Does anyone here actually send their kid to Hayfield/Edison/West Potomac/5 or lower GS high schools?

[Anonymous]

Wow Fairfax sucks

[Anonymous]

I laugh at the people who send their kids to the Spanish language immersion school to avoid actual native Spanish speakers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow Fairfax sucks

Fairfax HS? Fairfax County? FCPS is doing well, with a broad range of schools. Fairfax high school is in bottom half, but not the bottom hanging out with South County and Westfields and such as *shrug* and meh. Not amazing, but okay. Where do you get sucks from? (-- not a fairfax parent or fairfax zoned BTW. But sucks is strong for solidly mediocre).

[Anonymous]

I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

[Anonymous]

To me those test scores show the socio-economic diversity of the schools. Those at the bottom have more recent immigrants and lower income kids from surrounding neighborhoods. If you actually look at test scores broken down, college bound kids are scoring just fine in those lower-tier schools.

The other thing that I appreciate is meeting all the Academy kids (eg orthodontics) that work in offices as young adults around our neighborhood. Those kids who are college-bound initially, if given guidance, can get an academy education that allows them to work after HS. Takes personal motivation by the student though and there's a subset who aren't that motivated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me those test scores show the socio-economic diversity of the schools. Those at the bottom have more recent immigrants and lower income kids from surrounding neighborhoods. If you actually look at test scores broken down, college bound kids are scoring just fine in those lower-tier schools.

The other thing that I appreciate is meeting all the Academy kids (eg orthodontics) that work in offices as young adults around our neighborhood. Those kids who are college-bound initially, if given guidance, can get an academy education that allows them to work after HS. Takes personal motivation by the student though and there's a subset who aren't that motivated.

Not always. Among the group that is most heterogeneous in NoVa (whites), there are some fairly significant differences in performance among schools, which could be explained in part by income levels, but is also consistent with UMC white kids not doing as well at the schools that need to focus most of their attention on the ESOL/FARMS population. There is at least enough uncertainty about this to continue to drive most parents who can afford them to the higher rated schools; otherwise, more would seek out the lower-performing schools so their kids could both excel and stand out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

Yeah- you clearly aren't very familiar with this area. There are a wealth of options for kids at every FFX school- even the "bad" ones. I think your post clearly illustrates how the advent of sites like Redfin in conjunction with great schools has really done a lot of harm to the DC region. Nova is extremely transient, and when people are moving in with limited time they make similar judgement calls as the above poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

OP here. I agree with the first part of this post. I went to a GS 4 with no AP's and have no desire to put my kid through that particular sort of ringer socially. On the second part of this post though, the lower rated schools do have a s*load of programs. Hayfield for example has a ton of AP's, offer multivariable calculus, Japanese and Arabic. You really do get a ton of resources just by virtue of being in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

OP here. I agree with the first part of this post. I went to a GS 4 with no AP's and have no desire to put my kid through that particular sort of ringer socially. On the second part of this post though, the lower rated schools do have a s*load of programs. Hayfield for example has a ton of AP's, offer multivariable calculus, Japanese and Arabic. You really do get a ton of resources just by virtue of being in FCPS.

It's great to have the options, but then you need to look at the actual results. If you compare Hayfield to Lake Braddock, the AP participation rate is about 8% lower, and the pass rate for the smaller percentage of students taking AP classes is 15% lower. Which school do you really think has the stronger peer group?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

OP here. I agree with the first part of this post. I went to a GS 4 with no AP's and have no desire to put my kid through that particular sort of ringer socially. On the second part of this post though, the lower rated schools do have a s*load of programs. Hayfield for example has a ton of AP's, offer multivariable calculus, Japanese and Arabic. You really do get a ton of resources just by virtue of being in FCPS.

It's great to have the options, but then you need to look at the actual results. If you compare Hayfield to Lake Braddock, the AP participation rate is about 8% lower, and the pass rate for the smaller percentage of students taking AP classes is 15% lower. Which school do you really think has the stronger peer group?

Not op, but how many kids does your child need to be successful? If they don't have at least 200 super competive, academically motivated and gifted kids, is your kid going to be a total failure?
Maybe so. Maybe your kid really needs as much pressure as possible, or they won't perform. I somehow doubt it, but maybe your kid is just super jonesing for a real scholastic pressure cooker.
Maybe they will only take ( gasp) 6 AP classes instead of 8! The horror!
Long story short, you are pointing out differences without much distinction. UVA takes roughly 25% of the top applicants of all nova high schools. So what if there are 30 top applicants from Hayfield and 100 for LBSS? Your kid's odds fair about the same. Of course they might have a less stressful high school experience at a school like Hayfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

OP here. I agree with the first part of this post. I went to a GS 4 with no AP's and have no desire to put my kid through that particular sort of ringer socially. On the second part of this post though, the lower rated schools do have a s*load of programs. Hayfield for example has a ton of AP's, offer multivariable calculus, Japanese and Arabic. You really do get a ton of resources just by virtue of being in FCPS.

It's great to have the options, but then you need to look at the actual results. If you compare Hayfield to Lake Braddock, the AP participation rate is about 8% lower, and the pass rate for the smaller percentage of students taking AP classes is 15% lower. Which school do you really think has the stronger peer group?

