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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Arlington school are all pretty good (ignore a lot of the comments on this board about how some schools they vary in quality).  For your budget, you could probably afford a townhouse in the central part of the county (by Courthouse/Clarendon/Ballston/Rosslyn), or a house in south arlington.  Some of the schools in south arlington are more diverse, and have lower test scores, so they rank lower on education rating sites like great schools.  The more north you go in arlington, the better the schools are ranked, but they are not diverse at all.  Its a trade off.  If you buy a townhome in ballston/clarendon/courthouse (schools are asfs, glebe, innovation, or long branch), the schools are pretty good and still pretty diverse.  You might also be able to find something for your budget in the zones for Fleet, Ashlawn, or Cardinal (formerly McKinley).  All the elementary schools are the same curriculum wise, the only difference is just the student body is poorer in some parts of the county.  All the middle schools in Arlington are about the same, W-L is considered a better school than Wakefield for highschool.  W-L has an ib program which is pretty rigorous.    Parts of Rosslyn also go to Yorktown (which is considered very good).

I wouldn't look at Alexandria if you are planning on staying through highschool -- the schools are considered not as good (no idea if there is truth to that) when you get to the older grades.

For your budget, its worth moving further out to Fairfax.  In general the schools are much better the further out you go.  You can also get a lot more for your budget.  [/quote]

Not all elementary schools are the same.  All are fine; but if you're not an English language learner at a high FRL school, your experience will not be the same as it would be at one of the wealthier schools which will offer a faster pace and more in-depth learning.  Nevertheless, the basis for PP's observation that WL is considered a better school than Wakefield for high school is a matter of opinion, just like everything else when people compare the schools in Arlington.  It depends on what you want and what your kid needs.

WL student body is most accurately reflective of the overall Arlington student demographics and it has the IB program, which is not required to be taken by students zoned there.  Others can transfer into the IB program but as a transfer are required to do the full IB program.  Wakefield definitely caters more to the minority students who traditionally aren't expected or pushed to go to college; but is a significantly less stressful environment than WL and offers AP classes and the Capstone program. Yorktown is very wealthy and the least diverse of the high schools.  Arlington also offers two small option programs:  HB Woodlawn which is highly regarded on a national level and Arlington Tech which is a new but very rigorous project based learning program with no AP but heavy in Dual Enrollment classes and students graduating with professional certifications and potentially a lot of college credits and also are required to complete a professional internship their senior year.

I'm not as familiar with Alexandria schools; but know many families whose kids have done quite well through the system on to top tier universities.  It is huge.  The 9th grade is in a separate building.

Fairfax Co schools are considered among the best as well.  Fairfax Co is huge and so there's the same range of "quality" with regard to high poverty v. low poverty schools that you see in Arlington.  Some believe the Fairfax gifted program is stronger than Arlington's.

Generally speaking, it doesn't really matter and if you're on here boasting a 1.3 million budget, then what is it you're really looking for?[/quote]

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