Are you happy with Thoreau?

[Anonymous]

For those of you who have sent their kids to Thoreau instead of LJMS, how do you feel? Are your children challenged enough? Are you liking the level of instruction and feel it is adequate?
We have to make that decision soon and we are at a level IV that I frankly feel has a lot lacking.

[Anonymous]

My take on this: if you think TJ is in the future, send the child to LJMS. Otherwise, go to Thoreau.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My take on this: if you think TJ is in the future, send the child to LJMS. Otherwise, go to Thoreau.

This makes no sense. Obviously, it has to mean that LJ is more rigorous. Why is that ONLY important if you intend for your kid to have a shot at TJ? She already is underwhelmed at the rigor of her current school.

Anyway, it’s essentiallly:

LJ: longer commute, earlier bus in morning and later in afternoon, more homework, in general a better education, higher expectations, losing many new friends when going to high school, not new, not having as many elem school friends with you, more established program, some are worried about the type of base kids there

TH: opposite of the above

[Anonymous]

There are some die-hard LJ boosters here but most know it’s tanking after the School Board decision. Old school in bad (congested) location vs. renovated school in good location full of higher SES kids. Not much of a contest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My take on this: if you think TJ is in the future, send the child to LJMS. Otherwise, go to Thoreau.

This makes no sense. Obviously, it has to mean that LJ is more rigorous. Why is that ONLY important if you intend for your kid to have a shot at TJ? She already is underwhelmed at the rigor of her current school.

Anyway, it’s essentiallly:

LJ: longer commute, earlier bus in morning and later in afternoon, more homework, in general a better education, higher expectations, losing many new friends when going to high school, not new, not having as many elem school friends with you, more established program, some are worried about the type of base kids there

TH: opposite of the above

Sounds like an easy choice.

[Anonymous]

OP here. My first child did go to LJ several years ago. I had no complaints as far as academics goes. I hated the early bus times(now it’s even earlier) and like you, the distance.
The main thing is that right now for whatever reason, she says I shouldn’t send my second one to LJ(the environment). But she was well prepared for HS because of LJ. My second child is already not as well ahead as she was in elementary school and I know that being prepared for HS is going to be paramount for this child.
To reply to the pp right above, we are at a school with higher SES families, the focus is not on academics but only sports and other things. We love the school but it’s not the best for academics and my child needs the peer push.

[Anonymous]

Sorry pressed submit too quickly. So if you had the same dilemma and chose TMS instead of LJ, are you happy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some die-hard LJ boosters here but most know it’s tanking after the School Board decision. Old school in bad (congested) location vs. renovated school in good location full of higher SES kids. Not much of a contest.

Sounds like you’re the poster who is upset with the rezoning, sending some lj base kids to th, because she’s upset her property value will tank. Ignore.

[Anonymous]

What ES does you child attend, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My take on this: if you think TJ is in the future, send the child to LJMS. Otherwise, go to Thoreau.

This makes no sense. Obviously, it has to mean that LJ is more rigorous. Why is that ONLY important if you intend for your kid to have a shot at TJ? She already is underwhelmed at the rigor of her current school.

Anyway, it’s essentiallly:

LJ: longer commute, earlier bus in morning and later in afternoon, more homework, in general a better education, higher expectations, losing many new friends when going to high school, not new, not having as many elem school friends with you, more established program, some are worried about the type of base kids there

TH: opposite of the above

Sounds like an easy choice.

Interesting - why?

[Anonymous]

FCPS wanted to reduce LJ's enrollment, but they've reduced the white enrollment by 28% in just one year and the Asian enrollment by 28% in just one year, while the Hispanic enrollment declined by less than half that amount (13%). On average, white and Asian kids come from families with more resources and are more likely to participate in AAP. It doesn't bode well for LJ or its AAP program.

FCPS could have learned from its experience at Poe, where pulling kids from single-family neighborhoods out of the school accelerated flight from the school. Now they have an under-enrolled school that's over 70% FARMS - very different from Poe's student profile before all the boundary changes. FCPS apparently convinced itself that things would be different at LJ because it's an AAP center, but the data is telling a different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who have sent their kids to Thoreau instead of LJMS, how do you feel? Are your children challenged enough? Are you liking the level of instruction and feel it is adequate?
We have to make that decision soon and we are at a level IV that I frankly feel has a lot lacking.

I feel fine! Thanks for asking!

