Any Information on West Springfield or Lake Braddock and Other Options in Eastern FFX County

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you in the Lee HS district? We have the same concerns. We love our house, neighborhood, commute, proximity to shopping and entertainment, everything - except the high school.

We don't plan to move, and will likely take our chances with Lee HS, but are doing our research on private schools and even homeschool options.

Many parents in our neighborhood are doing the same - or moving when the kids near HS age.

It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more middle-class or upper middle-class families moved or transferred their students out of Lee the lower the scores sank. This has not been a handful of moves or transfers, but hundreds. Going forward, if people kept their students at Lee you would see a quick turn around in the scores. They won't ever be as high as Langley or West Springfield because the demographics won't support that, but they would certainly improve from where they are now. FCPS allowed this to happen through poor boundary management (the last two boundary changes to affect Lee took wealthy students out of the school) and through its liberal pupil placement policy.

Lee is the smallest high school in FCPS so there are many opportunities for students to participate. If your student is motivated then they will do fine at any FCPS school. Your student's individual scores may greatly exceed the Lee average as my students did (and I wish he was a little bit more motivated).

About a decade ago South Lakes was down to 1350 students and seeing a lot of higher-SES flight. The local School Board member fought like hell to have kids from other areas redistricted to South Lakes. Parents in the areas getting redistricted complained bitterly, but South Lakes has over 2400 kids now and one of the top 3 IB programs in the county.

In the 80s and early 90s, Marshall came close to being closed, with fewer than 1400 kids and parents at Langley who repeatedly fought off multiple efforts by FCPS staff to redistrict part of Langley to Marshall. The School Board sided with the Langley parents. What turned Marshall around was private investment in the Tysons area, which led to new subdivisions getting built in Vienna and Dunn Loring that fed into Marshall.

The point is that there's no single formula for turning around a school. If redevelopment around central Springfield brings more people there, Lee will improve. If that doesn't happen, the School Board will have to redistrict part of West Springfield and/or Lake Braddock there to shore up the school. Otherwise, it will just be a school that people who have more money find ways to keep their kids from attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you in the Lee HS district? We have the same concerns. We love our house, neighborhood, commute, proximity to shopping and entertainment, everything - except the high school.

We don't plan to move, and will likely take our chances with Lee HS, but are doing our research on private schools and even homeschool options.

Many parents in our neighborhood are doing the same - or moving when the kids near HS age.

It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more middle-class or upper middle-class families moved or transferred their students out of Lee the lower the scores sank. This has not been a handful of moves or transfers, but hundreds. Going forward, if people kept their students at Lee you would see a quick turn around in the scores. They won't ever be as high as Langley or West Springfield because the demographics won't support that, but they would certainly improve from where they are now. FCPS allowed this to happen through poor boundary management (the last two boundary changes to affect Lee took wealthy students out of the school) and through its liberal pupil placement policy.

Lee is the smallest high school in FCPS so there are many opportunities for students to participate. If your student is motivated then they will do fine at any FCPS school. Your student's individual scores may greatly exceed the Lee average as my students did (and I wish he was a little bit more motivated).

About a decade ago South Lakes was down to 1350 students and seeing a lot of higher-SES flight. The local School Board member fought like hell to have kids from other areas redistricted to South Lakes. Parents in the areas getting redistricted complained bitterly, but South Lakes has over 2400 kids now and one of the top 3 IB programs in the county.

In the 80s and early 90s, Marshall came close to being closed, with fewer than 1400 kids and parents at Langley who repeatedly fought off multiple efforts by FCPS staff to redistrict part of Langley to Marshall. The School Board sided with the Langley parents. What turned Marshall around was private investment in the Tysons area, which led to new subdivisions getting built in Vienna and Dunn Loring that fed into Marshall.

The point is that there's no single formula for turning around a school. If redevelopment around central Springfield brings more people there, Lee will improve. If that doesn't happen, the School Board will have to redistrict part of West Springfield and/or Lake Braddock there to shore up the school. Otherwise, it will just be a school that people who have more money find ways to keep their kids from attending.

