Which fcps high school do you hear the worst stories about?

[Anonymous]

Our neighborhood feeds to Westfield and we have high schoolers on our street who are kind to my little kids and seem happy and well-adjusted. The only negative I have heard about the school is that it is huge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:funny thing - there is definitely more than one person posting on this thread that is unhappy with the environment in fcps in general.

I'm a poster who is only thinking about moving (so no "impending move"), and it isn't about schools, but a less high pressure system where people aren't so obsessed with status sounds nice.

That's ok. Not everyone's children can be leaders.

thanks for making my point so clearly....yes, only the rich kids have leadership skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

FYI, fcps does not have AAP in high school. It stops in middle school.

PP here, and you're right. I just meant the whole competitive atmosphere starts in elementary school and continues through high school. It's a turn off.

It sounds like you're trying to make peace with your own impending move to an area with less challenging schools, for whatever reason. It's like you'll feel better about it if you burn all your bridges on the way out.

What are you talking about? I'm not one of the PPs (you?) who keeps insulting various schools just to make myself feel better about the school my kids go to. I think FCPS as a whole has gone downhill. I attended these schools years ago when they were first rate, and the difference now is shocking. I think a large part of that is the over-emphasis on AAP in the early years. Sorry you don't want to hear that, but that's your problem, not mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

You get that "AAP services" in HS are open enrollment honors/AP/ IB, right? You're against these things?

PP again - to clarify, yes, I "get" that AP/IB classes in high school are open to all, as they should be. I just meant that all the competitive hype leading up to high school (AAP) is so completely overblown. That's what we're sick of. So actually, I'm thinking high school might just be a breath of fresh air for our family, since we won't have to deal with any AAP nonsense, and our kids will be able to enroll in any AP class they choose.

There is no "AAP pressure" in some schools... and I don't mean schools that are high FARMS or ESOL. Maybe AAP is a big deal where your kids are at now, but it isn't that way in every school.

Wild guess here-- you're the pissed off Gen Ed parent in a "toxic" Center school (GBW??) who spend so much time looking for a fight on the AAP board and declaring everything "ridiculous"? Yeah-- not every Center is overcrowded and toxic. I'm sorry yours is. And AAP classrooms will still be a fact of life, even if there is a huge push to go LLIV in every school that can support it. And, genuinely Not trying to be snarky here, the more you rage against AAP, the more you look like a parent whose bitter because their child didn't make the cut.

You do realize there are plenty of parents who detest AAP, right? Not just one (as much as you might like that to be the case)? As for your last statement - thanks for so beautifully exemplifying the typical AAP parent superiority complex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:funny thing - there is definitely more than one person posting on this thread that is unhappy with the environment in fcps in general.

I'm a poster who is only thinking about moving (so no "impending move"), and it isn't about schools, but a less high pressure system where people aren't so obsessed with status sounds nice.

+1
I feel the same way, but some of these PPs love to squash any negative discussion of FCPS or the area as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

You get that "AAP services" in HS are open enrollment honors/AP/ IB, right? You're against these things?

PP again - to clarify, yes, I "get" that AP/IB classes in high school are open to all, as they should be. I just meant that all the competitive hype leading up to high school (AAP) is so completely overblown. That's what we're sick of. So actually, I'm thinking high school might just be a breath of fresh air for our family, since we won't have to deal with any AAP nonsense, and our kids will be able to enroll in any AP class they choose.

There is no "AAP pressure" in some schools... and I don't mean schools that are high FARMS or ESOL. Maybe AAP is a big deal where your kids are at now, but it isn't that way in every school.

Wild guess here-- you're the pissed off Gen Ed parent in a "toxic" Center school (GBW??) who spend so much time looking for a fight on the AAP board and declaring everything "ridiculous"? Yeah-- not every Center is overcrowded and toxic. I'm sorry yours is. And AAP classrooms will still be a fact of life, even if there is a huge push to go LLIV in every school that can support it. And, genuinely Not trying to be snarky here, the more you rage against AAP, the more you look like a parent whose bitter because their child didn't make the cut.

I'm not the poster in question, but I also don't support AAP and I'm not bitter, because my child is only in K. I just don't think there should be a cut to be made in the first place, especially in only 1st and 2nd grade, when the advantage goes to students who are just older, have developed faster, are girls, are white and middle class in a FARM heavy school, and so on. As a teacher, I saw lots of kids go to AAP and maybe like one or two who were truly gifted and the others were just good students or a little more mature sooner than other kids. And of course, all the parent placements, which were without question ordinary kids, often not even very good students. What really bugs me is that there is a myth of a gifted child who needs a different classroom, but that describes only the tiniest percentage of AAP kids, and not nearly enough to justify a whole huge program. I also don't like that it removed the best and brightest from our schools, leaving only the middle and low, and then diverts the best resources to those children. All children would benefit from the kinds of resources available in the AAP program. The whole thing is simply unhealthy, unfair, illogical, and elitist. It isn't good for our schools and it isn't good for kids. It advantages a small number of children who are not any more worthy and the rest. The system needs to go - it is simply unjustifiable.

