Falls Church Schools?

[Anonymous]

Would love to find a cute affordable neighborhood relatively close to DC and Falls Church seems to fit the requirements, but the school ratings always seem low (3 or 4 out of 10). Are the public schools there really bad or is there something the school ratings are missing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to find a cute affordable neighborhood relatively close to DC and Falls Church seems to fit the requirements, but the school ratings always seem low (3 or 4 out of 10). Are the public schools there really bad or is there something the school ratings are missing?

Look at the county schools in Falls Church that feed into Marshall and McLean HS, not Falls Church or Justice HS. Or look at Falls Church City.

[Anonymous]

The "afforable" part of Falls Church is one of the poorest areas in Northern Virginia. High ESOL population. Falls Church City is it's own school district and north of the city has good schools in Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The "afforable" part of Falls Church is one of the poorest areas in Northern Virginia. High ESOL population. Falls Church City is it's own school district and north of the city has good schools in Fairfax County.

This. There’s also falls church near Arlington/McLean that has good schools. To my knowledge, you won’t find “good schools” in an area where you can buy a single family home for under about $600k with a decent commute to DC.

[Anonymous]

I live in Falls Church and my kids attended Shrevewood Elementary. I haven’t checked ratings, but it was a great school. Most of the schools in falls church, especially eastern Falls Church, are very diverse and have a larger proportion of students who are English language learners. These kids take the same standardized tests, and their language abilities bring the averages down, thereby bringing the rankings down. I personally know families who have their kids at Graham Road, Bailey’s, Timber Lane and Pine Spring, and all of them love their school and have been very happy with their experiences there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The "afforable" part of Falls Church is one of the poorest areas in Northern Virginia. High ESOL population. Falls Church City is it's own school district and north of the city has good schools in Fairfax County.

A single-family home zoned to Justice HS costs more on average than one zoned to Chantilly or West Springfield. The test scores are lower because of the low-income garden apartment rentals in the area.

[Anonymous]

We are in the City of FC and love the school system. It is an IB system which I specifically wanted my kid to be in.
Don't go by the Great Schools rating. Look at the school's test scores, teacher's twitter accounts, school district page etc.
FCC can be expensive but there are apartments and smaller townhomes in the Winterhill community that are more affordable.

[Anonymous]

McLean
Marshall
George Mason
Falls Church
Justice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Falls Church and my kids attended Shrevewood Elementary. I haven’t checked ratings, but it was a great school. Most of the schools in falls church, especially eastern Falls Church, are very diverse and have a larger proportion of students who are English language learners. These kids take the same standardized tests, and their language abilities bring the averages down, thereby bringing the rankings down. I personally know families who have their kids at Graham Road, Bailey’s, Timber Lane and Pine Spring, and all of them love their school and have been very happy with their experiences there.

Shrevewood is a good school but its ratings have gone down as Great Schools has changed the way it rates schools (Great Schools is a terrible way of judging schools, by the way, OP). The english-learners don't do as well on tests and that brings the Great Schools rating down. When we started at Shrevewood, it was rated a 7 and now it's a 4, but we feel that the school has improved significantly in that time.

[Anonymous]

Easy solution: Don't look at Great Schools ratings, they're racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easy solution: Don't look at Great Schools ratings, they're racist.

This. White upper class schools have the highest scores and the more diverse the school, the lower the rating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easy solution: Don't look at Great Schools ratings, they're racist.

This. White upper class schools have the highest scores and the more diverse the school, the lower the rating.

In Falls Church, the lower-rated schools have a lot of low-income Hispanic kids who lack the same level of English proficiency as other students. Their test scores reflect this. And the kids with the highest scores at some of those schools are Asian, not white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easy solution: Don't look at Great Schools ratings, they're racist.

This. White upper class schools have the highest scores and the more diverse the school, the lower the rating.

In Falls Church, the lower-rated schools have a lot of low-income Hispanic kids who lack the same level of English proficiency as other students. Their test scores reflect this. And the kids with the highest scores at some of those schools are Asian, not white.

So that makes Great Schools less racist, how?

[Anonymous]

Look for McLean, maybe Marshall if you want to chance it, slip the rest

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of things to consider. What is your budget, OP? I would be happy to help you sort through some areas.