My fear is:

a) The School Board does not have the fortitude to make boundary changes that would help Lee.
b) There is no appetite or market for significant redevelopment in central Springfield that would help Lee. The only significant project on the horizon is the mall property and development there would be apartments and condos. And with our luck the Board of Supervisors will make the developer set aside a number of affordable units even though the the high school already has a 55% F/R lunch rate.

My earlier point was that it would be a good start just to keep the students that currently live within the Lee boundaries as opposed to seeing them move or transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you in the Lee HS district? We have the same concerns. We love our house, neighborhood, commute, proximity to shopping and entertainment, everything - except the high school.

We don't plan to move, and will likely take our chances with Lee HS, but are doing our research on private schools and even homeschool options.

Many parents in our neighborhood are doing the same - or moving when the kids near HS age.

It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more middle-class or upper middle-class families moved or transferred their students out of Lee the lower the scores sank. This has not been a handful of moves or transfers, but hundreds. Going forward, if people kept their students at Lee you would see a quick turn around in the scores. They won't ever be as high as Langley or West Springfield because the demographics won't support that, but they would certainly improve from where they are now. FCPS allowed this to happen through poor boundary management (the last two boundary changes to affect Lee took wealthy students out of the school) and through its liberal pupil placement policy.

Lee is the smallest high school in FCPS so there are many opportunities for students to participate. If your student is motivated then they will do fine at any FCPS school. Your student's individual scores may greatly exceed the Lee average as my students did (and I wish he was a little bit more motivated).

About a decade ago South Lakes was down to 1350 students and seeing a lot of higher-SES flight. The local School Board member fought like hell to have kids from other areas redistricted to South Lakes. Parents in the areas getting redistricted complained bitterly, but South Lakes has over 2400 kids now and one of the top 3 IB programs in the county.

In the 80s and early 90s, Marshall came close to being closed, with fewer than 1400 kids and parents at Langley who repeatedly fought off multiple efforts by FCPS staff to redistrict part of Langley to Marshall. The School Board sided with the Langley parents. What turned Marshall around was private investment in the Tysons area, which led to new subdivisions getting built in Vienna and Dunn Loring that fed into Marshall.

The point is that there's no single formula for turning around a school. If redevelopment around central Springfield brings more people there, Lee will improve. If that doesn't happen, the School Board will have to redistrict part of West Springfield and/or Lake Braddock there to shore up the school. Otherwise, it will just be a school that people who have more money find ways to keep their kids from attending.

My fear is:

a) The School Board does not have the fortitude to make boundary changes that would help Lee.
b) There is no appetite or market for significant redevelopment in central Springfield that would help Lee. The only significant project on the horizon is the mall property and development there would be apartments and condos. And with our luck the Board of Supervisors will make the developer set aside a number of affordable units even though the the high school already has a 55% F/R lunch rate.

My earlier point was that it would be a good start just to keep the students that currently live within the Lee boundaries as opposed to seeing them move or transfer.

It doesn't help that you have a school board member who won't push for boundary changes and doesn't mind all the pupil placements out of Lee to the AP schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:OP, if you were even tempted to think of Arlington as an alternative to the Kingstowne/Telegraph Road area , the threads on the schools forum about the racism at Yorktown, overcrowding at W-L, pitiful academic performance at Wakefield, and cast of crazy APS School Board members (Van Doren, Lander, etc.) will quickly confirm that you're better off looking at places like West Springfield and Burke instead.

Yet you guys bring it up. So weird.

Sounds like you need to develop thicker skin or move.

From my superior location? Umm... no...

Keep telling yourself that...LOL.

http://thebullelephant.com/northern-virginia-sat-scores-by-school-for-2016/

We don't worry about averages. We don't have average children.

