Level IV at Fairview vs White Oaks

[Anonymous]

There have been threads about this the past two years, how about 2021? Our son was accepted into Level IV at White Oaks, he's currently at Fairview. I know 20-21 was a goofy school year, but any feedback on the programs at either school? Fairview is obviously closer, more convenient, and has a Level IV program, but if White Oaks is better, we could make it work! Also, the transition to LBSS at middle school is a downer as well. Thanks for your inputs!

[Anonymous]

I just saw this and wanted to respond since no one else has yet. DD is in middle school at Robinson now but we really liked the Level IV program at Fairview, the teachers were great and academics were a good fit for our DD. I think we only had a few kids leave for White Oaks from her grade and 2 came back eventually.

We knew we wanted her to go to Robinson for high school just due to logistics with the bus, so we didn't want to deal with the extra transitions, either from White Oaks to Robinson or from LBSS to Robinson, and potentially needing to leave friends behind either way. (It's so unfair they make us make that tradeoff, but that's another thread).

One of the only downfalls we encountered with staying is that DD was stuck with essentially the same group of kids all 4 years, although there were enough transfers and others who were principal-placed in the class that it wasn't suffocating.

You might consider putting this out on NextDoor or a local Facebook page for recent feedback on White Oaks.

Good luck, it's a hard choice.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in WO AAP now. So far as I know there is only a couple students from Fairview. Since many feeding school already have there own local level 4, White Oaks only have 1 AAP in 3rd n 5th grade this year. It is lucky for 4th grade as we have enough students to run 2 AAP classes which is comparatively small classes.

Do White oaks still have orientation this year? If yes, go and check it out. I don’t have experience in Fairview so can’t tell you which school is better, it is really a personal experience. What I am upset about white Oaks is they don’t have strong after school program eg Math/Science Olympic

Since WO is the center, all AAP students have advanced levels and no principal placement. It will be benefit n easier for your child to find other kids in the same levels.

U can choose go to LBSS or Robinson for middle and high school. Actually many AAP students from WO go to Robinson.

[Anonymous]

We stayed in Fairview for DD and probably will for DS next year, too. Fairview doesn't have Math/Science Olympic either. Having Level III kids in the class is not an issue - you can't tell which are Level 3 or 4 anyway. The only reason we'd consider WO is if classes were significantly smaller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We stayed in Fairview for DD and probably will for DS next year, too. Fairview doesn't have Math/Science Olympic either. Having Level III kids in the class is not an issue - you can't tell which are Level 3 or 4 anyway. The only reason we'd consider WO is if classes were significantly smaller.

Regards if the class are significantly smaller, it is really depends on the number of students they got. My DD last year class split into two classes in the last minute (on the date of open house!) because one more kid sign up and WO got approval from FCPS to open one more class. So they only have 17 in a class instead of 35! We got many new joiners this year but still only have 21 students. While some grade they only have one class which have around 30 kids! For my prediction, it probably will only has one class for 3rd grade AAP next year?

[Anonymous]

We are not Fairview but Oak View (same pyramid) & everyone except 1 student stayed for local level AAP. Everyone has different reasons though. Some think that the centers have better resources but many parents like their child to stay at their home school with friends and siblings, especially if it is in their neighborhood. If it is any consolation, once your child goes to Robinson, no one even knows who or who wasn’t in AAP. It doesn’t matter one bit for anything. Do what you think would be the best fit for your child now. The center schools always have an open house for qualified students before decisions need to be made. I’m sure they must be doing something similar, perhaps virtual, this year. I would ask about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We stayed in Fairview for DD and probably will for DS next year, too. Fairview doesn't have Math/Science Olympic either. Having Level III kids in the class is not an issue - you can't tell which are Level 3 or 4 anyway. The only reason we'd consider WO is if classes were significantly smaller.

