Alexandria public schools?
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Anonymous
The younger siblings of lottery kids were grandfathered. In any case, those are the folks who lasted through the first year of middle school, and then put their children in private. I have friends all over Alexandria, in a range of schools, and the story is the same. |
Anonymous
| We're in GWMS now. We don't know anyone who pulled for private this year. |
Anonymous
| We are a Maury ES family and know for a fact that they consolidated 5th grade classes for this year, and dropped a section, because so many families leave for private or other school districts by 5th grade. It helped us because our kids will get back the music room/art rooms that were taken over due to overcrowding, but I think it's pretty obvious that ACPS numbers start to drop as middle school approaches. Maury is a perfect example. |
Anonymous
I think this poster nailed the issue. People love Alexandria itself and, for whatever reason, tolerate and make due with the public schools here because other things outweigh on the list of balancing/preferences. It's true that some children will do very well in ACPS, and those parents will be supporters and loud about it. But it's very much a bifurcated system, by socioeconomic status and race. We live in Del Ray and are toying with the same balancing issue right now. Our DS starts K in 2014 and we don't want to move for the reasons others have stated (love our neighborhood, local businesses, ability to walk to restaurants, parks, playgrounds, coffee, dog park, etc.). But we also don't want to send DS to a school that is ranked close to the bottom in the entire state, when we can get the top of the rankings just a few miles away. We looked into St. Stephens, Burgundy, Browne privates and K starts at around $26k at each, before aftercare (For working parents). We have pretty much concluded that we will need to move, despite not wanting to. We really wish we could place our son in ACPS, but cannot in good conscience do so, after touring the school, and hearing about programs, etc. It is not the right fit for our family. It is mind boggling how much wealth their is in Alexandria, and yet how poor-performing the schools are. We have several preschool classmates who feel the same, and are house hunting, in the process of moving, or even renting in Arlington/McLean for Kindergarten because they cannot justify ACPS. So, no, you don't move here for schools, unfortunately. I wish that weren't the case, because it would be a near perfect place to live otherwise. |
Anonymous
Agreed. It's a great place to live, but it's hard to gamble on you children's education. Two things to add: (1) only 13% of Alexandria City households have kids, so a great majority of the residents have no stake in the schools; and (2) if schools were stellar, we probably couldn't afford to live here. |
Anonymous
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Just a question, is Mcarthur considered a bad school? It gets rating of 8 so I'm confused. What about Bishop Ireton?
Thanks |
Anonymous
No, McArthur has long been one of the more desirable schools in ACPS. This is largely due to parental involvement, the PTA, etc. Just look at the four playground structures on the school grounds. Our kids were there for several years. It's fine. Granted, we found better schools when we moved -- i.e., in a relative sense, McArthur is a great school compared to ACPS. Compared to other ESs elsewhere in the region, it's just OK. A lot of parents who scream loudest in defense of ACPS have never experienced anything else so they really don't know what "good" is. |
Anonymous
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Bishop Ireton is a high school.
MacArthur is okay. Our child is happy there but the teaching is just average. We are hoping the new principal makes a difference. The PTA is run by a small little group of women who don't have one original idea between them. It's just the same, endless fundraising every single year. |
Anonymous
It actually gets a rating of 6 and has for a few years. Like the PP said, it's an ok school. |
Anonymous
I'm no ACPS fan, but those ratings aren't worth spit. |
Anonymous
+1 Frankly, most of the "data" people love to cite/rely on so heavily here is garbage. If I hear about FARMS one more time... I don't think people here realize that like 75% of a child's ability to do well in a particular school comes down to parental involvement, which in DCUM world is pretty high. |
Anonymous
The ratings are actually just a formulation of the SOL scores. And what I don't think you realize is that "parental involvement" doesn't help in a school district like ACPS unless by parental involvement you mean the parents pay for outside tutoring or education centers because that's what is needed to keep the kids motivated and learning. The ACPS curriculum is really horrible. Truly bad. When compared side by side to Arlington and Fairfax, it is just inadequate. The previous superintendent hired some consultants to write a curriculum instead of doing some smart like emulating the curriculums in this next door counties that are obviously getting results. |
Anonymous
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Our kids attended ACPS from kindergarten on through.
First came the fight to get them in whatever those higher classes are called at MacArthur Elementary. We had to self nominate and our kids were rejected, but later (2 years or such) they were accepted. Ha! So mom and dad tutored math, science, reading, writing every night. In the freakish ACPS middle school years, now on the that track, came specific selected hired teachers (often worked in the system and picked up extra cash by tutoring) to tutor math and writing in addition to mom and dad. While in ACPS high school, professional outside of the system teacher tudors, professionals ACT, SAT tutors, attendance at all ACPS special college prep tutoring, were sought, as well as mom and dad on duty. We weren't helicoptering: they got it. We just were back ups when stumped. We got it. Mom and dad also had to run interference at highly select time/issues with the ACPS teachers/admin and it sucked, big time. We invariably lost. Surprisingly, some teachers can be as brick headed as the ACPS admin. Thank goodness our kids were self-motivated and driven in spite of ACPS. They now attend very select universities in science and math. Hang in there ACPS parents and students. |
Anonymous
What results and what defines adequate? Just curious. Not an ACPS booster, but I do like to know why people here react they way they do. I went to subpar schools in NY and ended up at an Ivy. My parents did get me tutoring when needed, recognizing that public schools are for "the masses" and wont cater to your child like you would expect of a private when you pay 30K. |
Anonymous
I think that's the problem with ACPS: They routinely excuse failure rather than expect excellence. And when people trot out the success stories, my response is that school should not be something one should have to overcome. |