Alexandria city middle and HS recs

[Anonymous]

Which ones would you recommend? We are moving to the area, need a decent middle school and HS option in the city of alexandria, diversity does not bother us. Single mom and cant afford private. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

There is only one high school in the City. The other Alexandria high schools are in Fairfax County. Are you definitely looking in city limits? Your answer will dramatically change the options and recommendations you get.

[Anonymous]

GW not Hammond.

[Anonymous]

I will be commuting to Ballston. From what i understand the city limits would provide the best commute. As a single parent, i need to be able to have a decent commute due to pickups/kids activities

[Anonymous]

OP - As the poster above said, there is only one high school in the City of Alexandria - T.C. Williams (yes, of Remember the Titans fame). My daughter is there now and loves it. It is very big - not sure the exact number of students but it has to be close to 4,000. The 9th grade is housed in a separate 9th only campus, but students do go over to main campus for some things (certain electives/activities). We were a little concerned about the size and considered private for that reason, but friends and neighbors gave us comfort enough to stick with public school. We're glad we made that choice. The size really hasn't been an issue. Her classes are all surprisingly small and her teachers are really fantastic. I'm constantly amazed at the opportunities available to her at TC. The economies of scale allow for a lot of stuff- academic and otherwise - not necessarily available elsewhere.

There are two dedicated middle schools (6-8) George Washington Middle School (serves mostly the east part of the city) and Francis C. Hammond Middle School (serves mostly the west part of the city). There are also two K-8 schools - Jefferson Houston (east) and Patrick Henry (west). I only have experience with GWMS. It's fine. The building is old and in not great condition (it's a really pretty art deco style design outside, but it definitely shows its age inside). It too is a pretty large school. I'm not a fan of the administration, but both of our kids have had great teachers. It's middle school, with all of the things that come with middle school aged kids.

Be prepared for an onslaught of people (most of whom have no experience with ACPS - Alexandria City Public Schools) to post a bunch of hyperbolic things about how the schools are awful and no one in their right mind would ever send their kids to ACPS and no one sends their kids there etc etc. That happens every time someone asks a question about ACPS on this board. Take it all with a giant grain of salt. There is a lot of great stuff about ACPS and about Alexandria City. The city often seems like a small town. There is a great sense of community here generally. Lots of fun little city traditions and pride in the place. The schools are far from perfect, but we have been pleased overall. Honestly, most of the people we know with kids send them to public school (again, despite what you will likely read on this board) and about half of the people we know who had kids in private in the early years send (or sent) their kids to TC for high school.

Good luck finding a place and welcome to Alexandria!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - As the poster above said, there is only one high school in the City of Alexandria - T.C. Williams (yes, of Remember the Titans fame). My daughter is there now and loves it. It is very big - not sure the exact number of students but it has to be close to 4,000. The 9th grade is housed in a separate 9th only campus, but students do go over to main campus for some things (certain electives/activities). We were a little concerned about the size and considered private for that reason, but friends and neighbors gave us comfort enough to stick with public school. We're glad we made that choice. The size really hasn't been an issue. Her classes are all surprisingly small and her teachers are really fantastic. I'm constantly amazed at the opportunities available to her at TC. The economies of scale allow for a lot of stuff- academic and otherwise - not necessarily available elsewhere.

There are two dedicated middle schools (6-8) George Washington Middle School (serves mostly the east part of the city) and Francis C. Hammond Middle School (serves mostly the west part of the city). There are also two K-8 schools - Jefferson Houston (east) and Patrick Henry (west). I only have experience with GWMS. It's fine. The building is old and in not great condition (it's a really pretty art deco style design outside, but it definitely shows its age inside). It too is a pretty large school. I'm not a fan of the administration, but both of our kids have had great teachers. It's middle school, with all of the things that come with middle school aged kids.

Be prepared for an onslaught of people (most of whom have no experience with ACPS - Alexandria City Public Schools) to post a bunch of hyperbolic things about how the schools are awful and no one in their right mind would ever send their kids to ACPS and no one sends their kids there etc etc. That happens every time someone asks a question about ACPS on this board. Take it all with a giant grain of salt. There is a lot of great stuff about ACPS and about Alexandria City. The city often seems like a small town. There is a great sense of community here generally. Lots of fun little city traditions and pride in the place. The schools are far from perfect, but we have been pleased overall. Honestly, most of the people we know with kids send them to public school (again, despite what you will likely read on this board) and about half of the people we know who had kids in private in the early years send (or sent) their kids to TC for high school.