Regards if the class are significantly smaller, it is really depends on the number of students they got. My DD last year class split into two classes in the last minute (on the date of open house!) because one more kid sign up and WO got approval from FCPS to open one more class. So they only have 17 in a class instead of 35! We got many new joiners this year but still only have 21 students. While some grade they only have one class which have around 30 kids! For my prediction, it probably will only has one class for 3rd grade AAP next year?

We have a third grader at white oaks this year. With COVID, the numbers were down and the class has 30 kids. I would say compared to our base, Laurel Ridge, the school does not have the sort of warm touch from admin and I won't comment on the teacher beyond saying the AAP curriculum is what it is. If we had local level IV, we would have not moved, but we don't and there's no advanced math until 5th at Laurel Ridge. It is the ONLY Robinson school without local level IV. The class does get a handful from each of the feeders but the bulk are Laurel Ridge kids, it seems. Weirdly, there's like two white oaks kids in the center class.

In some ways, I find the whole AAP thing to be so strange because it is such a big thing in other parts of the county. No one cares here, really. All of the schools are good. Lake Braddock, Robinson and Woodson (our AP pupil placement option) are good. There's no stress or worrying your kid is missing out unless you care about TJ but Lake Braddock as a middle school isn't a big feeder, so you are kind of screwed there, fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We stayed in Fairview for DD and probably will for DS next year, too. Fairview doesn't have Math/Science Olympic either. Having Level III kids in the class is not an issue - you can't tell which are Level 3 or 4 anyway. The only reason we'd consider WO is if classes were significantly smaller.

Regards if the class are significantly smaller, it is really depends on the number of students they got. My DD last year class split into two classes in the last minute (on the date of open house!) because one more kid sign up and WO got approval from FCPS to open one more class. So they only have 17 in a class instead of 35! We got many new joiners this year but still only have 21 students. While some grade they only have one class which have around 30 kids! For my prediction, it probably will only has one class for 3rd grade AAP next year?

We have a third grader at white oaks this year. With COVID, the numbers were down and the class has 30 kids. I would say compared to our base, Laurel Ridge, the school does not have the sort of warm touch from admin and I won't comment on the teacher beyond saying the AAP curriculum is what it is. If we had local level IV, we would have not moved, but we don't and there's no advanced math until 5th at Laurel Ridge. It is the ONLY Robinson school without local level IV. The class does get a handful from each of the feeders but the bulk are Laurel Ridge kids, it seems. Weirdly, there's like two white oaks kids in the center class.

In some ways, I find the whole AAP thing to be so strange because it is such a big thing in other parts of the county. No one cares here, really. All of the schools are good. Lake Braddock, Robinson and Woodson (our AP pupil placement option) are good. There's no stress or worrying your kid is missing out unless you care about TJ but Lake Braddock as a middle school isn't a big feeder, so you are kind of screwed there, fwiw.

I don’t understand why Laurel Ridge does not have a LLIV program or earlier advanced math. It is like they pride themselves on not being big on AAP to the detriment of that subgroup of kids. It would likely reduce the number of kids in immersion, but the school is huge and big enough to support both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We stayed in Fairview for DD and probably will for DS next year, too. Fairview doesn't have Math/Science Olympic either. Having Level III kids in the class is not an issue - you can't tell which are Level 3 or 4 anyway. The only reason we'd consider WO is if classes were significantly smaller.

Regards if the class are significantly smaller, it is really depends on the number of students they got. My DD last year class split into two classes in the last minute (on the date of open house!) because one more kid sign up and WO got approval from FCPS to open one more class. So they only have 17 in a class instead of 35! We got many new joiners this year but still only have 21 students. While some grade they only have one class which have around 30 kids! For my prediction, it probably will only has one class for 3rd grade AAP next year?

We have a third grader at white oaks this year. With COVID, the numbers were down and the class has 30 kids. I would say compared to our base, Laurel Ridge, the school does not have the sort of warm touch from admin and I won't comment on the teacher beyond saying the AAP curriculum is what it is. If we had local level IV, we would have not moved, but we don't and there's no advanced math until 5th at Laurel Ridge. It is the ONLY Robinson school without local level IV. The class does get a handful from each of the feeders but the bulk are Laurel Ridge kids, it seems. Weirdly, there's like two white oaks kids in the center class.

