IB transfer out of the school. If FCPS ran IB the way the surrounding counties did, kids apply to be in IB and are working towards the diploma while other kids at the HS have a full complement of AP classes, they would probably find that that the number of kids taking IB would drop a lot. I remain convinced that they keep IB where it is so it is easier for families to pupil place out then because they think it is a good fit for those schools. |
| The white mommies at WSHS are happy that Bren Mar is being targeted as the school to move to Lewis, even though that would mean those kids would have to cross both 395/95 and 495. Is that not busing kids out of their communities? Or is that okay because that school is more diverse? |
Not asking facetiously, but as someone less familiar with traffic patterns in that area. What’s the difference between sending Bren Mark Park to Edison verses Lewis. Don’t they cross the same highways to get there? My understanding is that Bren Mark Park is at odds with the area north of 395 wanting to go to Annandale and the area south preferring Edison. |
DP. Half the kids at BMP (those from the old Edsall Park area) already have to cross 95/395 and the Beltway/495 to get to Edison. Many of those folks would like to move back to Annandale. It’s more those on the other side of 395 who want to stay at Edison. None of them seem to want to move to Lewis. |
It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park. |
| There is nobody more hypocritical than a liberal parent during school rezoning discussions. |
Nearly 300 students trsnsfer out of Lewis each year. They need s program revamp |
*whose kids have already gone through the school system so now they feel liberated to mess with the system misguidedly believing it’ll help certain races even though the opposite is true. |
Herndon had 284 non-TJ transfers last year. Next to that among AP schools is probably Falls Church with 217 non-TJ transfers. Falls Church has an AAP center in the pyramid (Jackson), so it's not transfers for kids trying to stay with their AAP peers driving the transfers, apart from a small number at Mason Crest who go to Glasgow and then pupil place to Justice. Biggest cohort of Falls Church transfers is to Annandale, so that's probably non-AAP kids who've been at Poe wanting to stay with Annandale kids. With Falls Church's renovation and the potential addition of UMC areas from Justice in this boundary review, its going to be more desirable in the future. |
Is there a link to find the transfer numbers? How many kids transfer to Annandale? That seems incorrect - I thought kids did not transfer to IB schools. |
It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point. |
Bren Mar has to cross a highway no matter where they go don’t they? Most of that area north of the beltway is Alexandria City, not Fairfax. What HS is in that part of the quadrant made by 395/495? |
You can look at the Capacity Dashboard - https://www.fcps.edu/facilities-planning-future/facilities-and-membership-dashboards - there is a tab for student transfers. Of course kids "transfer to IB schools." Most of the kids transferring out of Herndon transfer to South Lakes, an IB school. There are smaller numbers of transfers to other IB schools, but they still occur. |
FCPS did not update the transfers for this school year. They are at https://www.fcps.edu/facilities-planning-future/facilities-and-membership-dashboards You have to look at both transfer links and make a spreadsheet. s means less than 10. Annandale transfers out: Edison 14 Fairfax s Falls Church 10 Justice s Lake Braddock 87 Langley s Lewis s Madison s Marshall s McLean s Oakton s Robinson s West Potomac s West Springfield s Woodson 23 134 TJ 56 Bryant 10 200 total out 294 11 sites<10 94 50 incoming transfers includes Falls Church 28 and Justice 14. |
All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway. Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead. |