Fleeing APS schools for FFX County

[Anonymous]

I've seen several people bring up the idea of of leaving APS for FFX, specifically because of school overcrowding. They're dismayed, as am I, by APS even discussing the possibility of going to split shifts in high school. So, making your teenager go to school from 7am-Noon, and then bringing in another group of kids from 1-6pm or something.

The question I have: Is FFX a viable option? Is it necessarily better there? I get that FFX is a much, much bigger county - but they're also educating far more students than APS. Are they not facing the same issues, or have they come up with different solutions to those problems? Please don't turn this into some kind of slamfest, I really don't need anyone piling on either district. I'm just not familiar with how FCPS works, and would like to know more.

[Anonymous]

It depends on whether you can afford to buy into one of the better schools. FCPS has done a much better job than APS at pushing the worst of those issues into the schools people can least afford to leave.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax has its own issues. Elementary and middle is extremely segregated between AAP and “regular”. Larger class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on whether you can afford to buy into one of the better schools. FCPS has done a much better job than APS at pushing the worst of those issues into the schools people can least afford to leave.

How so? APS is very segregated and avoids demographic balance by claiming walk zones are a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on whether you can afford to buy into one of the better schools. FCPS has done a much better job than APS at pushing the worst of those issues into the schools people can least afford to leave.

How so? APS is very segregated and avoids demographic balance by claiming walk zones are a priority.

There are valid reasons for allowing students to walk to schools that are close to their homes. There are also valid reasons for having option and immersion schools. It’s too bad that some folks can bubble themselves away in upper n n Arlington. But it’s not clear what can be done about this at this point.

[Anonymous]

Overcrowding in APS? My kid had class sizes of 20 and 21. Not my problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on whether you can afford to buy into one of the better schools. FCPS has done a much better job than APS at pushing the worst of those issues into the schools people can least afford to leave.

How so? APS is very segregated and avoids demographic balance by claiming walk zones are a priority.

There are valid reasons for allowing students to walk to schools that are close to their homes. There are also valid reasons for having option and immersion schools. It’s too bad that some folks can bubble themselves away in upper n n Arlington. But it’s not clear what can be done about this at this point.

How is that any different than FCPS? What is the poorest ES and the richest ES? What is the gap?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overcrowding in APS? My kid had class sizes of 20 and 21. Not my problem.

That is how FCPS deals with it. Much larger class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on whether you can afford to buy into one of the better schools. FCPS has done a much better job than APS at pushing the worst of those issues into the schools people can least afford to leave.

How so? APS is very segregated and avoids demographic balance by claiming walk zones are a priority.

Right, but at least they're not (in most cases) making the overcrowded poor schools remain overcrowded without a boundary change, and they're not talking about doing split shifts only at Wakefield.

In FFX, they let Bailey's ES look like a favela for a very long time, only to relive them by moving half the kids into a foreclosed office building with no playground or gymnasium and calling it an "upper ES." They would not have dared propose such a solution at Chesterbrook.

[Anonymous]

Whenever privileged people start talking about “flee[ing]” a school system I get a wee bit twitchy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen several people bring up the idea of of leaving APS for FFX, specifically because of school overcrowding. They're dismayed, as am I, by APS even discussing the possibility of going to split shifts in high school. So, making your teenager go to school from 7am-Noon, and then bringing in another group of kids from 1-6pm or something.

The question I have: Is FFX a viable option? Is it necessarily better there? I get that FFX is a much, much bigger county - but they're also educating far more students than APS. Are they not facing the same issues, or have they come up with different solutions to those problems? Please don't turn this into some kind of slamfest, I really don't need anyone piling on either district. I'm just not familiar with how FCPS works, and would like to know more.

I can do you better: we fled APS for Loudoun. But no one commutes downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever privileged people start talking about “flee[ing]” a school system I get a wee bit twitchy.

Who cares?

[Anonymous]

FFX is a sprawling, overly large almost impossible to comprehend entity, spanning from the sad backwaters of the Springfield area to the gleaming McMansions of western FFX. You must choose your pyramid extremely carefully. But in general, the FFX high schools run circles around Arlington high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on whether you can afford to buy into one of the better schools. FCPS has done a much better job than APS at pushing the worst of those issues into the schools people can least afford to leave.

How so? APS is very segregated and avoids demographic balance by claiming walk zones are a priority.

Schools in richer areas are very different from schools in poorer areas of Fairfax County.
PTA’s in affluent schools are able to provide more for their students - including field trips, Odyssey of the Mind, etc. Poorer schools also lack the “extras” that others take for granted. Few of them offer Local Level IV or foreign language in ES.

Boundary policies ensure that there are “rich” and “poor” schools in close proximity to each other, and de-facto segregation. Ex. Lee HS v W Springfield, Mt Vernon v West Potomac, Annandale v Woodson, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax has its own issues. Elementary and middle is extremely segregated between AAP and “regular”. Larger class sizes.

The dichotomy between AAP and regular can be socially devastating and humiliating to families whose kids don’t make the cut.