AAP doesn't get additional resources, just different. You ignorance is showing.

+1. What extra resources besides busing Center kids (and many of these kids would have to bus to their base school anyway). I keep seeing the "they drain resources" argument, but no one can point out what these supposed resources are. In fact, FCAG issued a report showing AAP ES kids were significantly more likely to be in classes of 35 than GE kids.

[Anonymous]

^^ sorry. Classes of 30+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

You get that "AAP services" in HS are open enrollment honors/AP/ IB, right? You're against these things?

PP again - to clarify, yes, I "get" that AP/IB classes in high school are open to all, as they should be. I just meant that all the competitive hype leading up to high school (AAP) is so completely overblown. That's what we're sick of. So actually, I'm thinking high school might just be a breath of fresh air for our family, since we won't have to deal with any AAP nonsense, and our kids will be able to enroll in any AP class they choose.

There is no "AAP pressure" in some schools... and I don't mean schools that are high FARMS or ESOL. Maybe AAP is a big deal where your kids are at now, but it isn't that way in every school.

Wild guess here-- you're the pissed off Gen Ed parent in a "toxic" Center school (GBW??) who spend so much time looking for a fight on the AAP board and declaring everything "ridiculous"? Yeah-- not every Center is overcrowded and toxic. I'm sorry yours is. And AAP classrooms will still be a fact of life, even if there is a huge push to go LLIV in every school that can support it. And, genuinely Not trying to be snarky here, the more you rage against AAP, the more you look like a parent whose bitter because their child didn't make the cut.

I'm not the poster in question, but I also don't support AAP and I'm not bitter, because my child is only in K. I just don't think there should be a cut to be made in the first place, especially in only 1st and 2nd grade, when the advantage goes to students who are just older, have developed faster, are girls, are white and middle class in a FARM heavy school, and so on. As a teacher, I saw lots of kids go to AAP and maybe like one or two who were truly gifted and the others were just good students or a little more mature sooner than other kids. And of course, all the parent placements, which were without question ordinary kids, often not even very good students. What really bugs me is that there is a myth of a gifted child who needs a different classroom, but that describes only the tiniest percentage of AAP kids, and not nearly enough to justify a whole huge program. I also don't like that it removed the best and brightest from our schools, leaving only the middle and low, and then diverts the best resources to those children. All children would benefit from the kinds of resources available in the AAP program. The whole thing is simply unhealthy, unfair, illogical, and elitist. It isn't good for our schools and it isn't good for kids. It advantages a small number of children who are not any more worthy and the rest. The system needs to go - it is simply unjustifiable.

I couldn't have said it better; this is exactly how I feel and how so many parents at our school feel. Everything you've said is 100% correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:funny thing - there is definitely more than one person posting on this thread that is unhappy with the environment in fcps in general.

I'm a poster who is only thinking about moving (so no "impending move"), and it isn't about schools, but a less high pressure system where people aren't so obsessed with status sounds nice.

That's ok. Not everyone's children can be leaders.

Again - thanks for making the point.

[Anonymous]

11:29 - jinx
Xoxo, 9:31 poster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

FYI, fcps does not have AAP in high school. It stops in middle school.

PP here, and you're right. I just meant the whole competitive atmosphere starts in elementary school and continues through high school. It's a turn off.

It sounds like you're trying to make peace with your own impending move to an area with less challenging schools, for whatever reason. It's like you'll feel better about it if you burn all your bridges on the way out.

What are you talking about? I'm not one of the PPs (you?) who keeps insulting various schools just to make myself feel better about the school my kids go to. I think FCPS as a whole has gone downhill. I attended these schools years ago when they were first rate, and the difference now is shocking. I think a large part of that is the over-emphasis on AAP in the early years. Sorry you don't want to hear that, but that's your problem, not mine.

No, I wasn't insulting any schools. And your issues with AAP are yours, not mine. My kids got a first-rate education at FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

FYI, fcps does not have AAP in high school. It stops in middle school.

PP here, and you're right. I just meant the whole competitive atmosphere starts in elementary school and continues through high school. It's a turn off.

It sounds like you're trying to make peace with your own impending move to an area with less challenging schools, for whatever reason. It's like you'll feel better about it if you burn all your bridges on the way out.