In some ways, I find the whole AAP thing to be so strange because it is such a big thing in other parts of the county. No one cares here, really. All of the schools are good. Lake Braddock, Robinson and Woodson (our AP pupil placement option) are good. There's no stress or worrying your kid is missing out unless you care about TJ but Lake Braddock as a middle school isn't a big feeder, so you are kind of screwed there, fwiw.

I don’t understand why Laurel Ridge does not have a LLIV program or earlier advanced math. It is like they pride themselves on not being big on AAP to the detriment of that subgroup of kids. It would likely reduce the number of kids in immersion, but the school is huge and big enough to support both.

It's an immersion school. Two classrooms in each grade are immersion and two classrooms aren't so you run into a space issue and the issue that there's only one classroom available for local level IV. The nutty thing is that the school does do advanced math in 5th, but offers it both in English and Spanish. I think those grades do flexible grouping and shuffle between the four or so teachers classrooms. It's logistically complicated and makes no sense -- which is why the centers were created in the first damn place. The problem is that other schools without special programs then jumped at the opportunity to open local level IV to keep high scoring students and make acceleration available to more base kids. Laurel Ridge is also an ED/Autism center so it takes on a lot of kids with special needs (and honestly does a very good job with those students).

Where we are now? The AAP system in this pyramid is sort of broken. You have a center that houses a single class of third graders and feeds to a different 7-12 secondary and the base of 90 percent of the kids in the center. You have a bunch of base schools except for one running local level IV classrooms feeding into the 7-12 school that 90 percent of that single class of AAP center's kids are zoned for.

The only reason people aren't up in arms is that the schools are all uniformly "good" and kids do well generally, there's little poverty, a sprinkle of people of color, and the most important point is NO ONE CARE ABOUT TJ. So, taking all of those things, you basically end up with White Oaks being another Local Level IV disguised as an AAP center.

[Anonymous]

I would consider White Oaks. I think there is something to having multiple teachers per grade teaching AAP in terms of support and accountability the teachers can provide each other. The admin at Fairview also leaves something to be desired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would consider White Oaks. I think there is something to having multiple teachers per grade teaching AAP in terms of support and accountability the teachers can provide each other. The admin at Fairview also leaves something to be desired.

The problem is unless kids opt out of local level IV, there's only going to be one class of AAP at white oaks. It's basically a first mover problem.

Honestly, as a white oaks parent of a third grader (from laurel ridge), I wish the county either said, no centers and all local level IV or only centers. This half in and out is the worst of both worlds here.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy with AAP at Fairview. It's been nice for our DD to be in school with her AAP and non-AAP friends. They all have recess, after-school activities and grade-level activities together. The teachers for AAP are really good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We stayed in Fairview for DD and probably will for DS next year, too. Fairview doesn't have Math/Science Olympic either. Having Level III kids in the class is not an issue - you can't tell which are Level 3 or 4 anyway. The only reason we'd consider WO is if classes were significantly smaller.

Regards if the class are significantly smaller, it is really depends on the number of students they got. My DD last year class split into two classes in the last minute (on the date of open house!) because one more kid sign up and WO got approval from FCPS to open one more class. So they only have 17 in a class instead of 35! We got many new joiners this year but still only have 21 students. While some grade they only have one class which have around 30 kids! For my prediction, it probably will only has one class for 3rd grade AAP next year?

We have a third grader at white oaks this year. With COVID, the numbers were down and the class has 30 kids. I would say compared to our base, Laurel Ridge, the school does not have the sort of warm touch from admin and I won't comment on the teacher beyond saying the AAP curriculum is what it is. If we had local level IV, we would have not moved, but we don't and there's no advanced math until 5th at Laurel Ridge. It is the ONLY Robinson school without local level IV. The class does get a handful from each of the feeders but the bulk are Laurel Ridge kids, it seems. Weirdly, there's like two white oaks kids in the center class.