Good luck finding a place and welcome to Alexandria!

Great perspective. Thank you so much for this detailed response. I will be looking at homes zoned for GW then! This is super helpful

[Anonymous]

OP, do a search in VA Public Schools for the terms Alexandria, ACPS, GW, Jefferson Houston, Maury. That will give you some more information. What is your housing price range? You might be in better shape looking in the Alexandria portion of Fairfax County. You would get a bigger house and yard with essentially the same commute. And the schools in that area are significantly better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - As the poster above said, there is only one high school in the City of Alexandria - T.C. Williams (yes, of Remember the Titans fame). My daughter is there now and loves it. It is very big - not sure the exact number of students but it has to be close to 4,000. The 9th grade is housed in a separate 9th only campus, but students do go over to main campus for some things (certain electives/activities). We were a little concerned about the size and considered private for that reason, but friends and neighbors gave us comfort enough to stick with public school. We're glad we made that choice. The size really hasn't been an issue. Her classes are all surprisingly small and her teachers are really fantastic. I'm constantly amazed at the opportunities available to her at TC. The economies of scale allow for a lot of stuff- academic and otherwise - not necessarily available elsewhere.

There are two dedicated middle schools (6-8) George Washington Middle School (serves mostly the east part of the city) and Francis C. Hammond Middle School (serves mostly the west part of the city). There are also two K-8 schools - Jefferson Houston (east) and Patrick Henry (west). I only have experience with GWMS. It's fine. The building is old and in not great condition (it's a really pretty art deco style design outside, but it definitely shows its age inside). It too is a pretty large school. I'm not a fan of the administration, but both of our kids have had great teachers. It's middle school, with all of the things that come with middle school aged kids.

Be prepared for an onslaught of people (most of whom have no experience with ACPS - Alexandria City Public Schools) to post a bunch of hyperbolic things about how the schools are awful and no one in their right mind would ever send their kids to ACPS and no one sends their kids there etc etc. That happens every time someone asks a question about ACPS on this board. Take it all with a giant grain of salt. There is a lot of great stuff about ACPS and about Alexandria City. The city often seems like a small town. There is a great sense of community here generally. Lots of fun little city traditions and pride in the place. The schools are far from perfect, but we have been pleased overall. Honestly, most of the people we know with kids send them to public school (again, despite what you will likely read on this board) and about half of the people we know who had kids in private in the early years send (or sent) their kids to TC for high school.

Good luck finding a place and welcome to Alexandria!

NP here. OP, we are Alex city parents, our DC just graduated from TC, and we largely agree with the above post. The size of TC in every respect is an advantage. There are multiple classes/extracurriculars/sports etc that will engage any kid, and the curriculum is better and wider than what you would find at a small college. We were skeptical and were prepared originally to pull our DC and send to private - we found that a number of the nearby private schools actually aren’t as good as TC.

[Anonymous]

Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

[Anonymous]

TC is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

+1

Look at the college admissions. Ivies like TC kids. They understand diversity. When is the last time an SSSAS student got into a big name school without a lacrosse hook? Do kds from EHS get into Ivies without legacy hooks? How many BI kids go to Ivies?

[Anonymous]

Look at all the white private moms swarm!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

+1

Look at the college admissions. Ivies like TC kids. They understand diversity. When is the last time an SSSAS student got into a big name school without a lacrosse hook? Do kds from EHS get into Ivies without legacy hooks? How many BI kids go to Ivies?

Don’t be ridiculous - the # of kids getting admitted to Ivies from TC is small in any given year - anywhere from what I recall is 2 - 8 kids and some years it’s not possible to tell if it’s the same kid being admitted to multiple schools. That rate of acceptance is slightly lower than Wakefield and definitely lower than Yorktown and you cant even compare with Fairfax county schools.

What also is unknown is how many of those kids from TC who go on to top schools stay in that school and/or find the transition difficult due to lot be prepared vs peers who attended better situated schools or private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at all the white private moms swarm!

This. You know where the SSSAS kids I know went to college? West Virginia, UNC Greensboro and College of Charleston.

That's a craptastic ROI if you ask me.

My TC kid went to Brown.