What are you talking about? I'm not one of the PPs (you?) who keeps insulting various schools just to make myself feel better about the school my kids go to. I think FCPS as a whole has gone downhill. I attended these schools years ago when they were first rate, and the difference now is shocking. I think a large part of that is the over-emphasis on AAP in the early years. Sorry you don't want to hear that, but that's your problem, not mine.

No, I wasn't insulting any schools. And your issues with AAP are yours, not mine. My kids got a first-rate education at FCPS.

Eh my problem isn't AAP. I don't think Fairfax has done a good job addressng changing demographics. This is not easy but the system isn't filled with white,UMC kids with parent resources. This has allowed some schools like Lee, Mt. Vernon or Annandale to linger to go downhill.

[Anonymous]

People have a really bad habit on this board of attributing all posts with an opinion opposite of theirs to just one poster.

I am a base GBW parent. I don't hate the program or the kids, but the overcrowding situation is out of control. And there is absolutely a problem with us vs. them at our school. It's great that other schools don't have that issue - wish our school could figure it out. Maybe it will get better with poplar tree center opening, who knows?

But this post isn't even about aap. It started about high schools, but the attitudes on this board are indicative of an overarching problem in fcps. I just don't buy that kids can only get a good education/be challenged in schools with the rich and gifted. Fairfax has a huge concentration of type a's, ultra competitive parents, tiger parents, whatever you want to call them - and that kind of pressure is not necessarily good and/or healthy for kids.

We may or may not move - and our reasons are more commute/family time related. But I do wonder if moving to a system that isn't so stuffed full of families who see anything less than top of the class, rich and powerful as the end all be all would be overall a more positive experience for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People have a really bad habit on this board of attributing all posts with an opinion opposite of theirs to just one poster.

I am a base GBW parent. I don't hate the program or the kids, but the overcrowding situation is out of control. And there is absolutely a problem with us vs. them at our school. It's great that other schools don't have that issue - wish our school could figure it out. Maybe it will get better with poplar tree center opening, who knows?

But this post isn't even about aap. It started about high schools, but the attitudes on this board are indicative of an overarching problem in fcps. I just don't buy that kids can only get a good education/be challenged in schools with the rich and gifted. Fairfax has a huge concentration of type a's, ultra competitive parents, tiger parents, whatever you want to call them - and that kind of pressure is not necessarily good and/or healthy for kids.

We may or may not move - and our reasons are more commute/family time related. But I do wonder if moving to a system that isn't so stuffed full of families who see anything less than top of the class, rich and powerful as the end all be all would be overall a more positive experience for our kids.

Please. There are rich kids who aren't gifted who do fine. There are gifted kids who aren't rich who do fine. And there are kids who are neither rich nor gifted who do fine as well. If you think you'll be happier somewhere else, great, but stop projecting your own insecurities onto everyone else and ascribing views to them (i.e., that only schools stuffed to the gills with rich and gifted students are acceptable) that they may not hold. This county has over 1.2 million residents. Some are going to claim that only certain schools are OK, and that nothing else is good enough. It doesn't mean that's how most people think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, the insanity that is Fairfax County is making me think moving to PWC or Stafford is the better choice for our family. My husband works north of Fredericksburg and our first is an average student. Getting away from the pressure cooker might be a welcome change in general. FCPS has made it pretty obvious that they cater to the upper class and gifted.

This is exactly what we're thinking too. We've had it up to here with FCPS bending over backwards for the "gifted" students, AAP, etc. I'd love a normal high school environment for my kids.

FYI, fcps does not have AAP in high school. It stops in middle school.

PP here, and you're right. I just meant the whole competitive atmosphere starts in elementary school and continues through high school. It's a turn off.

It sounds like you're trying to make peace with your own impending move to an area with less challenging schools, for whatever reason. It's like you'll feel better about it if you burn all your bridges on the way out.

What are you talking about? I'm not one of the PPs (you?) who keeps insulting various schools just to make myself feel better about the school my kids go to. I think FCPS as a whole has gone downhill. I attended these schools years ago when they were first rate, and the difference now is shocking. I think a large part of that is the over-emphasis on AAP in the early years. Sorry you don't want to hear that, but that's your problem, not mine.

No, I wasn't insulting any schools. And your issues with AAP are yours, not mine. My kids got a first-rate education at FCPS.

Eh my problem isn't AAP. I don't think Fairfax has done a good job addressng changing demographics. This is not easy but the system isn't filled with white,UMC kids with parent resources. This has allowed some schools like Lee, Mt. Vernon or Annandale to linger to go downhill.

+100. I'm a big proponent of IB, and have a DC who I think will PP for IB in HS. But, FCPS should really pull IB out of some of the failing HSs (Edison, Mt. Vernon, Stuart, Lee) and just have 2-3 magnet IB programs in different parts of the county. IB is Not designed for failing schools.