Great schools ratings and Jackson Middle School/Oakton Elementary
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Anonymous
| My job is moving me to the area within the next week. We found an apartment rental in Oakton (3178 Summit Square ) and it is zoned for Oakton Elementary and Jackson Middle. We don't have any high school children at this time. I would greatly appreciate some feedback on the schools and area. Jackson is rated as a 7 of greatschools.org; how much weight can one really place on this rating? We are a minority family, but not "low income"; I am stating this based on the lower scores in these areas on the overall report, would this still be something we need to worry about? |
Anonymous
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A lot of the schools just dropped due to the difference in the low achieving demographic groups (mostly esl/new English speakers) and the rest of the groups.
In many of the schools (especially the newly 6 & 7 rated schools) 3 of the 4 demographics test in the 90% + range, with the fourth demographic in the 70% range or lower. This dropped occured across fcps, even in schools where the average is in the 90s and even the low performing demographic scored above the state average for their demographic. These are schools that were 8-9 on great schools last month. Look at your demographic breakdown (the ewuity rating). If your demographic is performing in a range acceptable to you, go with that ranking and ignore the achievement gap, especially if the esl demographic is above the state average. Look through the entire track to see if that demographic is improving from elementary through middle and high school. If they are then the school is doing a good job with them. One more thing, most of the top ranked school have no measurable minority students. Great school gave them full points for "equity" as the asian and white kids are performing well and there are no low performing demographics at the school to make an achievement gap. |
Anonymous
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Please don't focus on Great Schools ratings so much. DCUM posters tend to focus on them and on every little shift. It's ridiculous. It's ONE rating and though people will come on here and yap about how "It matters because it affects housing values, realtors use it," blah blah....it's much better to find out about the school from people with kids there. I know you're just moving in and don't necessarily know parents in the area, but almost any school in FCPS is better than every school in some parts of the country--many parts of the country, in fact.
Our godson went to Oakton ES and Jackson MS (not AAP) and did fine and had good experiences and good teachers at both and was well prepared for high school. Our child went to another ES but attended the AAP center at Jackson MS and had an excellent experience and also was well prepared for HS. If your kid is elementary and fairly young, go ahead and start at Oakton ES and then you can judge how it works for your child and learn more about Jackson. If you're in an apartment and your child isn't, say, sixth grade next year, you'll have time to move if you decide Oakton/Jackson aren't for you after all. But I would not hesitate to send a kid to either. You have time to learn more. Don't let Great Schools influence you unduly. (FYI, if you're new to the area -- AAP means Advanced Academics Program; it's the FCPS version of what used to be called "gifted and talented") |
Anonymous
| fyi. If your child will be starting middle school (7th grade) next year, most likely that area will be re-zoned to Thoreau middle school (not Jackson) b/c JAckson is way, way overcrowded. The decision will be made in Jan/Feb. The high school zoning (for Oakton) will not change. |
Anonymous
| You do not want to go to jackson unless the child is in AAP. |
Anonymous
| Oakton elementary is a very nice school. My kid loved it there. I beli They are changing the middle school to Thoreau which is rated higher than Jackson. |
Anonymous
Can you expand further? Being not very familiar with the schools, what would discourage one from enrolling their child? |
Anonymous
Wait and see. Hard to see how moving the most expensive neighborhoods out of Jackson is consistent with the One Fairfax resolution adopted by the School Board. |
Anonymous
Bad colored kids is my guess |
Anonymous
There are a lot of problems in the school due to demographics. The AAP program was grown at the school to make it pass the benchmarks. The problems include sexual harassment and drug use. In general, disruptive students. I saw it with my DD's band class (mix of gen ed and AAP). There was sexual harassment, antisemetic graffiti, and other problems. In the AAP classrooms, the school was full of over achievers that were trying to succeed. |
Anonymous
i.e. gunning for TJ. |
Anonymous
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Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I am continuing my search. If anyone can suggest apartment/rental areas that fall within a good school zine, I would live to hear of them.
Thanks again |