could West Potomac become a Marshall in 10 years?

[Anonymous]

8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

They're the poorest schools in the county.

Schools like Marshall are definitely doing something right. Schools with moderate percentages of FARMS that are rising above, are clearly teaching well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

They're the poorest schools in the county.

Schools like Marshall are definitely doing something right. Schools with moderate percentages of FARMS that are rising above, are clearly teaching well.

Marshall apparently has the fourth largest number of expensive homes in Fairfax County, behind Langley, McLean and Madison. Of course most of its scores are good. But Washington-Lee in Arlington has about twice the percentage of FARMS students as Marshall and still has higher SATs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

They're the poorest schools in the county.

Schools like Marshall are definitely doing something right. Schools with moderate percentages of FARMS that are rising above, are clearly teaching well.

'

They are not located in bad areas though geographically. We should be asking why are those schools so poor and what can we do to change that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

They're the poorest schools in the county.

Schools like Marshall are definitely doing something right. Schools with moderate percentages of FARMS that are rising above, are clearly teaching well.

'

They are not located in bad areas though geographically. We should be asking why are those schools so poor and what can we do to change that.

In 2005 the School Board moved a number of relatively wealthy, white students out of Lee when South County opened. Only some of those went to South County while a larger group managed to get moved to West Springfield. F/R lunch rate went from 27% to 40% as those kids phased out over three years. F/R lunch rate has continued to climb every since. Daventry got moved to West Springfield in 2015 - also a relatively wealthy neighborhood. Then you add many transfers (more than 150 in 2015) using the pupil placement policy and you start to see how Lee ended up so poor (most of those pupil placements probably do not qualify for F/R lunch). New residents have been avoiding Lee because of low test scores. At some point, probably around the 40-45% F/R lunch number and decreasing test scores, Lee crossed a point of no return. Be wary of letting it happen at other schools - Herndon and West Potomac come to mind.

I place the blame for Lee's situation at the feet of the School Board. Good luck getting them to take any action - I have tried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

They're the poorest schools in the county.

Schools like Marshall are definitely doing something right. Schools with moderate percentages of FARMS that are rising above, are clearly teaching well.

'

They are not located in bad areas though geographically. We should be asking why are those schools so poor and what can we do to change that.

In 2005 the School Board moved a number of relatively wealthy, white students out of Lee when South County opened. Only some of those went to South County while a larger group managed to get moved to West Springfield. F/R lunch rate went from 27% to 40% as those kids phased out over three years. F/R lunch rate has continued to climb every since. Daventry got moved to West Springfield in 2015 - also a relatively wealthy neighborhood. Then you add many transfers (more than 150 in 2015) using the pupil placement policy and you start to see how Lee ended up so poor (most of those pupil placements probably do not qualify for F/R lunch). New residents have been avoiding Lee because of low test scores. At some point, probably around the 40-45% F/R lunch number and decreasing test scores, Lee crossed a point of no return. Be wary of letting it happen at other schools - Herndon and West Potomac come to mind.

I place the blame for Lee's situation at the feet of the School Board. Good luck getting them to take any action - I have tried.

If it makes you feel any better, the School Board absolutely messed up Annandale HS, too. And they won't fix it.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/25/584170.page#9549894

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

They're the poorest schools in the county.

Schools like Marshall are definitely doing something right. Schools with moderate percentages of FARMS that are rising above, are clearly teaching well.

'

They are not located in bad areas though geographically. We should be asking why are those schools so poor and what can we do to change that.

In 2005 the School Board moved a number of relatively wealthy, white students out of Lee when South County opened. Only some of those went to South County while a larger group managed to get moved to West Springfield. F/R lunch rate went from 27% to 40% as those kids phased out over three years. F/R lunch rate has continued to climb every since. Daventry got moved to West Springfield in 2015 - also a relatively wealthy neighborhood. Then you add many transfers (more than 150 in 2015) using the pupil placement policy and you start to see how Lee ended up so poor (most of those pupil placements probably do not qualify for F/R lunch). New residents have been avoiding Lee because of low test scores. At some point, probably around the 40-45% F/R lunch number and decreasing test scores, Lee crossed a point of no return. Be wary of letting it happen at other schools - Herndon and West Potomac come to mind.

I place the blame for Lee's situation at the feet of the School Board. Good luck getting them to take any action - I have tried.

If it makes you feel any better, the School Board absolutely messed up Annandale HS, too. And they won't fix it.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/25/584170.page#9549894

Keep trying. After Sandy Evans was elected to the School Board, she opposed the last round of boundary changes moving higher SES neighborhoods out of AHS to Woodson, but was outvoted.

Woodson is in Megan McLaughlin's district. McLaughlin is very unpopular with most of the other School Board members right now. They might do the right thing and move part of Woodson back to Annandale now.

[Anonymous]

The person in charge of boundary changes comes from West Springfield. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

Would this list change if these schools went to AP? Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

Would this list change if these schools went to AP? Why?

Because right now in the southeastern part of Fairfax, IB is not acting like a magnet like program like it is in other parts of the county. There are too many schools with IB in that area. IB is not as popular, so the only way to make it effective and not drag down a school is to make it a magnet program that many schools elect to feed into. In addition, while ,any of the kids at these schools may be smart, a good portion has some difficulty with English, so an intensive English writing program isn't serving them well and they do not end up taking the IB classes.

[Anonymous]

Once IB becomes a magnet program and the other schools become an AP program, it will allow the schools to better even out with FARMS percentages and with more AP schools, more people will likely be attracted to the area while still having an IB magnet school to send their children to as well.

[Anonymous]

You all are forgetting to call out the Land Use Cmtes and Board of Supervisors who dictate what types of housing is allowed in each area. That can't and won't change for decades. Lots of low end apartments along Rt 1 --- gee, I wonder why the test scores are so low in those areas???? Lots of smaller townhouses in an area... who were those built for???? Not wealthy families -- they are built for young families, renters, true "middle class families" (not the ones who think they are "middle class" with salaries above $150K).

The housing dictates the SES of the families in that area ---- and the SES to large extent, dictates the academic stature of the HSs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all are forgetting to call out the Land Use Cmtes and Board of Supervisors who dictate what types of housing is allowed in each area. That can't and won't change for decades. Lots of low end apartments along Rt 1 --- gee, I wonder why the test scores are so low in those areas???? Lots of smaller townhouses in an area... who were those built for???? Not wealthy families -- they are built for young families, renters, true "middle class families" (not the ones who think they are "middle class" with salaries above $150K).

The housing dictates the SES of the families in that area ---- and the SES to large extent, dictates the academic stature of the HSs.

True. Fixing the schools is one part of the solution for this area of Fairfax though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 of 25 high schools in FCPS are IB, but 5 of bottom 6 in SATs are IB.

Annandale 1520
Falls Church 1510
Edison 1498
Stuart 1489
Lee 1476
Mount Vernon 1387

Would this list change if these schools went to AP? Why?

Because right now in the southeastern part of Fairfax, IB is not acting like a magnet like program like it is in other parts of the county. There are too many schools with IB in that area. IB is not as popular, so the only way to make it effective and not drag down a school is to make it a magnet program that many schools elect to feed into. In addition, while ,any of the kids at these schools may be smart, a good portion has some difficulty with English, so an intensive English writing program isn't serving them well and they do not end up taking the IB classes.

+1000. Things won't improve until FCPS gets rid of IB at most of those schools. Asians, in particular, really prefer AP schools with more and better STEM options.

[Anonymous]

Nothing will change until we draw boundaries that equalize the demographics across SES from in every school.