Lee High School or Edison High School for STEM
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Anonymous
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Our base high school is Lee. DD is interested in attending Edison's Global STEM program with her friends from Twain. I think she should attend Lee.
Both are IB, similar rank. Other factors? |
Anonymous
They aren’t similar in rank. Edison is better; has an Academy; has better sports; and was renovated more recently. Lee gets a transitional ESOL school for all the non-English speakers. |
Anonymous
| Edison for the STem program for sure. |
Anonymous
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My kid did Science Olympiad last year. At the regionals he attended, Edison did a respectable job against some.strong schools. I believe they earned a couple of medals.
I would go with Edison if I were picking for my kid. |
Anonymous
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I would avoid Lee if possible. It's not a school that FCPS goes out of its way to support, except with respect to its ESOL population.
The Edison Academy is having an open house on January 20th from 10 AM to 1 PM if you want more information. The Edison Academy doesn't have an especially strong STEM focus, compared to the STEM Academies at Chantilly or Marshall or the STEM courses available at many AP schools. Here's a link to information on the courses offered: https://edisonacademy.fcps.edu/academics/courses |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for the open house info and course link. I found the link to the Global Stem Challenges Program. https://edisonhs.fcps.edu/features/global-stem-challenges-program
Would love to hear plus and minus on this program. Are there other options? Aside from moving, I don't think we can student transfer to other STEM academies or AP schools. DD's options are Lee or Edison (if she meet the criteria to attend the Global Program). |
Anonymous
Here's the link to the application that Edison made to the Virginia department of education to obtain a grant for that program: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/news/news_releases/2015/innovation_planning_grants/global_stem_challenges_program.pdf This link also has the phone numbers and email addresses of some of the Edison teachers involved in the program: https://www.fcps.edu/blog/engineering-change Good luck! |
Anonymous
You CAN go to other STEM academies for specific classes. I don't think you can transfer outright for programs like CHantilly or Marshall. You can transfer to an AP school. It's probably West Springfield -- which is a very good option if you want to do AP. They will tell you which school it is that is your assigned AP school. They will not deny a request to transfer for AP. |
Anonymous
| Except Lee has AP classes now, so no transfers for that. |
Anonymous
Lee only has a few AP courses, so you can transfer to take AP courses not available there. |
Anonymous
Definitely can’t transfer to Chantilly. It is not the closest school to Lee/ Edison that offers anything. And it is overenrolled. Dashboard is frequently wrong, but I believe it is closed to transfers. You could bus for the Academy only. But yikes— that’s a commute. |
Anonymous
It's actually getting more and more difficult to transfer for AP. Lavery is really cracking down on that. OP, the STEM cohort at Edison is an experimental mess at this point. My former students who enrolled in the program (to avoid Lee, mostly), say they are learning nothing, that classes are a chaotic mess, and that they don't understand what is going on. Several of the kids I knew who were in the program are now back at Lee because they were so frustrated. When it first opened, they couldn't staff it--they were making phone calls to current FCPS math teachers in august begging them to consider teaching at the academy (I would know--I received a call). Maybe after a while they'll have the kinks worked out and a curriculum in place, but the whole premise that they can teach everything in the curriculum through a project is laughable. (Hopefully this year it's changed--I haven't received any updates lately. As of last year though, kids were abandoning ship). |
Anonymous
| 7:33--- thanks for the review. I was wondering if the Global STEM was a goid program. It's really a shame b/c a program like this ---STEM focussed, but not as intense as TJ --- would be ideal in the lower tier HSs. If done well, it could be a draw for umc kids and widen the participation of minorities. Sounds like it is a sloppy substitute...which serves no one. |
Anonymous
| What about Hayfield? Could you transfer there? I think Hayfield is better than Edison, right? |
Anonymous
| TJ? |