South county vs lake braddock SS

[Anonymous]

We are looking for houses that feed into South County and Lake Braddock SS. I know that Lake Braddock is a great school, but I don't know much about South County. How does it compared to LBSS? Are we better off only looking in the LBSS neighborhoods? I have two preschool age kids, so high school is far into the future, but we are hoping to not have to move again before retirement.

[Anonymous]

LBSS much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LBSS much better.

Much better? Really?

Maybe you meant much bigger?

[Anonymous]

South County is horrible do not go there. It is being overrun with low income ghetto rats and affluent white kids who act like thug ghetto rats. Its the most affluent ghetto you will ever find and the teachers and admin there act like they are just collecting a paycheck and have no interest in impacting kids lives, much less a quality education. Lake Braddock? Just a few steps higher, but not affluent enough to keep the ghetto out.

[Anonymous]

I taught at South County for a year and will never go back. I immediately looked for a new school. Packets, packets,packets from other teachers. Incompetent colleagues. The workload they were expecting from kids was insane. Sports was huge--kids all played travel ball to make teams.

My own children will attend LB in a few years, so I don't have any opinion there yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South County is horrible do not go there. It is being overrun with low income ghetto rats and affluent white kids who act like thug ghetto rats. Its the most affluent ghetto you will ever find and the teachers and admin there act like they are just collecting a paycheck and have no interest in impacting kids lives, much less a quality education. Lake Braddock? Just a few steps higher, but not affluent enough to keep the ghetto out.

My, aren't you just a peach.

[Anonymous]

This was discussed on a recent thread when GS ratings came out. Starting a couple pages in.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/640388.page

The takeaway was that when you control for FARMS and ELS, South County is one of the poorest performing schools in the county, if not the worst performing. SC has relatively low FARMS and ELL rates, but is still only a GS 6. Schools with about the same FARMs rate (Marshall, Chantilly, LBSS) are GS 8 or 9. Schools that are GS 6 have significantly higher FARMs rates.

People always say that your affluent white or Asian kid will do well at poor performing school X. But the numbers seem to be saying this does not hold for South County. Affluent white and Asian kids appear to be underperforming there.

We looked at LBSS, Chantilly and South County when we moved-- and axed South County pretty quickly. Ended up at Chantilly for other reasons, but LBSS also looked like a good call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught at South County for a year and will never go back. I immediately looked for a new school. Packets, packets,packets from other teachers. Incompetent colleagues. The workload they were expecting from kids was insane. Sports was huge--kids all played travel ball to make teams.

My own children will attend LB in a few years, so I don't have any opinion there yet.

Sports are just as big at LB as at SC. If you don't know that, it sounds like your departure was no great loss to SC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught at South County for a year and will never go back. I immediately looked for a new school. Packets, packets,packets from other teachers. Incompetent colleagues. The workload they were expecting from kids was insane. Sports was huge--kids all played travel ball to make teams.

My own children will attend LB in a few years, so I don't have any opinion there yet.

Sports are just as big at LB as at SC. If you don't know that, it sounds like your departure was no great loss to SC.

Yet LB is also able to keep up the academics. Maybe SC should work on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught at South County for a year and will never go back. I immediately looked for a new school. Packets, packets,packets from other teachers. Incompetent colleagues. The workload they were expecting from kids was insane. Sports was huge--kids all played travel ball to make teams.

My own children will attend LB in a few years, so I don't have any opinion there yet.

Sports are just as big at LB as at SC. If you don't know that, it sounds like your departure was no great loss to SC.

Yet LB is also able to keep up the academics. Maybe SC should work on that.

South County HS was just recognized by the state Department of Education for its academic achievement. Not at the same level as Lake Braddock, but still an honor.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/cooper-longfellow-middle-schools-earn-2017-governors-award-educational-excellence-fcps-honored

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was discussed on a recent thread when GS ratings came out. Starting a couple pages in.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/640388.page

The takeaway was that when you control for FARMS and ELS, South County is one of the poorest performing schools in the county, if not the worst performing. SC has relatively low FARMS and ELL rates, but is still only a GS 6. Schools with about the same FARMs rate (Marshall, Chantilly, LBSS) are GS 8 or 9. Schools that are GS 6 have significantly higher FARMs rates.

