Annadale schools

[Anonymous]

We currently live in Arlington and are thinking about moving to Annadale. Any info on Annadale/Falls Church schools? good? bad? neighborhoods for families? Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Depending on where you live in Annandale, your kids could be assigned to a bunch of different high schools: Annandale, Falls Church, Stuart or Woodson. You'll often hear that you should try and find a house that is part of the Woodson HS district, since that school has a better reputation (read: higher test scores and less diverse student body) than the others. If that's what you want to do, you need to be in one of the outside-the-Beltway Annandale neighborhoods that feeds into Woodson.

If you want the Arlington comparison, Woodson is like Yorktown (North Arlington), and the other three schools are somewhere between W-L and Wakefield (Central/South Arlington).

[Anonymous]

op here. thanks! what about elementary?

[Anonymous]

Move to Annandale outside the beltway for the best schools. Any elementary that feeds to Woodson HS is going to be pretty good. Some of the elementary schools that feed to Annandale HS are year-round (for the time being, anyway).

[Anonymous]

Re Annandale elementary schools - the issue is whether you're going to be comfortable if your child attends a school with high percentages of students in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs or receiving subsidized lunches, if he or she doesn't fall in either category. Some parents worry about this because they think the school's resources will be focused primarily on those students, and others have first-hand, positive experiences at some of these schools and think such a concern often reflects classism and/or racism.

Here's how it shakes out, however, for a number of the Annandale-area schools:

Wakefield Forest 6% ESOL/4% FRL
Canterbury Woods 8% ESOL/8% FRL
Mantua 8% ESOL/11% FRL
Camelot 18 % ESOL/33% FRL
Columbia 21% ESOL/29% FRL
Woodburn 23% ESOL/36% FRL
Belvedere 32% ESOL/48% FRL
Annandale Terrace 33% ESOL/71% FRL
Bren Mar 33% ESOL/51% FRL
Braddock 35% ESOL/54% FRL
Weyanoke 40% ESOL/63% FRL

The first three of these schools are part of the Woodson HS pyramid, so you can see how the lower ESOL/FRL percentages correlate to the frequent recommendations by some posters of those schools, Frost Middle and Woodson HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Wakefield Forest 6% ESOL/4% FRL
Canterbury Woods 8% ESOL/8% FRL
Mantua 8% ESOL/11% FRL
Camelot 18 % ESOL/33% FRL
Columbia 21% ESOL/29% FRL
Woodburn 23% ESOL/36% FRL
Belvedere 32% ESOL/48% FRL
Annandale Terrace 33% ESOL/71% FRL
Bren Mar 33% ESOL/51% FRL
Braddock 35% ESOL/54% FRL
Weyanoke 40% ESOL/63% FRL

Both Canterbury Woods and Mantua house Advanced Academic Centers (GT Centers), which likely skews test scores (in particular) and possibly also the ESOL/FRL percentages.

[Anonymous]

Belvedere also houses GT Center, which skews its numbers....its ESOL and FRL would be much higher without it. The GT Centers don't skew Canterbury Woods and Mantua that much...the neighborhoods in their boundaries are just less diverse.

[Anonymous]

Braddock and Annandale Terrace feed into Canterbury Woods, which would likely skew the ESOL and FRL percentages.

[Anonymous]

Schools that have higher ESOL/FRL populations tend to be Title I schools, which means they get additional funding, have more reading and mathematics specialists, and smaller class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Schools that have higher ESOL/FRL populations tend to be Title I schools, which means they get additional funding, have more reading and mathematics specialists, and smaller class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Life long resident of NOVA - wouldn't buy a house or move to Annandale - ever.

[Anonymous]

Have you considered the Falls Church City part of Falls Church? The schools there are supposed to be excellent. There are also excellent schools in the Fairfax County part of Falls Church that borders with McLean.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps the OP can afford Annandale, but not the City of Falls Church or the West Falls Church neighborhoods near McLean. Plenty of areas in Annandale are still very nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps the OP can afford Annandale, but not the City of Falls Church or the West Falls Church neighborhoods near McLean. Plenty of areas in Annandale are still very nice.

ITA. We love our school (Canterbury Woods).

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP - why do you like Canterbury Woods?

OP here and thanks for all the info but I can look up the ELL and FRL numbers. I was more interested in hearing about the schools - like the classes are include art and music and the teachers are great, etc