We made this choice last year -- and I will admit that we (both parents and our student (DC2)) were influenced in part by the crowding (which now is not so much an issue at LJ) and the facility (LJ was small, decrepit, old and DC2 had been in trailers for 3 of the previous 4 yrs, so being trailer free was a plus at TMS). We are also Madison pyramid, so it was a little plus to be with more kids who might follow on to HS (but, DC2's 6th grade peers were mostly going to LJ from Oakton pyramid). Staying with DC2's elem. classmates meant going to LJ.... but connecting with future HS classmates meant going to TMS. (Sorry to be so confusing). We have never been pushing for TJ -- so take that into consideration too. It's not that we thought LJ was necessarily better for launching to TJ, but I'm just putting it out there that we don't care about that or about keeping up with the Jones (or Patels) in chasing after TJ.

I previously had a child at TMS. DC1 did all honors, not AAP. DC1 seemed to pretty much breeze through. Again, that does not mean it was easy or that s/he didn't learn much.... when I saw DC1's notebooks at the end of the year, it was clear that they had covered A LOT of material in different classes. That said, my child at TMS who is in AAP has notably more homework than my child who had honors. It is not a crushing amount, but it is more. I have had contact with a couple of teachers and they have been responsive, but also expect a higher level of engagement and work product than honors classes did.

I have never said a bad word about the quality of instruction in LJ's AAP program. I think that there is a false narrative going on that one is hard and one is easy. It's sort of inevitable to compare the two when people have to make a choice. But, I feel pretty confident in saying that if you choose TMS, you will be happy with the outcome. Is it the same as LJ? Who knows. (actually, DC2's friend's mom would know b/c she had one just finish at LJ and now has 2 at TMS). Is TMS harder? Is it easier? I know it is a decision that feels really big and important, but either way will be fine -- perhaps great! It's splitting hairs to say LJ is so much more/less ____ than TMS (in regards to the academic results). There are objective differences. People can judge you for noting them and having an opinion about them. Ultimately, you are choosing the environment you want your child to be in for the next two years. The "environment" includes the academic part, the social part, the emotional part (i.e. do I fit in, do I feel safe, do I feel happy, etc.).

Regarding the comments about buses -- not sure why anyone thinks they are so much earlier for one school or the other. My neighbor's child decided to go to LJ. Her bus is about the same time as my child's bus to TMS. Like minutes apart. Maybe it is different in some areas, but they are both early -- although not as early as they were the past two years.

LJ and TMS are not carbon copies of each other -- just like elementary school A is similar to, but not exactly the same as elementary school B. There are different traditions for the PTA and other activities. There are different needs for the students and different styles for the principals and student services. But, my child (DC2) is happy at TMS and isn't wondering "what if?". I think you can make a good decision either way. You don't have to see LJ as bad to choose TMS. You don't have to see TMS as inferior to choose LJ. They can (and are) both good options for the AAP crowd.

[Anonymous]

My kid chose TMS over LJ and I'm very happy with the education she received. It was challenging but not overwhelming, and absolutely prepared her for the Honors and AP level coursework she's now encountering in HS. Since we're zoned for TMS, I'm not familiar with Gen Ed at LJ but the one kid I know who chose the AAP center at LJ seems equally happy with his experience. It seems that, in AAP at least, the educational aspect is a win-win either way so a lot might come down to how important other aspects are to you - for us, the renovations at TMS, the closer proximity to our house, and the social aspects of staying within our HS pyramid pretty much tipped the scales.

[Anonymous]

14:18's post was a great real-world perspective.

One thing for OP to keep in mind, however, is that there just isn't going to be a very big cohort of Oakton-bound kids at LJ in the future. The base middle schools for Oakton don't include LJ any longer - they are now Carson, Franklin, and Thoreau (and there will be far more Oakton-bound AAP kids at Carson than there will be at Jackson, especially now that the Oakton-bound kids have the option to go to Thoreau).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS wanted to reduce LJ's enrollment, but they've reduced the white enrollment by 28% in just one year and the Asian enrollment by 28% in just one year, while the Hispanic enrollment declined by less than half that amount (13%). On average, white and Asian kids come from families with more resources and are more likely to participate in AAP. It doesn't bode well for LJ or its AAP program.

FCPS could have learned from its experience at Poe, where pulling kids from single-family neighborhoods out of the school accelerated flight from the school. Now they have an under-enrolled school that's over 70% FARMS - very different from Poe's student profile before all the boundary changes. FCPS apparently convinced itself that things would be different at LJ because it's an AAP center, but the data is telling a different story.

How do you know those demographic percentages? They aren't yet published on the school profiles.