Fleeing APS schools for FFX County

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from FFX to APS. I do have some concerns about the need for a fourth HS and Arlington's seeming inability to plan and figure this out. But we moved because of commute, which frankly as mentioned above FFX cannot fix, and we have no plans to leave APS.

In the case of our IEP student, APS has been gobs better. WAY more responsive and helpful. Overall for both kids (IEP and non IEP), the rest of it is remarkably similar to FCPS. All this handwringing seems overwrought. It's basically the same.

Former APS parent here. There are no schools in APS on par with the top tier in FCPS. APS appeals primarily to white people who don’t want their kids challenged too much, especially by Asian kids who excel academically.

My kid went through APS, took 12-13 APs, practically aced the SATs, and got into a full-pay first choice private school, all with a minimal commute on my end. How would FCPS improve upon that?

I am pre-emptively adding "National Merit Semifinalist" to the drinking game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left APS because of the lack of intellectual challenge and the soft, but pervasive, racism.

Where is there racism? This county votes overwhelmingly Democratic and I often see BLM banners in folks’ yards. So I’m puzzled by your comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from FFX to APS. I do have some concerns about the need for a fourth HS and Arlington's seeming inability to plan and figure this out. But we moved because of commute, which frankly as mentioned above FFX cannot fix, and we have no plans to leave APS.

In the case of our IEP student, APS has been gobs better. WAY more responsive and helpful. Overall for both kids (IEP and non IEP), the rest of it is remarkably similar to FCPS. All this handwringing seems overwrought. It's basically the same.

Former APS parent here. There are no schools in APS on par with the top tier in FCPS. APS appeals primarily to white people who don’t want their kids challenged too much, especially by Asian kids who excel academically.

Or alternatively, to play off your nonsense, maybe Asians don’t want to go to schools with large Latino populations.

[Anonymous]

Arlington is suffering through a really, really dumb period in terms of its leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from FFX to APS. I do have some concerns about the need for a fourth HS and Arlington's seeming inability to plan and figure this out. But we moved because of commute, which frankly as mentioned above FFX cannot fix, and we have no plans to leave APS.

In the case of our IEP student, APS has been gobs better. WAY more responsive and helpful. Overall for both kids (IEP and non IEP), the rest of it is remarkably similar to FCPS. All this handwringing seems overwrought. It's basically the same.

Former APS parent here. There are no schools in APS on par with the top tier in FCPS. APS appeals primarily to white people who don’t want their kids challenged too much, especially by Asian kids who excel academically.

Or alternatively, to play off your nonsense, maybe Asians don’t want to go to schools with large Latino populations.

Ding ding. We have a winner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from FFX to APS. I do have some concerns about the need for a fourth HS and Arlington's seeming inability to plan and figure this out. But we moved because of commute, which frankly as mentioned above FFX cannot fix, and we have no plans to leave APS.

In the case of our IEP student, APS has been gobs better. WAY more responsive and helpful. Overall for both kids (IEP and non IEP), the rest of it is remarkably similar to FCPS. All this handwringing seems overwrought. It's basically the same.

Former APS parent here. There are no schools in APS on par with the top tier in FCPS. APS appeals primarily to white people who don’t want their kids challenged too much, especially by Asian kids who excel academically.

Or alternatively, to play off your nonsense, maybe Asians don’t want to go to schools with large Latino populations.

Ding ding. We have a winner.

There are very few middle and high schools in FCPS with large Asian populations that don’t also have substantial numbers of Hispanic kids. But only APS has found the magic formula for repelling Asians while simultaneously perpetuating a large performance gap between the white kids and everyone else (this is why the high schools are now rated so poorly by Great Schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left APS because of the lack of intellectual challenge and the soft, but pervasive, racism.

Where is there racism? This county votes overwhelmingly Democratic and I often see BLM banners in folks’ yards. So I’m puzzled by your comment.

I assume that was tongue-in-cheek. Actions speak louder than words. Take a look at which neighborhoods were moved out of W-L to Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This sums up everything that is wrong with FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left APS because of the lack of intellectual challenge and the soft, but pervasive, racism.

Where is there racism? This county votes overwhelmingly Democratic and I often see BLM banners in folks’ yards. So I’m puzzled by your comment.