Arlington and Fairfax Counties. Where every single special snowflake is above average.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read all of the comments, but I live in West Springfield and have friends that send their kids to all three of the schools you are considering (Hayfield, West Springfield, and LBSS). Honestly, my friends that send their kids to Hayfield love it. If you are concerned about class sizes, LBSS has a similar issue, so you wouldn't be relieving anything. West Springfield has a great reputation, but is growing is size. It will likely be mitigated by the upcoming renovation, but something to consider. A lot of people actually move from Hayfield to South County, so that might be somewhere else to consider. The South County school district has improved tremendously, and has a wonderful reputation amongst the community and teachers there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Many neighborhoods in eastern Fairfax are great places to live and raise a family - Fort Hunt, Stratford Landing, Hayfield, Kingstowne, Saratoga. Great locations, good housing stock, etc. Why are some of the schools in those areas performing poorly? Good neighborhood schools are suddenly not so good. What's going on FCPS?

Huh? These areas look very good compared to, say, South Arlington.

The houses is south Arlington are comparatively much more expensive.

That is true, but they are being bought by people who don't care about the public schools.

Umm..no. Just not true at all.

Wakefield has some of the lowest SAT scores in NoVa. If OP has issues with Hayfield, she will have even more issues with lower performing Wakefield.

Yes yes, and people still pay a premium for it. We certainly prefer it to Stuart or wherever. Besides who said Op should look in south Arlington? She likely can't afford a comparable home located there.

What does it mean to "pay a premium" for a house there? Over what? You could just as easily say houses there sell "at a discount" compared to North Arlington, Falls Church, McLean, etc.

Stuart has higher SAT scores than Wakefield, and a growing IB diploma program. I'm not sure what Wakefield's selling point is other than the building and the basketball program, but in any event OP has better options in Fairfax than South Arlington.

Honestly, how daft do you have to be to not understand how much more expensive real estate is in any part of Arlington ( south Arlington included) compared to houses zoned Hayfield ( which I think is a perfectly fine school).

Take it to the Real Estate forum. You aren't being constructive here, and nothing you say is going to make Wakefield sound attractive as an alternative to the Hayfield pyramid.

I'm sorry that you are so insecure about your life choices. I'm sure the Wakefield graduate destined to be your child's boss will go easy on them!

Wakefield opened over 60 years ago. The Wiki page for the school features but four "notable alumni," one of whom was a professional wrestler and another of whom was the Fort Hood shooter.

The odds for your prediction are not looking great.

Most people are priced out of north Arlington, it's really no big deal. Boy, it certainly seems it stick in people's craw that they are priced out of " the worst part" of the county. Listen, not every one is going to have a great commute. Hopefully a strong peer group will make up for your absence at home.

Most people in Arlington want nothing to do with Wakefield. The Arlington Forest people threw a big fit at the prospect of having their kids rezoned there. I don't think most people are upset they are "priced out of" South Arlington. They just don't see the point of paying a premium for a neighborhood that feeds into underperforming schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments, but I live in West Springfield and have friends that send their kids to all three of the schools you are considering (Hayfield, West Springfield, and LBSS). Honestly, my friends that send their kids to Hayfield love it. If you are concerned about class sizes, LBSS has a similar issue, so you wouldn't be relieving anything. West Springfield has a great reputation, but is growing is size. It will likely be mitigated by the upcoming renovation, but something to consider. A lot of people actually move from Hayfield to South County, so that might be somewhere else to consider. The South County school district has improved tremendously, and has a wonderful reputation amongst the community and teachers there.

Woodson has a reputation for being a pressure cooker environment, what is the culture like at West Springfield?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all of the comments, but I live in West Springfield and have friends that send their kids to all three of the schools you are considering (Hayfield, West Springfield, and LBSS). Honestly, my friends that send their kids to Hayfield love it. If you are concerned about class sizes, LBSS has a similar issue, so you wouldn't be relieving anything. West Springfield has a great reputation, but is growing is size. It will likely be mitigated by the upcoming renovation, but something to consider. A lot of people actually move from Hayfield to South County, so that might be somewhere else to consider. The South County school district has improved tremendously, and has a wonderful reputation amongst the community and teachers there.

Woodson has a reputation for being a pressure cooker environment, what is the culture like at West Springfield?

My friend's daughters thrived at Woodson. It's lazy and stupid to stick a label on an entire school just to try to make another one look better.