Not op, but how many kids does your child need to be successful? If they don't have at least 200 super competive, academically motivated and gifted kids, is your kid going to be a total failure?
Maybe so. Maybe your kid really needs as much pressure as possible, or they won't perform. I somehow doubt it, but maybe your kid is just super jonesing for a real scholastic pressure cooker.
Maybe they will only take ( gasp) 6 AP classes instead of 8! The horror!
Long story short, you are pointing out differences without much distinction. UVA takes roughly 25% of the top applicants of all nova high schools. So what if there are 30 top applicants from Hayfield and 100 for LBSS? Your kid's odds fair about the same. Of course they might have a less stressful high school experience at a school like Hayfield.

Passing an AP or IB exam after you took the course doesn't mean you are "super competitive." It does suggest that you belonged in the course and that the other kids didn't have to sit through a watered-down version of the material.

The claim that UVA takes a set percentage of each high school's class, by the way, is regularly asserted and never substantiated here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

OP here. I agree with the first part of this post. I went to a GS 4 with no AP's and have no desire to put my kid through that particular sort of ringer socially. On the second part of this post though, the lower rated schools do have a s*load of programs. Hayfield for example has a ton of AP's, offer multivariable calculus, Japanese and Arabic. You really do get a ton of resources just by virtue of being in FCPS.

It's great to have the options, but then you need to look at the actual results. If you compare Hayfield to Lake Braddock, the AP participation rate is about 8% lower, and the pass rate for the smaller percentage of students taking AP classes is 15% lower. Which school do you really think has the stronger peer group?

Not op, but how many kids does your child need to be successful? If they don't have at least 200 super competive, academically motivated and gifted kids, is your kid going to be a total failure?
Maybe so. Maybe your kid really needs as much pressure as possible, or they won't perform. I somehow doubt it, but maybe your kid is just super jonesing for a real scholastic pressure cooker.
Maybe they will only take ( gasp) 6 AP classes instead of 8! The horror!
Long story short, you are pointing out differences without much distinction. UVA takes roughly 25% of the top applicants of all nova high schools. So what if there are 30 top applicants from Hayfield and 100 for LBSS? Your kid's odds fair about the same. Of course they might have a less stressful high school experience at a school like Hayfield.

Passing an AP or IB exam after you took the course doesn't mean you are "super competitive." It does suggest that you belonged in the course and that the other kids didn't have to sit through a watered-down version of the material.

The claim that UVA takes a set percentage of each high school's class, by the way, is regularly asserted and never substantiated here.

Dude. You can take the time looking it up. I've done it in Arlington. It's the same percentage. Wakefield gets a small number in, but it's about 25% of applicants. Same percentage as Yorktown. Feel free to do the same for FFX.
I know you really don't want that to be true, but it's a fact of life.
Sometimes it doesn't really make a difference where you go to school in FFX.
And fwiw- I went to one of the top HS's mentioned here. It was great, but I don't believe a kid at Hayfield is getting lesser education, and I'd have no problem sending my kid there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH went to Hayfield, went to W&M and was accepted as an Echols a scholar at UVa. Every single one of his friends went to UVA, W&M, or Ivy.

Hayfield is a fine school and GS means nothing. ESPECIALLY in a Fairfax Co. All things being equal, how do you think Hayfield ranks against 90% of the high schools in the country.

Yeah. Plus, isn't Belvoir still in boundaries for Hayfield? All those officers have kids too...

Objectively speaking, Hayfield's average SAT scores are a hair above the national average (1482), quite a below the FCPS average (1672), and about equivalent to the VA state average (1533).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my family to a GS 8 school and absolutely crossed off all the GS 5 and lower schools. The decision wasn't completely rational and is the result of my own experience at bad schools. I came out of these cesspit schools with not even the option of AP/IB or a language other than French/Spanish but I could probably naturally survive a prison sentence if it came to that. My mind just can't accept that the lower rated schools around here are large enough to actually have decent programs where any motivated child can succeed.

OP here. I agree with the first part of this post. I went to a GS 4 with no AP's and have no desire to put my kid through that particular sort of ringer socially. On the second part of this post though, the lower rated schools do have a s*load of programs. Hayfield for example has a ton of AP's, offer multivariable calculus, Japanese and Arabic. You really do get a ton of resources just by virtue of being in FCPS.

It's great to have the options, but then you need to look at the actual results. If you compare Hayfield to Lake Braddock, the AP participation rate is about 8% lower, and the pass rate for the smaller percentage of students taking AP classes is 15% lower. Which school do you really think has the stronger peer group?

Well obviously Braddock does. Thing is though, my DC isn't zoned for Braddock. The question is, is Hayfield worse enough that I should consider moving or private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH went to Hayfield, went to W&M and was accepted as an Echols a scholar at UVa. Every single one of his friends went to UVA, W&M, or Ivy.

Hayfield is a fine school and GS means nothing. ESPECIALLY in a Fairfax Co. All things being equal, how do you think Hayfield ranks against 90% of the high schools in the country.

Yeah. Plus, isn't Belvoir still in boundaries for Hayfield? All those officers have kids too...

Objectively speaking, Hayfield's average SAT scores are a hair above the national average (1482), quite a below the FCPS average (1672), and about equivalent to the VA state average (1533).

The horror!