In some ways, I find the whole AAP thing to be so strange because it is such a big thing in other parts of the county. No one cares here, really. All of the schools are good. Lake Braddock, Robinson and Woodson (our AP pupil placement option) are good. There's no stress or worrying your kid is missing out unless you care about TJ but Lake Braddock as a middle school isn't a big feeder, so you are kind of screwed there, fwiw.

I don’t understand why Laurel Ridge does not have a LLIV program or earlier advanced math. It is like they pride themselves on not being big on AAP to the detriment of that subgroup of kids. It would likely reduce the number of kids in immersion, but the school is huge and big enough to support both.

It's an immersion school. Two classrooms in each grade are immersion and two classrooms aren't so you run into a space issue and the issue that there's only one classroom available for local level IV. The nutty thing is that the school does do advanced math in 5th, but offers it both in English and Spanish. I think those grades do flexible grouping and shuffle between the four or so teachers classrooms. It's logistically complicated and makes no sense -- which is why the centers were created in the first damn place. The problem is that other schools without special programs then jumped at the opportunity to open local level IV to keep high scoring students and make acceleration available to more base kids. Laurel Ridge is also an ED/Autism center so it takes on a lot of kids with special needs (and honestly does a very good job with those students).

Where we are now? The AAP system in this pyramid is sort of broken. You have a center that houses a single class of third graders and feeds to a different 7-12 secondary and the base of 90 percent of the kids in the center. You have a bunch of base schools except for one running local level IV classrooms feeding into the 7-12 school that 90 percent of that single class of AAP center's kids are zoned for.

The only reason people aren't up in arms is that the schools are all uniformly "good" and kids do well generally, there's little poverty, a sprinkle of people of color, and the most important point is NO ONE CARE ABOUT TJ. So, taking all of those things, you basically end up with White Oaks being another Local Level IV disguised as an AAP center.

Curious to know what you mean about TJ. I’m personally not interested for my own kids, but how is that universal for the pyramid?

[Anonymous]

It's an interesting question PP. The Lake Braddock, Robinson and West Springfield pyramids do not send many to TJ despite being much closer to the school than say Carson.

I honestly have no clue why. In terms of demographics, the area is uniformly middle/upper middle class with most parents holding a college degree. It does have a military bent, so that may explain it since TJ's requirements do not map well to other schools.

But truthfully, I think parents are just very content. The school peer groups are great and as the other poster mentioned, AAP for Robinson isn't a big deal. My own child attends white oaks and my other child qualified this year but we will keep him at the base school in local level IV. I'd rather have him in his local school. I think a lot of other parents feel this way fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's an interesting question PP. The Lake Braddock, Robinson and West Springfield pyramids do not send many to TJ despite being much closer to the school than say Carson.

I honestly have no clue why. In terms of demographics, the area is uniformly middle/upper middle class with most parents holding a college degree. It does have a military bent, so that may explain it since TJ's requirements do not map well to other schools.

But truthfully, I think parents are just very content. The school peer groups are great and as the other poster mentioned, AAP for Robinson isn't a big deal. My own child attends white oaks and my other child qualified this year but we will keep him at the base school in local level IV. I'd rather have him in his local school. I think a lot of other parents feel this way fwiw.

I think that for a lot of parents in these pyramids, TJ just isn't a huge "must get in and do lots of prep for." It's almost a point of pride in Burke/surrounding areas that it is a "normal area with normal soccer mom families." Of course it is NOVA, so that's not true, but about as true as you'll get for an area full of people with advanced degrees. I used to teach MS in one of these pyramids, and had a lot of kids say they weren't interested in a STEM career, so they saw no need to go to TJ. I don't think TJ is seen as a status symbol like it is in some other pyramids.