People always say that your affluent white or Asian kid will do well at poor performing school X. But the numbers seem to be saying this does not hold for South County. Affluent white and Asian kids appear to be underperforming there.

We looked at LBSS, Chantilly and South County when we moved-- and axed South County pretty quickly. Ended up at Chantilly for other reasons, but LBSS also looked like a good call.

It's interesting that you point out the demographics because my neighborhood is zoned for South County and we are very middle class, more in line with the neighborhoods in Burke or West Springfield. But I'm very familiar with the area down here in south Springfield, Lorton, Fairfax Station, etc. and it is very polarized. There are a fair number of very large homes in rich neighborhoods. There are also a lot of small townhomes usually used as rentals, and condos/apartments. There's a lot of people on both ends and not as many in the middle. The really wealthy neighborhoods are probably artificially deflating the FARMS rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was discussed on a recent thread when GS ratings came out. Starting a couple pages in.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/640388.page

The takeaway was that when you control for FARMS and ELS, South County is one of the poorest performing schools in the county, if not the worst performing. SC has relatively low FARMS and ELL rates, but is still only a GS 6. Schools with about the same FARMs rate (Marshall, Chantilly, LBSS) are GS 8 or 9. Schools that are GS 6 have significantly higher FARMs rates.

People always say that your affluent white or Asian kid will do well at poor performing school X. But the numbers seem to be saying this does not hold for South County. Affluent white and Asian kids appear to be underperforming there.

We looked at LBSS, Chantilly and South County when we moved-- and axed South County pretty quickly. Ended up at Chantilly for other reasons, but LBSS also looked like a good call.

It's interesting that you point out the demographics because my neighborhood is zoned for South County and we are very middle class, more in line with the neighborhoods in Burke or West Springfield. But I'm very familiar with the area down here in south Springfield, Lorton, Fairfax Station, etc. and it is very polarized. There are a fair number of very large homes in rich neighborhoods. There are also a lot of small townhomes usually used as rentals, and condos/apartments. There's a lot of people on both ends and not as many in the middle. The really wealthy neighborhoods are probably artificially deflating the FARMS rate.

I don't think so. Farms rate isn't an average of incomes . It is all households that are a certain percentage of the poverty level. Once you get above that, you are non--Farms, whether you live in a town house or a mansion. So, Chantilly has some FARMSs, and a lot 400k townhouse to 700k SFHs. Affluent, but not wealthy. Franklin Farm, Franklin Glen, Arnfield Farm, Greenbrier, etc. They turn over very little housing stock over 1 million. Also, one of the few strong school zones that is still relatively affordable.

I would say, from looking ahouses in Sc, they are newer and nicer for the price. The downside is the schools, and, for us, the commute.

[Anonymous]

Meant to add. Another interesting thing about South County is that the MS is an AAP Center, but it send virtually no kids to TJ-- 6 in the class of 2020. It does not have a lot of applicants for an AAP Center, and a low admission percent from the kids who do apply. I have no idea why. But we had a kid interested in TJ, now attending, and that concerned us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meant to add. Another interesting thing about South County is that the MS is an AAP Center, but it send virtually no kids to TJ-- 6 in the class of 2020. It does not have a lot of applicants for an AAP Center, and a low admission percent from the kids who do apply. I have no idea why. But we had a kid interested in TJ, now attending, and that concerned us.

No one wants to hear about your TJ kid yet again, Chantilly lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South County is horrible do not go there. It is being overrun with low income ghetto rats and affluent white kids who act like thug ghetto rats. Its the most affluent ghetto you will ever find and the teachers and admin there act like they are just collecting a paycheck and have no interest in impacting kids lives, much less a quality education. Lake Braddock? Just a few steps higher, but not affluent enough to keep the ghetto out.

Is there anyone who has any insight to this? Anyone agree with this take on South County?