Former south Arlington parent here,
You’ve got to be kidding me. That or you aren’t paying attention to anything. Were you asleep the last time boundaries were redrawn? Why don’t you got ask some people from Arlington Forest what was said about being shifted to Wakefield.
But please do go on about black lives mattering...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from FFX to APS. I do have some concerns about the need for a fourth HS and Arlington's seeming inability to plan and figure this out. But we moved because of commute, which frankly as mentioned above FFX cannot fix, and we have no plans to leave APS.

In the case of our IEP student, APS has been gobs better. WAY more responsive and helpful. Overall for both kids (IEP and non IEP), the rest of it is remarkably similar to FCPS. All this handwringing seems overwrought. It's basically the same.

Former APS parent here. There are no schools in APS on par with the top tier in FCPS. APS appeals primarily to white people who don’t want their kids challenged too much, especially by Asian kids who excel academically.

Or alternatively, to play off your nonsense, maybe Asians don’t want to go to schools with large Latino populations.

Ding ding. We have a winner.

There are very few middle and high schools in FCPS with large Asian populations that don’t also have substantial numbers of Hispanic kids. But only APS has found the magic formula for repelling Asians while simultaneously perpetuating a large performance gap between the white kids and everyone else (this is why the high schools are now rated so poorly by Great Schools).

TJ. That's why Asians choose Fairfax. Not many Hispanic kids there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This sums up everything that is wrong with FCPS.

Bizarre. Some of the best elementary schools are base schools. We're at a center school, but it's not better than the base schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left APS because of the lack of intellectual challenge and the soft, but pervasive, racism.

Where is there racism? This county votes overwhelmingly Democratic and I often see BLM banners in folks’ yards. So I’m puzzled by your comment.

Former south Arlington parent here,
You’ve got to be kidding me. That or you aren’t paying attention to anything. Were you asleep the last time boundaries were redrawn? Why don’t you got ask some people from Arlington Forest what was said about being shifted to Wakefield.
But please do go on about black lives mattering...

How’s Tuckahoe? Do the other parents know yet that you think they are racists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Based on what? Certainly not based on the Holy Grail of NOVA high schools: admission to UVA and William & Mary. Virtually all the top students in NOVA apply to one or the other, and often both, and the admit rates last year were 42 and 47 percent for FCPS and 37 and 53 percent for APS. No discernible difference. But I wonder what FCPS would look like if TJ students were excluded? I bet FCPS would fall below APS.

Outside of Langley, which has an extraordinarily privileged population, no school in Fairfax even arguably "runs circles" around APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Yes, this is what I’m talking about. A school system can’t do much about housing demographics. But if APS did what FCPS does, you wouldn’t see a trailer anywhere north of Route 50 even though they’d have all of the choice schools because the neighborhoods closest to Route 50 would be bused south to make more room for the north of Lee Highway folks.

Huh? If FCPS had issues similar to APS, they’d expand HB Woodlawn and convert it to a normal school, not spend a ton of money so a few hundred kids could have a private-school experience.

I laugh every time I see this. HB's test scores are no different than Washington-Lee or Yorktown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from FFX to APS. I do have some concerns about the need for a fourth HS and Arlington's seeming inability to plan and figure this out. But we moved because of commute, which frankly as mentioned above FFX cannot fix, and we have no plans to leave APS.

In the case of our IEP student, APS has been gobs better. WAY more responsive and helpful. Overall for both kids (IEP and non IEP), the rest of it is remarkably similar to FCPS. All this handwringing seems overwrought. It's basically the same.

Former APS parent here. There are no schools in APS on par with the top tier in FCPS. APS appeals primarily to white people who don’t want their kids challenged too much, especially by Asian kids who excel academically.

Or alternatively, to play off your nonsense, maybe Asians don’t want to go to schools with large Latino populations.

Ding ding. We have a winner.

There are very few middle and high schools in FCPS with large Asian populations that don’t also have substantial numbers of Hispanic kids. But only APS has found the magic formula for repelling Asians while simultaneously perpetuating a large performance gap between the white kids and everyone else (this is why the high schools are now rated so poorly by Great Schools).

Two letters: T and J.